Preserving .

The cold and dark night was leaving the cold world, but the sun did not, in that day as the next to come, fended the pale gray clouds, laden with snow and ashes of the old world, incinerated by the invisible radioactive fire.

In the city of Canterlot, in the depths of the mountain, under the great and ruined castle, there is a bunker, empty by centuries and dead as the world itself.

In it, only machines, creaky and clunky pairs of ponies that time, happy and alive, lived Equestria.

Their heavy footsteps and their metallic sounds echoed in the large bunker, looking like soft moans of pain stifled by time. Micro units, similar to mice and the only thing that now could be compare to something almost autonomous, were cowling in the cold and dark place in search of spare parts, even though by now the metal parts such as gears and bolts were running out.

And down, down in the deepest part of the bunker, dark and blind, where energy could no longer get there, the heart of the structure of steel and concrete was awakening again.

A resounding clang, followed by the sound of the powerful cooling fans, shook the room while a machine hanging from the ceiling were coming down slowly, causing a grating sound.

A red light, at first faint, lit, and from the machine come down, with a  spooky and metal sound, a long mechanical arm with attached a spherical object. When the arm stopped, the object lit up three lights, large and round, on its side, like eyes in the darkness.

"Unit for the Preservation of Citizens ... on" the machine said, from the speakers set around the bunker, echoing a cold robotic voice, while the lights went on, illuminating the consumed bones of the inhabitants who once lived there. -

The spherical object, the machine's head, began to approach to the bottom of the room, as he ordered through complex algorithms to the lights, now broke, to light on.

" Error. Malfunction detected in the Congress Hall. Request replacements forwarded. "

The micro units began frantically working to search for new lights and satisfy what the great machinery wanted.

They turned and turned around the bunker, finding only a few small light bulb who were still good, but it was not enough, they needed more.

One of the few robots who were wandering aimlessly through the rooms and the corridors walked near the small robotic units, and was attacked by them, who dismembered him as an old cart in a landfill, in the times when someone drove through the streets.

Among the ripped cables and spilled oil, while the robot was going off, the micro units found what they sought.

Quickly, thrusting inside holes placed through the thick walls, the small and rapid metal rodents headed down, in the cold concrete  limbs of the bunker and, arrived, replaced the lights, then all of them returned to wander in the corridors above there, like running away from the machine they served.

"Replacing completed. Start lighting system. "

The lights, dim as ever, brightened slightly the big oval room, illuminating the big screen once used to communicate with the other bunker.

And to be enlightened, they were also  horrors remained dormant for a long, long time.

"Controlling physical activities of the residents" said the great machine, with its metallic voice, loudly while processing data, "activities of residents to '1%. Critical data. Start-preserving procedure. "

The great machine called again his little metal minions , and sent them to seek material to preserve what remained of the old world.

The metal rodents returned hours later, with scraps of robots now out of service, and with rotting animals full of purulent worms , together with the remains of ponies who died for the radioactive fire.

The big machine brought down from the ceiling many other metal arms, while with his head and his red, bright eyes watched the pieces and cleaned them.

After the selection, it settled in front of a horrendous figure, patched with metal plates attached to mangled and stitched up flesh, which left partially uncovered the underlying bone and was resembling a mare, who now the time had consumed.

Without grace, nor much concern, the arms of the machine tore parts of the horrendous carcass, which began to squirm and gasp frantically, as it was being repaired with the recovered parts.

"Resident of the bunker Rarity... repaired and sedated."

The machine, making a light circular moviment, stepped in front of another of those bodies, and this was now only a blue torso with attacked only the head, now mostly metal while a black liquid was dropping down of it. The legs had been replaced by large pipes that made the blood flow in the body, and the wings were without feathers and moved like, rather than groped to escape, to want to detach what kept her alive.

The machine, as well as for Rarity, replaced the rotten meat of torso with the new, along with new metal parts, while the living carcass moaned in pain.

"Resident of the bunker Rainbow Dash ... repaired and sedated. Substitution of the catheter in place. "

 After providing the horrible memory of one of the heroines of Equestria a new bladder in which to channel her sewage, dark as pitch and stinking like death, the cold machine stepped in front of other residents in the room.

