”All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible”
T.E Lawrence
“Lawrence of Arabia”

******Chapter II: The Dreamer******

Slade sat alone comfortably in his train-car. Slowly but surely he was giving in to the sensation to go to sleep. "Come on Slade your tired, you jumped from building to building, evading the Militsyia, while being shot at. You NEED some sleep," argued his conscious. Slade's awake self than argued back, "Well what happens if I do go to sleep? I will be left defenseless, what happens if the KGB did track me onto this train? They'll probably come in here and slit my throat or something!" With that thought Slade finally came to a conclusion, "I go and get some food, see if there are any suspicious characters on board, and then come back and think of it then!"

With that thought Slade got up and proceeded to head to the dining cart.

***

As Slade entered his personal cabin, he noted to himself that his dining cart visit was very successful. Not only did he get a very good meal, he also did not notice any suspicious figures. He had done it! He had escaped the Russians for a brief amount of time! Now and only now could he finally rest. Slade then lied down on the cabin bed and submerged himself into the dream world.

All he saw was the grassy and hilly plains of California. He could tell it was summer time, it was very warm and there was a mild breeze. At first there was only noise from the breeze and various animals, but slowly but surely another sound began to emerge; the laughter of children. He could plainly tell the laughter was of a young girl and boy. He saw a young boy run up the hill but alongside him ran something very unexpected, something one would only find in children's fables and imaginations; a young unicorn filly. Slade smiled as he saw the pair run and laugh together, he remembered those days and wished dearly he could return to them. These moments all happened before his life had really escalated ,before assassinations ,before the CIA, before Korea, and before Slade had really become a man.

Slade remembered the summer of 1946 for it was the best summer of his life, it was the summer he met one of his best friends. The dreamed than flashed and shifted to a small forest opening, there the same boy from earlier sat but something was different about him, he seemed lonely. The boy sat on a tree stump reading a book titled "For whom the Bell Tolls." The boy hummed as he flipped through the pages, he was entranced by each page of the story. Slade remembered the boy being very mature for his age, always taking a liking to more mature topics (mainly war, politics, and internationalization affairs). That's when suddenly there was a snap of a twig off in the distance. The boy quickly looked up and observed his environment.

Slade remembered and knew this part very well. The boy then went back to his book shrugging off the twig snapping as "Probably an animal or something." That's when the twig snapped again, and with the sound the boy looked up again, this time he noticed it. A young unicorn filly stared him straight in the eye, she had a Maya blue coat, her mane and tail were periwinkle and both had a blue streak through them. Her eyes were dark blue, same as the boy.

At first the boy thought he was hallucinating or either day dreaming on an extreme level. So he shut his eyes, very tight and counted to five in his head. "One....Two....Three.....Four......Five!" his thoughts counted, he then opened his eyes expecting the unicorn to be gone. But sure enough she was still there, now looking at him confused. Several awkward seconds passed before the unicorn said something "Do you always act like this when meeting strangers?" Her voice was very soft but also a little tiny bit high at the same time, nothing less expected from a young female.

"Nnnnn...nooooo," replied the boy stuttering, "Usually ww..hen I might strangers, they...they aren't usually animals."

"Animals!" replied the unicorn outraged , "for your information, I am a intelligent young filly, I have a high A in my class!" The boy just awkwardly stared back at the unicorn and then looked at the ground, never before did he think he would ever be lectured by a freaking unicorn, a creature out of children stories. The unicorn then stated, "I don't think we can keep this up forever I guess....my name is Minuette, but some of my friends call me Colgate for some reason.....your name?"

The boy then looked up at the unicorn filly, he replied "My name is Slade.....Slade Wilson". The older version of Slade looked down upon this child, he thought to himself "It is very hard to think this kid, someone so innocent, could become me."

The unicorn filly then stuck out her hoof, as if she was about to shake a hand "very nice to meet you Mr.Slade Wilson!"

Young Slade then stuck out his hand and replied while he shook the hoof "Yea....you too". He then noticed there was a very large cut on Minuette's forearm. "That's a very nasty cut you got there, we should wrap it up before it get's infected or something" With those words young Slade pulled out a tissue from his pocket, he then proceeded to take off his shoe so he could take his sock off. After removing the sock he put the tissue on Minuette's wound and used the sock to wrap around the tissue.

"Thanks" said Minuette, she then looked up at Slade and asked cursorily "Say where did you learn to do stuff like that? I've never seen anypony able to do it that fast"

Slade then looked up from the wound, and towards Minuette. "My daddy was a medic during the war.....trust me stuff like this is very minor compared to wounds he seen."

Minuette then looked up at Slade "What war??"

"Oh the "Great World War II" my daddy fought in it, lost his left thumb, biggest war ever, just a young kid when it started"

Minuette blinked and took a few minutes to process it. "Interesting" she said "How did it start?"

