Hot Brass strode toward the bedroom door, floating a small package behind him. It was the fifth anniversary of his marriage to Rose Bud, a lovely Earth pony the color of her namesake flower, and he was going to be damned if he let the war get in the way of celebrating. Besides, he had three days left on his leave, he planned on spending them well. He paused at the door, listening to his wife hum a tune to herself, before smiling and rapping out the first part of a challenge-response that the two had come up with when they first started seeing each other. Two fast, three slow. There was a clattering on the far side of the door, probably some of her makeup, and a short pause before she gave the response, two slow raps. Brass's smile went ear-to-ear as he opened the door and embraced Rose, "Happy anniversary, love."

"You remembered," Rose teased.

"How could I forget, it was the happiest day of my live," Brass said, "and the funnest night." His grin turned raunchy as Rose blushed.

"And the nights since?"

"Oh, there's never a dull night with you, but that's the first time I had that much..." he started laughing as Rose playfully hit him, "Ooo, assaulting an officer. I'll have to take you into custody for that, Might even have to preform a little..." -he waggled his eyebrows- "...interrogation, who knows what else you're doing."

"Stop, you teaser," Rose giggled, "you'll make me smear my eye-liner."

After the laughter died down, Brass brought the package around and presented it to Rose, it was a small, royal blue clam-shell type jewelry box. "To commemorate the five best years of my life." Rose gasped when she opened it, inside were two silver necklaces, the pendants were matching halves of a heart, and had either a rose or a spent rifle case, the couple's cutie marks, inlayed in them in gold.

"They're so beautiful, are they..."

"Pure silver, straight from the mines in the Crystal Empire."

"How much did this cost?"

"Sorry, that's classified," Brass said with a grin.

"You shouldn't have."

"Nonsense, nothing's too expensive for you." Brass levitated the necklace with his cutie mark on it and fastened it around Rose's neck, "So you can remember me while I'm away."

Rose took the other and put it round Brass' neck, "So you can remember me," she said softly as she hugged Brass. After a few moments embracing, she said, "I was going to save this for dinner, but I have some good news."

"Oh?"

"I'm pregnant."

Brass pulled away and held Rose at arms-length, "Really?" He asked excitedly. Rose nodded, smiling. "I'm gonna be a papa," he said, a silly grin plastered on his face.

Rose giggled and started toward the kitchen, "I'll make breakfast, papa."

"I'll help," Brass said as he followed Rose down the hall, "Oh, I almost forgot, Stable-Tec sent the passes. We're in."

"I hope we don't need those."

"Me neither, but it's better to be prepared."

"I know, but I get scared when I think about it."

"Me too," Brass said as he hugged his wife to comfort her, "me too." They were still embraced when a uniquely chilling sound found its way into the house, air ride sirens.

"Brass?" Rose said, her voice tinted with panic, "What do we do?'

"Get the the chariot, I'll be out in a moment." Brass said as he ran to the their bedroom.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting my pistol!" he responded, "Now hurry." Returning with the firearm strapped to his foreleg, he grabbed the stable passes in his magic as he followed Rose out. After making sure that she was secure in the chariot, he strapped himself into the harness and started running as fast as he could to the Stable. When they arrived, there was a swarm of ponies surrounding the gate to the compound, all clamoring for entrance. "Make way for a pregnant mare!" Brass yelled as he neared the herd. The ponies leaped out of the way of the chariot as it skidded to a stop in front of the gate. Brass imeaditally unbuckled himself and helped Rose down, only to be stopped by one of the four guards.

"I'm sorry, but you're going to need passes."

Brass magicked them out and waved them infront of the guards nose, "These good enough, soldier?"

"Yes, but you're going to have to wait, there are other ponies who got here first and-"

"You will escort my wife to safety, that is an order, private!" Brass yelled, reading the rank from the guard's uniform.

"Who do you think you are!" a voice called from the crowd.

Brass wheeled on them, "Captain Hot Brass, Third Charioteers of the grand Equestrian army, that's who!"

"This is an abuse use of power!" another pony yelled.

"Yeah, and try and stop me!" Brass barked before turned back to the luckless private, "Now give me your gun and take Rose to the Stable!"

"Brass, what are you doing?" Rose asked.

"Keeping you safe," he said, "now go, I'll come when I can." The private unbuckled the battle-saddle mounted machine gun, released it to Brass's magical grip, and led Rose into the cave that marked the entrance to the Stable. Brass turned back to the crowd, "Those with passes form a single-file line and make your way the Stable in an ord-" A mare screamed and pointed into the sky. The unmistakable vapor-trails of four missiles were arching their way to the city below. The ponies erupted into panic, desperately trying to get through the gate to the safety of the Stable. "Fall back to the cave, we'll hold them there!" Brass yelled over the screaming at the guards before making his way the entrance. The three guards had barely made it to the relative safety of the cave when the thundering boom of the first bailfire bomb sounded, followed shortly after by the shockwave and a deep rumble like Equis itself was groaning. Three more blasts shook the earth, each bringing a new wave of heated air and the cold tingling of dark magic. After the rumbling stopped, Brass went to the mouth of the cave and looked out at the city, it was mostly flattened and what remained was burning with green dragon-fire.

"What do we do, sir?" One of the guards asked.

