The girl made her way into the outpost: past the checkpoint and the guards with their harsh lights and masked faces, past the towering steel walls crowned with vicious looking weapons, past the dilapidated buildings with busted out windows, across holes torn in the streets, makeshift bridges made of plywood covering them.

The wild wind howled past her and threatened to tear her cloak away as she approached one building in particular, this one faded but well maintained, warm light and soft music from inside invited entry.

A sign above the door, painted with a sun motif, simply said Sunset’s Rest.

She noted that the bar was mostly empty as she slipped through the entryway. A blue skinned man sat, slumped over a table, a mug toppled on its side next to him, snoring loudly. A pale skinned youth, no more than fifteen, was mopping up a spill of some sort in the corner. He glanced up as she entered, peeking at the stranger through a mop of purple hair, but quickly averted his gaze.

It was still early in the day. An establishment like this wouldn’t start attracting patrons until later in the evening.

Of course, there was always at least one other person in a place like this.

The girl sat down at the bar, huddling inwards and drawing her cloak and hood tighter around herself.

“Hey there! Welcome to Sunset’s Rest, the best damn bar at the end of the world. The name’s Sunset. What can I get you?”

The girl looked up. Sunset was a tall, muscular woman, perhaps in her mid forties. Her hair, a mop of red and gold pulled back into a ponytail, had probably once been a radiant expression of fire and passion, but it seemed it had dulled somewhat over the passage of time and lost most of its luster. A jagged scar ran up the left side of her face, continuing under an eyepatch and up her forehead.

Despite her her broken body, Sunset’s good eye was still a vibrant emerald, filled with a spark of life. Staring up into it gave the girl a sense that there was still love and hope hidden behind them. That this woman before her was determined to keep living no matter what.

The girl swallowed and nodded a hair’s breadth. “W-water would be nice,” she managed to croak, her throat dry.

Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Just water? Fair enough. If you plan to stay long, though, you’ll have to buy something eventually.”

With practiced motions, Sunset filled up a glass with water from a nearby jug and handed it to the girl, the glass held in the rough fingers of a robotic left arm. “Drink up, kid.”

“Thank you.” The girl sipped at the water eagerly, the cool refreshment a welcome boon after travelling so far. She took a deep breath, then looked around the bar some more. Smooth jazz played from the tinny speakers of what appeared to be an old iPod dock. Pictures adorned the wall, most of them of Sunset when she was younger, surrounded by a group of other youths that must have been her friends. Behind Sunset, above the rest of the alcohol, hung some sort of wicked looking polearm. A glaive perhaps? Or was it a bardiche?. Or maybe a glaive-guisarme. She never could keep her polearms straight.

“So what’s your name, and what brings you to these parts?” Sunset asked, picking up another glass and wiping it down with a rag. “Though I’m guessing by the way you’re keeping that hood up you probably don’t want to tell me, huh?”

The girl bit her lip and shook her head. “I, uh… yeah, I guess not. Why I’m here though… actually I’m looking for you, Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset let out a long sigh, then rested her chin on her good hand, while drumming her mechanical fingers on the counter. “Of course you are. Look, kid, I’m nothing special, alright? I mean, okay, yeah, I guess I kicked my fair share of ass in the day, but… right now I’m just an old woman who wants to run a bar. Do you want an autograph or something?”

 “No, it’s nothing like that, I swear.” The girl swallowed, and twiddled her fingers together under her cloak. “I just… you were there, right? At the center of it all? Ground zero?

“On the day that the world ended?”

Sunset snorted. “Oh, I was there alright. I was directly involved, and in some ways, it could be considered my fault. Are you here for revenge, then, for someone you’ve lost? That’s fair. It wouldn’t the first time. I’ve spent so many years now trying to make up for that mistake, trying to fix things, help people, rebuild, defend those who can’t defend themselves. If you hate me for it, I respect that. If you want to kill me, you’re welcome to try.”

With one swift motion, Sunset slammed her prosthetic arm onto the table, the bang causing the girl to jump backwards, almost falling off her stool, “But know this: I won’t go down without a fight, and that everyone who has tried in the past has failed.”

The girl whimpered, and shrunk back from the sudden inferno of Sunset’s will. She fumbled with her words for several moments before she finally managed to shake her head and stutter, “N-no, I’m not after revenge either!”

“Then what?”

“I just… I just want to know. I want to know what happened that day.”

Sunset grimaced, then turned around and grabbed an expensive looking bottle of scotch off of the shelf. “It’s not a very happy story, kid. I’m just a woman. Is your curiosity so great that you want to dig through all of my painful memories?”

The girl nodded. “Please.”

“Well, for that, you’re going to have to buy a drink.” Sunset poured the scotch over a glass with ice in it, then pushed it to the girl. That’ll be forty credits.”

The girl grimaced, but fished through her pockets and handed over the money, dark gloves and long sleeves covering even her skin.