Slade thought back for a second, he was searching his memories back to 1939 when he saw the news report of the German Invasion of Poland. Slade then finally remembered how it started "some crazy German guy, named Adolf Hitler wanted to take over the world, as my dad says "Son...everyone looks are the world different ways. Some want to admire the beauty of it while others want to take everything and control it with an iron fist", say do they fight in any wars, you know..... where you come from"

"No...not for a very long time at least you see in my world......" and with that Minuette and Slade began to explain to eachother how one anothers world worked. They also shared personal information about themselves, they also gossiped about stuff. Slade was not going to lie, he really enjoyed the company of Minuette. Sure she may not be human, but she is still pretty interesting. One thing was for sure she wasn't a girly girl (like various females Slade had saw in school) and she never lacked being interesting. This summer is going to be one that is going to be remembered

***

Older Slade's dream then shifted quickly through various days of the summer he spent with Minuette. Through the quickly flashes he saw the countless adventures he and her went on. Like the one time they were pirates or the one time they were knights fighting epic battles against evil mages and monsters. One thing for sure is that Minuette was not a girly girl, and she was not dull what so ever. More and more memories continued to flood older Slade's mind, to point where they were overwhelming. But every time he looked at a memory older Slade noticed the two friends getting closer and closer.

The dream then stopped flashing and landed on a nice summer evening, Slade and Minuette sat together.

"Do you think I'll be able to visit Equestria Minuette? Or do they have some strong laws or hatred against humanity?" asked Slade, who was observing the sunset.

"Of course! I would love it if you could and meet my other friends! They'll think you are pretty awesome!"

The two then sat silently together, staring at the sunset and then Slade said "Minuette....I want this to never end, I hate school, sure I have good friends but the teachers are boring as heck......and I'm.....I'm just worried I'll forget all of this" Slade sighed and then looked down.

Minuette then looked up at Slade "believe me I never want this to end either but sadly a time must come when we must move on and grow up,but one thing is for sure, we must enjoy the moments we are living in currently, for if we spend to much time thinking about the future, we will miss out on great opportunities". Both of them looked at each-other and gave one another a hug. Minuette then got up and motioned Slade to follow her. "So your worried about forgetting, huh?" she asked "I have an idea so you will never forget this summer ever!"

***

After walking back to Slade's home ,they entered his bedroom where they began working on their little project. after various hours it was complete; two matching necklaces, they were shaped like heart's (courtesy of Minuette), and carved in them the words "Slade and Minuette, best friends forever, Summer of 1946". The two hugged each-other, older Slade practically shed a tear at seeing this site, he then closed his eyes and the dream began to flash over various other years of his life. With each year Slade was getting older and older and the memories of that summer began to fade and fade until nothing remained, the necklace was just something that he remembered making when he was a kid.

Four long years had passed and Slade was now enlisted in the U.S army, ready to be shipped off to the Korean Peninsula to the fight the rising threat of communism in Asia. It was in basic training that he met his best friend in the army, Christopher Johns. Christopher Johns and Slade were almost inseparable (almost like how he and Minuette used to be). But even with his long talks with Christopher, he still felt something was missing. At that point in his life Slade had other things to think about than cute childhood memories and imaginary friends, he was a man now, a man going to a war he may not survive in. But even during the war Slade had felt deep down that something was missing.

***

Slade had been in Korea for at least a year now, he arrived in 1950 and already participated in several engagements. It was in 1951 in the Battle of Chuam-ni that he lost his eye, a Chinese marksman had grazed him across the face. It was during the war that Slade learned a lot about himself, he learned his secret talent for marksmanship. A week after losing his eye Slade had at least nineteen confirmed kills. He remembered Christopher saying "Damn best shot in all of this entire army!" . Slade was awarded several medals during the war by his superior officers. But even when achieving personal glory, he still had felt something was missing in his life. Several times he had looked down at the bracelet he and Minuette made trying to remember what it meant.

Eventually the day came where Slade's perspective on life and death would be changed forever. It was September 13th, 1951 and the war had turned various tides. The war shifted from the plains of South Korea, all way to the hills of North Korea. Slade and Christopher's division had returned from leave and were hungry for some action. Older Slade remembered this moment crystal clear, Lt.Ritz had entered their tent and told them "boys! we're moving out to combat, some place called Wendgelhi, other guys are calling it Heartbreak Ridge, anyways get your goddamn asses off the floor and prepare to move out!" Slade and Christopher gave each-other thrilled looks, finally after a long break they would have a chance to fight again!