Brass was silent for a moment, "We survive," he looked at the pony, "If you have any rad-away, pass it around." Brass looked back at the city before tuning back to the cave. "When the fires die down we'll need to start scavenging the city." He hung his head as he made his way deep into the cave to the Stable's door, sealed shut against the magical radiation that filled the air. "I'm sorry, Rose," he said as he put a hoof against the cold metal, "I didn't make it. I love you." Brass broke down and wept.

Brass slowly made his way back into the cave after a long day of scavenging what remained from the city. He stopped for a moment at the small graveyard outside, he and the guards had buried the unfortunate ponies that had died outside when the bombs fell. One of the guards joined them shortly after when he killed himself. As Brass entered the cave, he thought back to the months after that terrible day. The two surviving guards had started showing signs of radiation poisoning a week after the bombs fell, while he seemed unaffected. It was only a month afterwards that the effect the radiation had on him was evident. Tufts of fur falling out, skin turning leathery, voice becoming gravely. He was becoming a monster, what other ponies started calling ghouls. When the two guards left to die elsewhere, he stayed, to continue waiting for and protecting his wife.

Brass shrugged off his finds into the pile of loot from the city and continued down into the cave, to the Sable door and the memorial he had set up for Rose. His hooves slowly clip-clopped on the hard stone as he followed the path Rose took all those years before. When he reached the small alter, he took his half of the necklace pair from where it hung and rubbed it, both to polish it and to refresh his memory of Rose. After a few minutes, he returned the jewelry to its place and laid down at the foot of memorial. He stayed this way for what seemed like hours before a screeching pierced the air. Brass's head shot up as he looked at the source of the sound, the Stable door. His mind raced as he tried to decide whether or not he was dreaming, after a few moments of indecision, he realized that the sound was real. The Stable was opening. He jumped to his hooves and ran to the door, smiling, he was going to see Rose again. The door had slid back about a third of the way when it froze, the screeching replaced by a low whine followed by a dull twang. The silence was deafening. Brass's smile slowly fell as what had happened dawned on him, the door was stuck and the mechanism responsible for opening it had broke. Brass rested his head against the great door as he wept. After a few moments, he heard thumps coming from the other side, two fast, three slow. He hesitated a moment before knocking twice on the cold metal. Instantly, a barrage of thumps, like somepony was beating on the other side, sounded. All Brass could do was hang his head as spasms from held-back tears shook his body.

Brass sat in the cave, hunched over his latest kill. He had long ago lost his sanity, gone feral. He had no reason to stay, and yet he did. Something in his animalistic mind prevented him from straying too far. Even though most ponies avoided this area, he still had a fairly plentiful food supply in the form of wildlife, such as the deer that he had killed. As he started to consume the dead radstag, a sound came from deeper in the cave, one that he had not heard for a long time. He slowly crept to the Stable door to investigate the screeching. When he reached the cavern, he hid behind a pile of rock and watched. The door slid back, screeching in protest, and finally rolled to the side, revealing two ponies. One was a cream earth pony stallion, and the other was a red unicorn mare. Both had pistols strapped to their forelimbs.

"Well, it's finally open," the stallion said as he started out into the cave.

"I thought you would come up with something more poetic," the mare said. Something about her was familiar to Brass, although he neither remembered where from nor cared.

"Not everything can be poetic, Rose," the stallion responded before looking back into the Stable, "I only wish that more made it to today."

Rose hung her head, "Yeah, me too." Brass broke cover and ran at her, screeching. Before either pony had time to react, he slammed into Rose, flipping her onto her back. He was about to continue the attack as she scrambled backward when something shinny around her neck caught his attention. He leaned in to get a better look, it was a silver half-heart with a rifle case inlaid in it. He froze as something buried deep in his subconscious awoke, and he remembered his wife.

"What do I do?" The stallion mumbled around the pistol that he was aiming at Brass.

Rose scooted out from under the ghoul, her eyes wide with shock, "Just- just give it a moment."

"That thing tried to kill you!"

"Yeah, but it didn't. I- I think it saw Grandma Rosie's necklace."

The stallion holstered the pistol while keeping a weather eye on Brass. "Why would that stop it?"

"I have no idea." Brass let out a plaintive wail, Rose cringed, "But I'm not complaining." She righted herself and stood up. "Let's get to the surface, see what's left." Just as she started walking, Brass nuzzled her lovingly. She froze mid-stride, ears plastered back and eyes wide.

"I think it likes you," the stallion said, chuckling.

"Shut up, Mac."

"Sure." Mac trotted forward, and noticed the remains of the memorial. "Hey, check this out."

Rose shook herself from the shock and joined Mac at the small pile of rubble. Amidst the long dead candles and remnants of wood lay a tarnished pendent and chain. Rose levitated it to eye level. Brass pawed at it as it hung from the crimson grasp of Rose's magic. After a few moments of watching it spin, she rubbed it on her jumpsuit to clean it and saw the gold inlay, "That's Grandma Rosie's cutie mark!" She glanced to Brass, an expression of wonder on her face, "You're Grandpa Brass, aren't you?" Brass chirped when he heard his name. "You waited. You waited for your wife," Rose said, eyes tearing up. "She said you did." She bit back tears and, with shaking magic, fastened the necklace around Brass's neck. "So that you can remember her."

The next morning Rose and Mac left the cave to start their lives above the surface, and Brass followed.