"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step"

Lao Tzu

**Part 1;Strangers**

Shortly after finding the robe, Slade decided to head out, mainly to meet up with his partner, U.S marshal John Kruger. Slade got into his car and sat in the drivers seat. While he was putting the robe in the back seat, something felt wrong. He got the eerie sensation that he was being watched, he looked out the window, nothing as he expected. Somehow he felt that he had the same feeling earlier, while patrolling the town the night before. Well its just his mind playing tricks on him, better head out before he was late to meet his partner.

***

Slade was scheduled to meet his partner at the small restaurant known as the Rustico. But before he could even do that, he had to review the dossier to find the secret phrase to identify his partner. The dossier was left at the hotel room, so Slade would have to head there to obtain what he wanted.

The drive over there was moderately short, which was good since he was in a rush. Slade speed walked through the lobby and headed up the stairs to where his room was. He quickly unlocked the door and walked over to the shelf where he put the dossier earlier. But there was one problem, it wasn't there.

Slade was officially concerned, he swore he had left it there. It was not like room keeping had come in and reorganized the room, because he had left the do not disturb sign on the door. Maybe he had left it in the car, sometimes he takes stuff with him, and he probably wanted to read it over in the car. As Slade began to walk to the door something caused him to halt dead in his tracks, the sound of gun clicking. A voice followed the sound of the gun's click, a somewhat deep voice, but it had a light ring. "Not so fast Wilson, now only when I tell you to, you turn around." It was a male voice, probably someone in their mid 30s early 40s. "Alright turn around" Slade obeyed instantly, he turned and saw the man that the voice belonged to. He had short hair on the sides, and enough on the top to do a parting, he held a model ten smith and wessen revolver pistol.

Slade now staring directly at his enemy quickly asked "Alright, who are you, how did you get in here, and where is my dossier?"

The man smiled and said, "some, but not all of those questions can be answered in time. But let us start with your identity first, your full name if Slade Joseph Wilson, born in 1931. Served three years in the Korea as a army marksman, and is currently the CIA's best sharpshooter and hit-man. You prefer to, and currently, carry a c7-25 automatic pistol."

Slade wasn't going to lie, he was impressed with this guys observation skills. "Impressive, but that information is about you and does not answer my question, who are you?"

The mans smile grew a little bit and turned into a friendly chuckle. "I'm really surprised you don't know who I am but I guess an introduction and refresher won't hurt, I'm your partner, US marshal John Kruger."

To Slade it all made sense now, the observation skills, the knowledge on him, and where his room was. This information was both good to know, and reliving (since John wasn't some creepy stalking psychopath that infiltrated Slades room). "Well John, I was wondering when you were going to show up" said Slade, in a much more friendlier and comforting tone.

John chuckled and replied "I was thinking the same thing, you realize we were supposed to meet half an hour ago, right?"

Slade felt embarrassed, it was part of his reputation that he was consistent and always on time. "Well John, you see I was working on gathering information that has to do with the current situation, your aware of it?"

Johns friendly chuckles and expressions died down and became much more serious and concerned now "Yes I am aware, small town, children disappearing, higher than the national rate, in my opinion pretty serious stuff. Let us talk Slade, and tell me what you have found out"

***

So the next fifteen minutes was Slade explaining to John what he had observed and investigated. John would frequently tell Slade to stop and repeat certain snippets, so John could write it down in his notebook. Eventually Slade finished off the story with telling John about the robe he found in the woods, and the footprints that he and Alex were following. "Now you are sure the family did not notice anything relating to the disappearance?" All Slade did was reply with a shake of his head. John looked down at his shoes, he was deep in thought. After a few seconds John looked up at Slade "I'm not saying you and this young girl did a bad job at investigating the area, but I still feel something is missing, take me there now." Slade was about to give a reluctant response, but realized that John was probably right, so within the next five minutes the duo were already downstairs and in Slades car, ready to head off to the Wallace resident.

