1946
After the war, Colonel Phillips became the official Director of the Scientific Strategic Reserve and allowed his friend the decency of mourning. She had essentially lost her love and who she had hoped to be her adoptive son. Peggy took a few months away from everything, moving to America finally and establishing herself in the place where her love once lived. She found and bought a nice little apartment on the west side of Manhattan. Often finding herself staring out of the window, wondering what could have been if things had gone differently. Many bouts of depression had arisen in her and she retreated into herself. In that time, the SSR set up a main office in New York, prepping the U.S for their inevitable conflicts with Russia and the Cold War that was to come.
She threw herself back into her work to preoccupy herself and give herself purpose. With a glowing recommendation from the Colonel, Peggy got a job at the New York office. Just not the one that she expected. Or wanted for that matter. She was quietly demoted by the bureaucrats of the agency to be a secretary for the agents back at home. Without the Colonel's consent. Most of her days were filled with pushing documents, taking calls, making coffee, and taking lunch orders for the staff. The days of serving her new country seemed long past. Until one day, rumors had been spreading around about Howard Stark's recent business deals in the east. Six pieces of his technology had turned up either on the black market or in the arsenals of enemy states. The man was brought in for questioning at Capitol Hill multiple times but disappeared the third time he was called.
The U.S government had declared Howard Stark, a fugitive from justice.
Despite Peggy's insistence on her old friend's innocence and loyalty, they refused to believe her. Some in the office treated her as less of a human being. Not all. A few had her back but had to do it silently in fear of angering the higher-ups. Howard met her at night and explained what had happened. Someone had broken into his vault of inventions too dangerous for anyone and had sold them to a Russian terror organization called Leviathan. They had tracked down the bombs but five other of his inventions were still missing, leading Howard to get out of the country and leave Peggy to her work. His butler Edwin Jarvis assisted her in many of her missions, despite his outwardly weak and proper appearance.
Two agents from Leviathan failed to kill Peggy and as a result, the SSR got ahold of an advanced messaging system that was sending coded messages to and from an undisclosed location.
When Howard tasked Peggy with retrieving another one of his devices in the labs of the SSR, she uncovered a dark truth. Howard had saved the last vial of blood from Project: Rebirth. Captain America's creation. She completely lost trust in Howard and was painfully reminded of the loss she had felt in losing her family.
Soon, the coding system was cracked with Peggy's help and she had a new destination to search for Leviathan. The Mar'ina Horka Forest in the Soviet nation of Belarus. The agent she had dealt with was going to trade Stark's technology and 200,000 American dollars for something called the Havoc Reactor and an experiment called the Malen'kiy rog magii (Little Horn of Magic.) That name gave her grave suspicions about what the Russians may have found. With a bit of convincing from Peggy and a call to her old friends in the 107th infantry, Peggy was finally on an official mission for the SSR for the first time since the fall of Hydra.
Later that evening over Soviet airspace, Peggy and a small number of other SSR agents were about to make a jump into Belarusian territory. She had the mild displeasure of having the insufferable Agent Jack Thompson sitting across from her, fidgeting in his seat. He served in Iwo Jima with the ground forces, so he had a small amount of sympathy for him.
"Relax, you'll sprain something," Peggy said. "It's just as you remember it."
Thompson looked back at her with contempt. His brow furred in irritation and loathing.
"You a mind reader? Or is that just your woman's intuition speaking?"
"How's this for woman's intuition, this is your first jump isn't it?" she shot back.
He was silent for a moment, clasping his hands together anxiously. Sweat noticeably was dripping off his temple from anxiety.
"Ninth. Eight training jumps."
"You've infiltrated hostile territory before. You'll be fine. Just follow our lead."
"Thanks, Carter, but I already have a mother. What I need right now are soldiers."
The siren blared, signaling everyone to stand at attention and the pilot shouted through the loudspeaker.
"Agents, prepare for drop!"
"Let's go, boys! It's go time!" Thompson called out. "The drop will put us ten kilometers from our tac team, assuming they're where they're supposed to be."
"They'll be there," Peggy insisted.
"They better be..."
At the bottom, they hid their parachutes in the bushes to conceal their entrance into Belarus. The lack of any moonlight was both an advantage and a disadvantage to their mission. On one hand, the enemy wouldn't be able to see their approach through the dark evergreen forest. On the other hand, however, the 107th infantry might not be able to see them. The snow on everything made it just a bit more visible, but just barely enough to see where they were going and the people around them.
"We're about eight clicks from the RV. I'll take lead, Carter you watch our six," Thompson ordered.
They trudged through three feet of snow for miles, watching for any tripwire or land mines that may have been left behind in the war or set up recently. Most of the agents were twitchy from their days in the war, but Peggy was still calm and collected.
