Berlin, Germany
6:01 p.m.
His mind was black, a hazy, thick fog that slowly began to dissipate with every blood-thumping pump. A filthy, concrete floor sat beneath him, little light filling the room. Noting the strands of black hair hovering in front of his vision, he slowly brought his gaze upwards, his attention finally shifting to his left arm.
His metal arm constrained under a large press.
Keeping his eyes focused on the press, James Barnes barely noticed the upcoming footsteps, sounding oddly off, almost as if multiple people were walking in unison. Turning his attention to his far right, Barnes awaited the presence of the two men or women who were undoubtedly headed in his direction. Except there weren’t.
Not people.
Instead, Barnes came face-to-face with a small, yellow Pegasus with a pink mane. It was so long that it touched the floor, following shortly behind the Pegasus. It stopped mere feet away from him, almost looking a bit timid, but holding strength in those large, cyan eyes. Barnes stared, and for some reason found some form of mystical comfort staring into her gaze. It seemed alien, which it probably was, considering his circumstances. He was stuck in a strange area with an equally strange creature staring at him, almost looking… concerned.
Then, to Barnes’ great surprise, it spoke. “Sam…”
Its voice was feminine, gentle, like a young woman. Barnes’ mouth fell, but he remained silent. She seemed to furrow her brow before taking a step away from him. “He’s awake.”
“Hey, Cap!” Barnes looked up, noticing an actual human standing in the entryway. He stepped through towards Barnes, followed shortly by a familiar face to his right. As well, another small horse trailed behind, this one a bright, sky blue, a rainbow mane and tail to go with it. Groaning, Barnes picked himself up, gripping the metal press with his free hand. He looked up to the familiar face, one he hadn’t seen in a long, long time.
“Steve…”
Steve Rogers, his best friend, stood in a filthy gray t-shirt and blue jeans. His eyes were not of joy or relief to see Bucky, but of concern. Edge. Slowly, he spoke, his voice sharp, as he asked, “Which Bucky am I talking to?”
Flashes of a white tundra meeting his landing came flooding back, the agonizing screeches of the saw blade tearing in his left arm. Bucky blinked. “Your mom’s name was Sarah,” he said. A small smile crept across his lips, a chuckle escaping him. “You used to wear newspapers in your shoes.”
Steve’s eyebrows shot upwards. “Can’t read that in a museum.”
“Just like that, we’re supposed to be cool?” Sam asked, arms crossed.
“I’m with Sam,” the light blue Pegasus agreed, flying over to stand directly in Bucky’s eyesight. She narrowed her gaze, almost seeming like a glare, as she stared into the eyes of the Winter Soldier. She pointed to the large bruise on her chin, saying, “You remember giving me this?”
Bucky stared at the mare with the rainbow mane, shifting from the claw marks on her cheek to the bruise on her chin. He suddenly remembered what exactly he was looking at, and turned to either Steve or Sam for confirmation. They noted the confusion in his eyes, the appearance of the mares obviously surprising.
“Yeah…” Sam muttered. “They’re… they’re ponies… from another world.”
Bucky turned to Steve, who nodded. “A lot has happened since you’ve been gone.”
With that, Bucky slowly nodded, not really wanting to go further into detail on the subject. “Yeah…” he mumbled, turning his attention back to the angry Pegasus.
He turned back to the large bruise on her chin, the words she told him. He grimaced at the thought, the possibilities of what happened while he was in the dark. Looking around, he asked, “What did I do?”
“Enough to leave a mark,” Steve replied.
“Plenty of ‘em,” Rainbow Dash said, taking several steps back, just for precaution. She shook her head, Bucky staring at her. “Twilight’s gonna be so pissed when she sees what you did to the rest of our friends.”
Her tone said it all. What he did to the rest of her friends… God, Barnes closed his eyes at the thought of it. “Oh, God, I knew this would happen. Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there.” He stared at the group, at Steve, his friend, and the two mares all staring at him with concern. “All he had to do was say the goddamn words.”