“Where do I even start?” Sunset mumbled. “It was a long time ago. Maybe twenty years now?” She poured herself another glass, grunting as she swallowed the bitter brew, then swirled it around as she stared at her own reflection. “We were so young and eager… we had just graduated high school, the seven of us. The world was at our fingertips.”

Sunset grabbed something from underneath the bar and placed it on the counter. It was another framed picture, this one of a young Sunset and another girl, holding up a science fair trophy together. “I’m not going to tell you everything, about where I came from, what I’d been through, long before even the apocalypse. It’s, quite frankly, none of your business. The important gist of this story focuses around her,” Sunset said, tapping her finger on the purple girl in the picture.

“Twilight Sparkle.”

The girl stiffened at the mention of that name and leaned closer to stare at the photograph.

“She was… something else. A genius. Smartest person I’ve ever met. Better than me, even. We made a good team together. She was curious. Too damn curious. The first time we met, she nearly destroyed the world right then and there by tapping into a power she couldn’t control. I was able to talk her down, to show her a better way, show her the light of love and the magic of friendship.”

“Is that…” The girl frowned, rubbing at her chin. “Is that literal, or a metaphor?”

“Yes. Drink your scotch, that stuff is worth too much to go to waste.”

The girl pulled her glass close, then gingerly took a sip of the strong liquor, immediately launching into a coughing fit as the fire burned her tongue and throat.

Sunset rolled her eyes. “Anyway. Fast forward about two years after that incident, that first meeting. Twilight and I were working together. That particular project was a device to bridge the gap between dimensions. It should have been easy with the two of us combining our strengths: my passion, her curiosity and razor intellect. We even had help from the alternate Twi—well, from an individual from another dimension I happened to know who was equally talented, and we all worked to perfect the theory from every angle. It was all perfect.”

With another sip of the burning liquid, Sunset let out a guttural growl. “It was supposed to be perfect. You can already guess how this ends, right?”

The girl nodded. “It didn’t work?”

“It didn’t work. The device went haywire and shattered the barriers between dimensions. Twilight fell through a rift, and I never saw her again. It spread across the world. Magic and monsters and all sorts of instabilities and phenomena tore their way through civilization, and they left nothing but destruction in their wake.

“With the help of the rest of my friends, we were eventually able to stop the instability from getting worse, but the damage was already done. The world was a ruined wreck. I mean, you know that already. There was nothing else to do after that point but live, and to try and rebuild.”

“I see.”

Sunset sighed. “Is that good enough for you? Sorry, I’m not really a good storyteller.”

The girl shifted back and forth in her seat, then took another sip of the scotch. “What happened to the rest of your friends?”

“Them?” Sunset asked, a smile returning to her face. “They’re all still around. Rainbow Dash leads the monster hunting-slash-taming expeditions with Fluttershy. Applejack runs a farm, of course. We couldn’t keep this town running without her. Rarity still designs a lot of clothes, though they tend to be more suited for combat these days. And Pinkie Pie is still, well, Pinkie Pie. I guess that doesn’t mean anything to a stranger, but she’s always there when you need a smile.”

“They sound like good people.”

“Yeah.”

They sat there in silence together for about a minute, as jazz continued to play in the background.

The girl sipped at her drink again, then looked up. “Do you hate her? Twilight?”

Sunset let out a bitter laugh. “If only it were that easy. She drug us all into this hell on earth, right? It’d be too easy to hate her. It’s just as much my fault for going along with her plan, for encouraging her enthusiasm, my hubris for thinking we could master reality itself. No, I don’t hate her. She was my best friend. Maybe even more. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss her.”

With a growl, Sunset downed the rest of her scotch and slammed it down on the counter. “Alright, now I’m starting to get annoyed. I’ve been awfully forthcoming with you here, maybe way more than I should have been. Who are you, anyway, and why do you want to know? Are you just some kind of sadist who enjoys opening up old wounds?”

There was a soft sniff, and tears fell from the hood onto the girl’s lap.

Sunset blinked, and leaned forward. “What are you…?”

The girl looked up and pulled back her hood, her bangs falling down over her purple skin. “I’m sorry, Sunset.”

Sunset’s mouth fell open as Twilight Sparkle stared back at her, the tears in the younger girl’s eyes misting up her glasses.

With a scream of wordless fury, Sunset lunged backwards, grabbing a device that resembled a price gun, whirled, pointed it at Twilight, and pulled the trigger.

Twilight screamed, and fell backwards off the chair.

There was a beeping sound, then the device chirped and said, “Target is human. Moderate levels of EM corruption. No changeling DNA detected. If you wish to fire, please state the override code.”

Sunset blinked, glared at the device in her hands, then slapped it a few times. “Stupid piece of junk,” she growled. With one fluid motion, Sunset leapt over the bar and advanced towards the girl who was now scrambling away from her. She raised the device and kept trying.