After arriving at the house, the conversation with the family was quick. John was polite and explained his intentions to the family, they agreed to let Slade and John investigate their property right then. As John was talking to the Wallace's, Slade noticed that it was getting darker out, this is why he was reluctant earlier. Slade thought to himself "Well I should just let this slide, besides, John is an expert that has a ton of experience with this kind of stuff, what could go wrong?" Within the next minute Slade and John were outside, with Alex tagging along as usual. All Slade and Alex could really do is tag along behind John, for he was extremely concentrated and refused to let anything distract him from his work. Alex began to yawn after five minutes of hopelessly following John, who was still submerged in his studies on the footprints. Slade wasn't going to lie to himself, he was pretty bored, he had done this earlier. Slade closed his eye and took in a deep breathe, "don't worry old buddy, John will be done soon, and then you will get to go back into the hotel room and retire for the night."
Slade then opened his eye, and was very startled, a person was staring at him right from the woods.

He looked directly at the person, this was no trick his mind was playing on him. Slade then yelled "hey!" and began to run over to them. Shortly both John and Alex noticed Slade and began to slowly follow him, they were confused. As Slade got closer to the person they ran off into the woods. All Slade could do was sprint after them.

This hooded person was fast, but Slade was faster and had managed to qucikly catch up to them. Both John and Alex were behind Slade in full pursuit. Slade was right behind the person when he finally managed to get them cornered, a river had cut off the mysterious persons path and left them nowhere to run. Slade drew out his gun and aimed it at the person. "Seems I have you cornered, I'm going to take you in for questioning, I'm with the...."

Slade was cut off by the mysterious persons voice, it was female, young, maybe mid to late 20s. She said in almost a whisper "I know who you and your companions are, who you work for, and why you are here, you shall not succeed!"

All Slade could do was respond with "rather farical statement, from someone I havent met, who are you?"

Both John and Alex caught up now, both were out of breathe. John quickly noticed the person and drew out his revolver. The figure took notice of John aiming his weapon at her, she then said "I bid you to put your arms away and turn back and head to place thy once came, if this is not met, then there will be penalties."

John lifted his revolver even higher. "Oh yea hot shot....what kind of penalties?" asked John in a defensive, but at the same time, curious tone.

The figure removed her hood, her facial features were now visible to the trio. She said "the only penalty for interfering with the prophecy of the shadow...... is death!"

The young woman then looked down at her feet, after a few seconds she lifted her head up and opened her eyes, the glowed red in the dark evening. Her teeth suddenly became long and snarled fangs, a red aura surrounded her fists and she began to yell certain words in another language, as if she were casting spells. Quickly large pointed rocks began to come out from the ground, they knocked over Alex, and almost impaled John, but he was quick to dodge. Slade had dodged the rocks from the ground, he was on the ground now in a tactical kneeling position, he had his gun locked on whoever this was. He fired two shots at her, but she noticed and did a quick hand maneuver and a shield bearing the same color as her eyes and aura appeared in front of her.

The assailant then looked over at Slade and began to taunt him. "I really expected more, especially from a warrior like you, guess I was wrong then, your not the eternal one, just a pitiful mockery of him "

Slade was quick to come up with a response "Listen bitch, I don't know who the hell you are, or what the fuck you are talking about!"

The figure then began to slowly and menacingly walk over to Slade, as she walked she did another one of those spell thing, which caused another rock to come up from behind Slade and knock him over. So much for that tactical postion. Slade then looked up and was looking directly into the eyes of the now demonic woman, the eyes with their blood red stare. She whispered to him "a shame, you were innocent in all of this, Slade Wilson, to bad you will not live to understand any of this!" From the red glow a knife quickly formed, and then appeared into the hands of the evil woman. Slade knew what she was going to do, he wasn't going to like it.

The woman then lifted up the knife and was ready stab, she flung down the weapon at Slade's chest.

KRACKOOM

Some kind of etentity or force had caused the woman to fall back, and completely disintegrate her knife. Slade was confused at first, he should be lying on the ground right now with a knife jabbed into his chest, how was he still alive. He looked down at his chest and observed where the knife should have been jabbed, but he found something else, his strange medallion that made no sense to him, it had a mild green aura, and mist was emitting from it. Slade looked at it and said "what the fuck?!?"

He heard the evil woman yelling and muttering to herself not to far in front of him. "How is this possible?" she said "your a common human being, you should not be able to possess magic like this, how is this possible?".