“That wasn’t you, Bucky,” Fluttershy assured to him, placing her hoof comfortingly on his shoulder. Bucky turned to her hoof, followed up her foreleg, and stared into her eyes, that strange sense of ease flowing back inside him, much like earlier.
She continued. “When I stared into your eyes, I didn’t see the monster so many people made you out to be. All those stories of the Winter Soldier, that evil, evil man committing horrible atrocities… I didn’t see that in you. I saw a young man… a boy. You were trapped… alone… scared.”
He breathed softly through his nose, almost quivering. She broke away, her hoof falling. “Hurt.”
Bucky’s head slowly fell. “But not anymore,” Fluttershy told him, his eyes meeting hers once again. She offered a kind, sweet smile, probably the strongest one she could have offered for such a timid little thing. “Now, that spell that kept you trapped seems to have faded. You don’t have to be that monster anymore, Bucky. You’re free.”
“I wouldn’t say that, Fluttershy.”
Both turned in the direction of the Captain. He stepped forward, asking, “That man you mentioned earlier, the one who said the words to bring out the Winter Soldier… who was he?”
“I don’t know.”
“People are dead,” Steve declared, the stone-cold truth hitting Bucky like a shock of electricity. “The bombing, the setup, the doctor did all that just to get ten minutes with you. I need you to do better than ‘I don’t know.’”
Better than “I don’t’ know.” He let that sink with him, down, down, down into the deep abyss that was his mind. Inside, he tried his damnedest to remember the words the doctor said, the words that brought out… him. The piece Bucky didn’t want to think too much about. But he had to. He thought to the words, just briefly. He thought to what the doctor wanted. What did he say…?
December 16, 1991.
“He wanted to know… about the others,” Bucky slowly answered. Steve stepped forward. “Where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where.”
“What others?” Steve asked.
Bucky clenched his fist, his flesh, and could feel the punches against his skin, just like so many years ago. Like they never left. Cautiously, he breathed, and brought up his gaze to meet Steve’s.
He said, “I’m not the only Winter Soldier.”
Steve’s jaw fell, but only slightly. He could see as Bucky dropped his head, muttering something to himself, something to hopefully calm himself. Other Winter Soldiers? It obviously wasn’t good news. One Winter Soldier caused public assassinations for over fifty years, HYDRA’s deadliest weapons. The thought of more soldiers just like Bucky… God.
Leaning back on the wall, Steve watched as Bucky cringed in pain, just a tad. He reached to his arm, his metal one, and gently rubbed it. Steve looked to Rainbow Dash and nodded her way. Dash nodded back. Approaching Bucky, Dash apprehensively released the lever, allowing the press to release Bucky’s arm.
Watching as Bucky composed himself, gripping his shoulder and muttering nonsense, Steve asked, “There are more like you? Who are they?”
After finally releasing his shoulder, Bucky composed himself, sitting in more comfortable position. He replied, “The most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in HYDRA history. And that was before the serum.”
“They all turn out like you?” Sam asked.
“Worse.”
Not good. Really not good. His thoughts were becoming reality. Steve crossed his arms, asking, “The doctor, could he control them?”
“Enough.”
Shaking his head, Steve sighed. “Said he wanted to see an empire fall.”
“With these guys, he could do it,” Bucky said. “They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They can take a whole country down in one night, you’d never see them coming.”
Fluttershy squeaked in fear, the thought of multiple Winter Soldiers, just as terrifying as Bucky had been, on the loose and ready to strike kept the mare shivering where she stood. Rainbow, on the other hoof, kept her frown frozen in place, not liking the idea of having to deal with more Winter Soldiers like Bucky, probably even worse than Bucky.
“Where are the others kept?” Steve asked, pressing further and further into him.
He shook his head as a response, then quickly followed it up. “I don’t know. Somewhere… somewhere in Russia.”