When they came close to their destination, sticks cracked in the trees, bringing everyone to hold up their weapons and call out passwords to determine who was there.
"Emu" a familiar deep voice called out.
"Ostrich man, Ostrich."
"Shut up! Emu!"
"Carter, Dugan forgot the password again." another familiar voice said.
She laughed internally, knowing full well what kind of dolts were hiding out in the trees.
"The password is "Eagle" you nupty!" she playfully jeered.
The bulky, bowler hat-wearing Dugan stepped out of his hiding spot with a wide goofy smile.
"Oh, hi Peggy. Fellas," he greeted.
The others stepped out of where they were hiding to greet Peggy and the other agents.
"Jack Thompson meet Mike Li, Rick Ramirez, Junior Juniper, Pinky Pinkerton, Happy Sam Sawyer, and you already seem to know Dum Dum Dugan. Some of the best in the 107th infantry."
"You guys are the Howling Commandoes!" one of the agents said gleefully. "You guys fought side by side with Captain America didn't you?"
Dugan's face fell and looked back to his friend.
"Yeah...but not as long as she did."
She only nodded, just glad to see a friendly face.
"Agent Jack Thompson, I'm running point for the SSR." the Agent greeted as he firmly shook Dugan's hand. "We head east until we hit the border."
"We'll hit a wall of Reds before we reach the border." Dugan lightly scolded. "Let's head up into Lithuania, cross over into Russia at Ashmyany."
"You plan on walking halfway across Lithuania?" Thompson argued.
"You can if you want, but me. I'm taking these. Peggy, let's go."
He led the others a quarter of a mile to a clearing where they had transport vehicles all ready to go for them to use. They were on their way, quietly driving down backroads and watching out for any patrols coming their way. Dugan sat down with Peggy to talk about old times and things that have been happening recently.
"Did you bring what I asked for?" Dugan asked hopefully.
Groaning internally, Peggy pulled out a tall brown bottle of liquor and handed it off to the grateful man.
"From my private stash."
"Attagirl. See, Germans are geniuses when it comes to beer, but no one knows Bourbon like the U.S. of A.
They grabbed two mess kit cups and filled them with the brown liquid. Raising their cups, the duo toasted and drank heartily, letting the drink warm up their insides and fill them with good feelings.
"Alright, so tell me, what's the story with Stark and these Leviathan jerks?" he asked.
"The SSR is convinced that Howard is trying to sell technology to enemies of the United States. They think Leviathan is a potential buyer."
"And you disagree?" Dugan asked.
"Howard isn't selling weapons to adversaries of the United States. Not to Leviathan, not to anybody. He may be an utter wanker but he's still one of us."
"So you think the whole deal is a trap? It's always a damn trap."
"That's why we bring the guns..." she said dryly.
"Question is if Leviathan is trying to lure us in with promises of catching Howard. And...something else."
She remembered the mention of the "little horn of magic" experiment, wondering what it could be.
"Maybe they just want the pleasure of your company."
Dugan pulled out a Cuban cigar and tried to light it, but Peggy threw it to the side, much to his dismay.
"You smell bad enough," she said.
"And you used to be fun. That party at Sean's Bar in Ireland comes to mind. You had to bail me out of that fight. That guy from Kerry had one hell of a left hook."
"Once Upon a Time..."
She huddled back into her corner of the car, looking out of the window and into the cold night air. As her eyes glistened in the silvery moonlight, Dugan could immediately tell who she was thinking about.
"Yeah...I miss them too. Even now, they still give us the spirit to push forward. The kid especially..."
He showed Peggy their patches which had images of what they imagined to be the colt all grown up alongside a howling wolf. A golden Ultima or Omega symbol encircled the inner image like a horseshoe. It somewhat brightened her mood, thinking about Firebrand and what watching him grow up may have been like. It was silly, but it meant something special to her. Imagining Firebrand, her little boy Firebrand growing up into a fine stallion. She could picture him as big as any horse with a mane more golden than Steve's hair was and his muscles bulging just like his father. His horn was crimson and long as the tip of a spear. She imagined him in strapping Army dress blues being given a medal of honor for his various acts of bravery while Steve and herself, perhaps married while they looked on with pride. A noticeable mound growing in her belly...
Nothing more than lost dreams. Peggy could feel streams coming down her face again.
Dugan lightened the gloomy conversation with tales he and his comrades had made for themselves throughout the world. Inspired by their Equine friend, they had been searching all corners of the globe for legendary beasts and monsters of legend.
The next day, they finally came to the Russian facility where the signal had come from. Everyone split into groups of four for safety in the event of an ambush. Infiltrating without being seen proved to be easy enough. Too easy and Dugan and Peggy picked up on this right away. It looked like a normal office building from the inside until they entered some of the rooms. One, in particular, was a perfect copy of an American classroom. She had discovered that the Russians were using cartoons imprinted with subliminal messages to indoctrinate the children there.