“Target is human—

“Target is human—

“Target is—”

Sunset roared again, and tossed the device to the ground, a side panel popping off with the impact. She raised her hand, and green light filled the room as the polearm on the wall flew into her hands. She spun with the movement, and held it up to Twilight’s throat.

“You can’t be her,” Sunset spat, her good eye filled with hell’s fury. “You think this is the first time something has tried to screw with me using her face? Twilight disappeared over two decades ago. And you don’t look a day over twenty. What, did you copy her appearance from a photograph or something?”

Twilight trembled beneath her rage, tears streaming down her face. “Sunset, I… please! It’s me, I swear!”

Sunset rolled her eyes, and took another step forward, backing Twilight into the wall. “Really now? I haven’t heard that one before. Let’s go with the standard test then. Tell me something that only Twilight would know. Something that only I know about Twilight.”

“I… I can’t!” Twilight yelped, letting out a choking sob.

“That’s… more honest than usual,” Sunset muttered. “So what then? What kind of imposter are you?”

Twilight shook her head. “I can’t remember anything. That story you told me… it feels so familiar, but I can’t place any of it. I woke up about three months ago, in this world. The only thing I could remember was your face… and the emotions that went along with it. I’ve been searching for you all this time.”

Sunset faltered and lowered her weapon a few inches. “This is impossible. I shouldn’t be taking this seriously. Fine then. Show me your birthmark. The one that looks like a turtle, on your right shoulder.”

Twilight blinked and tilted her head. “Turtle? I don’t have a birthmark like that. I do have one that’s kind of shaped like a butterfly, but that’s on my chest, and uh,” she crossed her arms over her chest, shrinking in on herself. “I’d rather not, if that’s okay.”

The weapon clattered to the ground, and Sunset fell to her knees. She looked up, her mouth moving silently for several tries before she finally managed to whisper, “Twilight?”

“It’s me,” Twilight whimpered. “I mean, to the best of my knowledge. When you wake up with amnesia, you never really know, right? I could technically be anything, a clone or a robot or something else with the personality of Twilight stuck into it, but I feel like me. And I’m pretty sure that’s the truth.”

Sunset blinked, and snorted a short burst of laughter. “That kind of self-deprecating, trope using analyzation… Sweet Celestia, it is you.”

“Yeah.”

Sunset lunged forward, wrapping the younger girl tightly in her arms, burying her face in her hair as she wept softly.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight mumbled, sniffling as she let herself be held in the embrace. “I can’t imagine what it was like, living in this wasteland for so many years. Even finding you was just… I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sunset murmured. She pulled back, looking Twilight in the eyes, and smiling. “Celestia, you’re so young…”

Twilight smiled, then reached up a hand and brushed Sunset’s tears away. She ran her fingers tenderly down the jagged scar on Sunset’s face. “You’ve aged well… and I’m not just saying that. Does, uh, that hurt?”

Sunset grinned, then placed her hand over Twilight’s. “Nah, it’s not so bad. Took a bad hit for Fluttershy when we were trying to pacify a particularly nasty void beast. The loss of depth perception sucks, but the robot arm is kind of cool.”

“If what you said is true, and I really was the catalyst for all of this destruction…”

“No.” Sunset put her finger over Twilight’s lips, silencing her. “I’ve had two decades to carry all of that guilt, okay? I won’t let you start anew with a fresh heap of it.”

“...Okay.”

Sunset smiled, then closed her eyes, leaning forward and pressing her forehead against Twilight’s.

The two of them sat there like that, simply holding each other for what felt like an eternity.

Their moment was finally broken up by a loud snort and grumbling from the drunk who had been sleeping in the corner, apparently oblivious to the earlier violence and drama.

Sunset giggled, then stood up, helping Twilight to her feet. “Well, you’re back. Now what?”

Twilight shook her head. “I was going to ask you the same thing. I can’t really remember being with them, but when you showed me those pictures of your friends earlier… I felt something, deep inside. Can we meet them?”

“Should be easy enough. I can’t promise they won’t be a little suspicious like I was, but I’ll vouch for you. Speaking of…”

Sunset reached up to her ear and tapped it a few times. A light blinked on in the room, and a projected image appeared on the far wall.

“Hey, Sunset, what’s up,” Rainbow Dash said, giving a brief wave. “Hunt’s done early, and it’s a pretty big haul. Was thinking we should throw a party.”

Rainbow Dash was holding a longsword with a dark ichor dripping from it, and was wearing a sort of composite armor that glowed with a soft rainbow of colors from underneath its seams. A set of pony ears sprouted from her head, and wings from her back as she floated in front of a desolate sky.

Sunset grinned, then squeezed Twilight’s hand. “Sure, that sounds like a lot of fun. Plus…

“I’ve got a surprise for all of you.”