What was left of it, were just only the bones, held together by pieces of metal attached to the organs dark and full of blisters.

The machine did not do much for the carcass, if not remove some bone and put, as a replacement, metal plates and fasten them to the now cracked bones and, while still working, every organ writhed and was pouring liquid similar to those of Rainbow Dash, but more smelly and sticky.

"Resident of the bunker Applejack... repaired. Sedative injection unfeasible. "

The machine, in the end, stood in front of the most horrible figure of the room. It was the union of five ponies, a cluster of putrid meat full of pustules, held together by screws and mechanical and parts of robots who were dismantled and, with its eyes made of sensors, watched the machine while this dissected and sewed the meat mass.

Sewing, merging, pulling, tearing and cutting, the machine did wiggle and scream the great mass, which tried to separate from each one of its parts, trying in vain to end the torment he perceived.

"Residents Pinkie Pie, Shining Armor, Celestia, Cadence and Fluttershy ... repaired and sedated."

The machine, once it finished, went to the monitor in the room, and began to press some buttons, composing writtens that never appear on the large monitor, who broke off.

The machine tried unsuccessfully over and over again to write something, perhaps an old communication, but in the end, with one of his many long arms, destroyed the monitor, as in a rage.

" Error. Global communications system unusable. Search for new method for the communication with the other matrices. "

The machine made large metallic sounds, and sparks burst from his large machinery on the ceiling. After it finished, he turned to the carcass and, with his metallic voice, it began to make a short speech.

"Message of hope ended. Current year ... 3399. Update files. "

While the machine was compiled the data, in the corridors above, the robot that the micro units had dismantled began to catch fire, and it expanded rapidly on the floor covered with oil and black sewage. The machine, unaware, continued his long calculations, while Rainbow Dash began to use her wings, trying to pull her long tubes in which blood flowed dark and viscous. After a while, between fatigue and pain, she makes it. She broke away some of the long tubes, and others who supported her dragged the living carcass on the ground, unplugging her completely while slowly bleeding, as slowly as she was dying. The machine, when noticed it, could not do anything, if not rectify to itself the loss of one of the residents, while peeling off and dismantled the little meat remained on the mare, to apply it to the other mangled bodies in the room.

"Alarm. Alarm. Detected fire in the bunker. High criticality. Activation of fire protection systems. "

Nothing happened, except the exit out of dry air and dust, while the fire blazed and burned everything.

" Error. Spare water finished. Uncontrollable fire. Fireproof doors activated. "

Still, nothing happened. The fire began to descend into the depths of the bunker, illuminating the darkness and continuing to consume all that was in there.

"Malfunction. Activating isolation conference room . "

This time, a heavy iron door closed, isolating the great machine and the living carcasses .

But a few floors above the fire began to enter in the small holes of the micro unit, and so it entered in the large room .

The fire began to burn the body of Applejack, sizzling and melting it, while writhing and the machine was trying to recover the organs on fire.

Automatically, it tried to replace and put them in Rarity, but being still in flames caused only a slow and painful death to the mare, which was ignited and consumed.

In the end, the great mass of flesh and iron could  move, and it  threw itself into the flames, screaming in pain but putting an end to its suffering.

Now alone and surrounded by flames, the machine made a last, cold calculation, as it began to deactivate.

"Control of the residents physical activities... 0%"

The flames reached the machine, and climbed right into its gears and its fans, setting fire to every single component.

Coming up to its atomic battery.

With a thunderous explosion, the machine, the bunkers and the castle collapsed, while Canterlot was razed to the ground by the shock wave.

Kilometers away, the robotic head of the machine was still active.

With metallic sounds, it reproduced a message, the last thing in the world who was still live there could ever heard.

"This is a message for the Unity Preservation Citizens H3445TR0, in case of war and activation, the only goal you have to do is secure the preservation of the residents at all costs, and-"

The recording was interrupted violently, with the thunderous explosion of a bomb.

The machine, slowly and with its playback systems, began to repeat the word "preserve".

Preserve.

Preserve.

Preserve.

Finally, with a last spasm of energy, the head of the machine turned off, and so the old world ended to live, and everything fell silent.