***

The battle was hell on Earth, Slade and Chris had regretted ever saying they were excited for something like this. It had been three hours and already half of their division had bullets put into their head. Even Lt.Ritz had gone missing either dead or captured, nobody knew. Currently what was left of the division was taking cover behind the blown up remains of a artillery station. Eventually the time came and the highest ranking officer of the group; Sgt. Schultz decided to take action. "Alright boys.....we need to take out that damn MG nest, so I need Wilson,Crane, and David's to stay here and provide covering fire, Johns, Baker and Roberts your with me, we're going to silence that fucking machine gun!"

With those orders several men of the division began to moan,groan,complain, and some even cried. Slade looked at Christopher who was on the verge of tears. Attacking that MG nest was practically suicide, the North Koreans were in to good of a position to successfully assault. Slade, being a good, friend decided to reassure his friend. "Hey Chris.....good luck and I'll see ya around" Slade stuck out his hand (as if to shake) to Chris who slowly put his hand out.

Christ shakily replied "yyyyea....yooouu too, see you Slllllade". He then weakly shook his hand. Despite all his arguments against it, Slade knew the Sergeant was right, if they didn't stop the machine gun, some unlucky battalion might get attacked by it and be put in the same position his division was in.

"Alright men!" the Sergeant said as he looked at his men, Slade could see the fear in his eyes. "We're going to attack now, guys with me, be as quick as possible and sprint to that MG nest, guys here....provide covering fire so that MG will be distracted!" With those final words the Sergeant looked down distressed and upset he then looked up at his men, took a deep breathe in. In those brief moments before the attack started, time seemed to stop, all Slade saw was the depressed and distressed faces of his comrades, half of whom were about to rush to there doom. Slade then used this spare time to look down at the necklace he wore, and never understood why, he remembered making it but forget why, but that was not important now, he had other things to focus on. The Sergeant loaded his Thompson machine gun and said one last prayer. ALRIGHT, GO GO GO!!" yelled the Sergeant as he jumped over the sandbags, he was followed by his other troops. Slade and his men provided covering fire.

It was after several shots when Slade heard it, the sounds of mortar being fired off in the distance. "Shit! MORTARS!" yelled Slade. His men were quick to look up and react.

One of the men yelled "Quick! Scatter Now!". As the man tried to get up, the dreaded sound of machine gun fire was heard and the man was stopped dead in his tracks. He fell on the floor, lifeless.

"Damn MG got him" though Slade, his thoughts were interpreted by the nearby explosion of a mortar

BOOOOOM!

"Shit......well.........C'est la Guerre" though Slade to himself as the mortars got closer and closer. Finally one hit right next to Slade.

BOOOOOOOOOM!

All Slade remembered was seeing darkness and hearing the muffled cries of his peers, and machine gun fire.

***

Slade then quickly woke up, panting frantically, he was now back to reality, back to the train car. It about a minute or so before he regulated his breathing pattern again. He walked up and went to the washroom in his train cabin, he turned on the sink, let the water flow, cupped his hands, and splashed some on his face. He then looked up from the mirror to his reflection, puzzled he stared at the man he saw, "Shit! I forgot the dream!". Despite all of his efforts, he had forgotten it, all he remembered seeing one tiny object in his dream was the necklace that he protected and cared for so dearly.

Slade pulled out the necklace from under his shirt, he then pulled off the necklace from his neck and examined it. A wooden heart with the words "Minuette and Slade, greatest best friends forever,Summer of 1946." Slade tried to decipher the words ,trying to make sense of what it meant. But it was still a blank, though deeply something was missing, something very crucial and something that had impacted his childhood life. "Well it isn't the first time I had forgotten something....and it will certainly will not be the last I forget something.....bedsides it's only a ridiculous childhood memory, I have better things to think about" though Slade out-loud. "Speaking of better things to think about, wonder where the train is" and with that thought Slade put the necklace down on the vanity and proceeded to exit the restroom and look outside the window to figure out where in the world he was.

The necklace then lied there on the vanity, the only memories of a summer and experiences now lost to time. But something else began to happen, the cracks in the necklace began emitting a dark green mist that was barely visible to the naked eye. The creases and cracks in the necklace began to also glow, with the same color light as the mist, several letters on the necklace began to glow, with each letter with a tone symbolizing where the letter was in the word. Darker was later on and brighter was earlier on in the word, the letters shaped out the word ending

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Author's Note

Alright so this chapter was a little more detailed and introduced you to some interesting character history concerning Slade. But you see.....not everyone is perfect, Slade suffers from temporal amnesia, one minute he will remember something and then forget it later on. (That may or may not cause some problems later on
Hey also for those people who may get confused about stuff, I have put some images from the Korean War to better explain what situations Slade and his division were in.

Here is a picutre of the artillery thing (before it was in ruins)
that Slade and his comrades too refuge behind

Here is a picture of the infamous machine gun nest