“Russia’s a big country,” Steve told him, his arms falling. He straightened himself, keeping his voice centered and strong. “Buck… I need you to—”
“And I need you to understand.” That stopped Rogers, his mouth shutting, his eyes locked with Buck’s. He breathed steadily, his back rising and falling, his black hair dangling just ahead of his eyes. He never looked colder… except when he was still controlled.
He said, “HYDRA tore apart my mind. What I remember now could be forgotten in a few hours, a few minutes, a few days, I don’t know. I can only see what they programmed in me, and even then, it’s still fuzzy. Like a fog. I have bits and pieces, but I can never put the puzzle back together. The fact that I can still remember who you are is a miracle on its own. So, when I say I don’t know, I don’t know.”
The two kept their stone-like gazes to each other. Sam watched from afar, watching the confrontation with mild concern, but ready just in case. The two mares shot their eyes back and forth, back and forth, from Steve to Bucky, seeing who would make the next move.
In the end, Steve nodded and backed away. “Try and remember.”
Bucky lowered his head, his fingers intertwining with one another. As Steve fell back to the wall, his back pressed against the cool cement, Sam came next to him, crossing his arms with a quiet sigh. “This would have been a lot easier a week ago.”
Steve nodded, eyeing Bucky. “If we call Tony…”
Sam shook his head. “No, he won’t believe us.”
“Even if he did…”
“Who knows if the Accords would let him help,” Sam interrupted.
Steve opened his mouth to argue, but fell silent. It was true. Stark wouldn’t help them, especially not now. The moment he laid eyes on them, he’d hire the entire German army to force them to surrender. There had to be way, though, a possibility to reach Stark.
“What about Twilight?” the Captain asked. “I’m sure she could see where we’re coming from. If we convince Twilight, maybe she can convince Stark.”
“I don’t think that’s happening.”
Steve and Sam turned their attention to the approaching mares. Fluttershy and Rainbow stopped directly in front of the two men, Rainbow shaking her head. She grumbled, “After what Buck did to our friends, Twilight especially, I think she lost all hope of ever trusting him again.”
“You really think so?”
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash turned to Bucky, the broken soldier staring at his hands. One flesh, one metal. Noticing the continued silence, Bucky brought up his gaze and watched the mares stare at him. Their gazes were not assuring. Neither were there declarations. Fluttershy sighed, turning back. “He almost killed Twilight.”
Bucky lowered his head, his hands unnaturally weak. Steve could have sworn he saw him shaking.
Rainbow frowned. “But we’re not Twilight,” she told him, referring to herself and Fluttershy, stamping her hoof down for added strength to her statement.
“But we’re on our own,” Steve said.
“What about Spike and Pinkie?” Rainbow retorted. “They’re still at the facility, and I’m pretty sure Pinkie would be down tracking a bunch of psycho assassins.”
“She’s got a point,” Sam interjected.
“But what about Spike?” Fluttershy asked, prompting Rainbow’s attention to center her way. “You really think he would want to be a part of all of this?”
“Are we?” Dash asked back, earning a look of surprise from the Pegasus. Shaking her head, Rainbow declared, “It doesn’t matter, Fluttershy. We’re helping Steve because he’s our friend…” she turned to Steve, then Bucky, then back to the Captain. “… and I trust him.”
Almost unsure, Fluttershy stared at Bucky’s lowered head, then turned to the Captain. She could see the look in his eyes, the desperation, the lack of hope that he desperately needed. If they didn’t help… then who would? Her friendship with the Captain, and the newfound hope she had for saving Bucky, were much greater than that of her worry and fear.
So, Fluttershy nodded, giving the Captain an assuring and confident smile. “Yeah… I do, too.”
Given that extra bit of much-needed strength, Steve nodded to them. “Thank you.”
“Good to get extra hooves on board, but it’s not enough,” Sam sighed.
“What, you got friends?” Steve asked.
“Close,” Sam replied, almost shaking his head, like he was unsure of his own statement. Still, he turned to Steve, and said, “I know a guy.”