They heard a little girl crying in the next room and discovered a dormitory filled with sterile beds. Attached to each of the posts were handcuffs, which they realized must have been used on the girls. Dugan found the little blonde girl and tried to calm her down, showing her his bowler hat. Not realizing just exactly what this little girl really was. She grabbed his knife and tried to stab him, but was stopped by his body armor. Then grabbing one of their pistols, she shot and killed Junior while dodging everyone. The little girl escaped into the ventilation system before they could catch her.
"Damn," Dugan swore.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, the vest took the brunt of it."
He looked down at Junior sadly and grabbed his dog tags, pocketing them before taking anything meaningful he had on him to return to his family.
"We gotta get through this place and get out of here."
Thompson joined up with them and they split off into more groups to search out the facility.
Down into the depths underground, they found a laboratory with recovered Hydra technology halfway opened up with tools laying about.
"They're trying to reverse engineer Schmitt's little gadgets," Thompson said.
"We have to set charges here!" Peggy exclaimed. "I will not allow the Russians to create another Hydra after we fought and died for so long to defeat the original."
"Sawyer has the charges. Once we meet up, we'll quickly double back and blow this place sky high once we get clear of the building," he agreed.
Suddenly, they heard a noise like a wailing from deeper into the lab. They held their guns out, fearing it might be another one of those indoctrinated girls before cautiously moving forward. Stepping over discarded scrap metal littered over the floor and anything that may make a loud noise. Peggy stepped to the front of the group as they entered the room where the wailing was coming from. It was some kind of open testing facility with a second-level gallery for officials to spectate.
'What were these animals watching anyway?' she thought.
On a table near the entrance, she found several documents, all written in Russian giving details about an experimental subject.
"The subject does not respond well to our reeducation and does not listen to any voice of authority. Anyone who approaches it is bitten and attacked. Recommend Termination," she quietly translated.
A hermetically sealed metal box with small viewing ports was where the wailing was coming from and it was getting louder just by being close to it. Whatever was crying was definitely in trouble.
"They can't breathe in there!" Peggy cried.
"On it," the two men with her said in agreement as they went to the hatch in front of the box and found metal crossbeams to pry open the door. With a bit of elbow grease, they broke open the box with a clank, and whoever was inside stopped crying. Everything was silent. Peggy held up her rifle as she approached the front. It was dark in this lab and was hard to see anything, but in the ambient light, she found something incredible.
A small pink unicorn with a frazzled purple and red mane stepped out into the light, coughing and sniffling at the same time, making for an unseemly sight. A mark of a turquoise quill pen was emblazoned on her flank. Peggy idly wondered what that could mean.
"What the heck am I looking at?" Thompson asked.
"I'm not sure,"
When the unicorn stopped coughing and opened its eyes, she looked at Peggy and was terrified. It tried to huddle back into the cage and cover its head with its tiny hooves. Peggy felt her heart melt and her soul leap with joy. She had found another one of Firebrand's kind. This one by the build and the eyes appeared to be female.
"It's alright sweetheart, I will never hurt you. I promise. I knew someone like you." Peggy said. "Please come out."
The little filly stepped out, still wheezing and coughing a little from being inside her prison.
"You don't know what that thing is Carter, I wouldn't recommend touching it," Thompson warned.
"This "thing" as you call it is someone I trust more than anyone in this entire building," she spat back.
Her words were comforting for the filly as she ran up and tackled Peggy's chest. She hugged the little pony and just sat there for a moment, allowing it to sink in.
"That's alright. Everything's alright. We're gonna take you out of here."
Peggy pointed at the documents on the table. One of the other agents with them walked over to it and looked them over.
"Leviathan must have found her not long after Captain America found Firebrand. The stories of his powers must have been too tempting for those animals." the other Agent deduced.
"Better bring her along with us," Thompson groaned. "I'd rather not be the pet sitter until we get back to the States."
The little unicorn's horn flashed to life and she grabbed Thompson's ear in her grasp and pulled it down.
"It seems she doesn't appreciate being called that," Peggy retorted.
She let go of Thompson's ear who walked away back to the entrance groaning and cursing under his breath.
Peggy took the filly and lifted her up in her arms before following the others.
"What's your name sweetheart?"
She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, brushing away the tears and the tiredness from them. Peggy could tell that she was tired, hurt all over from whatever the Russians were doing. Most likely hungry as well. The filly was silent for a moment and Peggy berated herself, not knowing if ponies are able to speak at this age or not. Only having her adoptive son as a reference. She would have her answer immediately though as the filly opened its mouth and spoke in an overly articulate, but tiny voice.
"I'm Aramau. Is there anything I can help you with?"
Captain America and Commander Firebrand will return in The Avengers: An Avenging Fire