Bucky Barnes grows up with two best friends he loves more than anything. One is Steve Rogers, who Bucky can't have and shouldn't want. The other is a little pony who no one else can hear, touch or see. Not even Steve, no matter how much Bucky wants him to.

Bucky learns quickly that the only thing you can really expect is disappointment, and he gets used to ignoring what he wants. But he has his best friends, and that's good enough.

He knows he's lucky.

But in our world there's no such thing as magic, and friendship can't stop a war.

(When Bucky thinks about it years from now, he won't remember why his father was angry, or why he was crying, or why no one came to look for him. But he'll remember crying on the steps and he'll wonder anyway, because he was just six, but mostly because he was sad and afraid and alone.

But he will always, always remember the moment when he lifts his little head because he has a feeling someone's watching him, and is suddenly looking into the apple-green eyes of an astonishingly small horse.)