Slade was about to say something, but the green mist began to surround his face, at first it was barley visible, but soon it was the only thing he could see. The mist then entered into his eye and caused him to faint. All Slade saw was black.

**Part 2; Remembrance**

Flashes after flashes occurred and surrounded Slade, he was in the realm of his mind. At first the flashes were barley visible and moved very fast, which caused them to be blurry. The memories soon began to slow down and become more clear, which made them more images than flashes. There were also sounds he could hear, laughter, crying, yelling, and other emotional sounds.

He then observed the pictures and saw various moments from his life. They ranged from his time in Korea, to his fifth birthday party, and the near death experience he had in Russia a few days prior. But amongst those memories there was one that stuck out and was brighter than the rest of all the memories. Slade went over to observe this memory and saw something that changed everything, he saw a young boy, and next to him was her, Minuette.

How in the hell could he forget something like that, something so magical and unforgettable. But this new discovery did not just cause Slade a remembrance it also caused him a realization. The strange necklace that he wore around, those strange and mystic words in carved into it, it all made sense now, why he carried it around and never parted with it, and why he always felt that something in his life was missing. But why now, why not earlier in his life, it must have something to do with magic, some-kind of event or something must have triggered it.

The memories then began to fade out and the area surrounding him was misty and windy. Somehow this reminded him of the part from A Christmas Carol, when Scrooge is seeing the future. He then heard some screams around him followed by some gunshots. He then saw a tower emerge from the mist, it was dark and dreadful, it pained Slade just to look at it. He saw cities and town burning around him, people locked up in chains and being forced to work in coal mines. Was this nightmare true? Was this actually going to happen? "No it can't be, I don't want to see it anymore! I NEED TO WAKE UP!!"

***

Slade then awoke from his nightmare, panting heavily. He looked around him to make sure none of what had happened was true, and thankfully it was not. He then peered over and observed his companions, Alex was wrapping John's leg up with a cloth. John then noticed Slade was awake, "hey Slade, what the fuck were you doing all of that, taking a goddamn nap, we nearly got impaled!"

"Twice" added Alex, she had just finished her wrapping's on John and now diverted all her attention to Slade. "Do either of you two, agree with me when I say what we witnessed was because we were drunk or something, like that's, just both impracticable and generally impossible."

Slade was now finally able to stand again and had walked over to the nearby stream, "no sadly what we had witnessed was all to real, whoever she was and whoever she is working for, is most likely behind the disappearances of the children. We need to stop them, before more children disappear, and worse, their "prophecy" is complete.

"And what the hell might that just be?" asked John.

"I don't know the details exactly, but all I know is it's going to be bad for us. I caught a glimpse of what might become of our world if it is completed, and that is something I never want to see again!"

Slade now saw it, both John and Alex were deep in thought, which caused a great silence among them. After a few seconds the silence was broken by John, "Slade let's be real for a second, suppose we we're crazy enough to go after them, what would we fight them with? As you just saw bullets aren't very effective against them and...."

Slade cut off John in the midst of his sentence, "maybe those aren't strong enough, we probably need something bigger."

Slade's statement had failed to calm down John, if anything it fueled his argument even more. "Where are we going to get that Slade, the only people who can supply us with that stuff won't believe anything we say. And even if they were to believe our story they wouldn't care, all of their attention is focused on Cuba right now, biting their nails Castro won't get trigger happy and fire a nuke at us." John took a quick breathe and then resumed his rant "and speaking of where, where would we even think to search for this witch and her cult, it's not like their local to anywhere, and....."

Slade intervened this time with a better argument, he had thought up off. "I may have a solution to some of these issues you bring up, where we are going, and what we are going to use to fight this cult."

John began muttering something before Alex intervened "listen you two, bickering and arguing is going to get us nowhere, but Slade, John is right, where are we going to find this cult and how will we find them?"

"Alright have a seat, I have a story to tell...you see this necklace I wear, almost all of my life I had forgot it's meaning. I had always thought it was some cute thing that reminded me of my childhood, but tonight I learned I was wrong. Nearly 16 years ago, when I was still very young, I.....errr...encountered something in my backyard." Slade didn't know how he was going to explain meeting Minuette, but he was going to have to try. "What I encountered was...was...a unicorn filly", Slade saw it, the shock and confusion in his two colleagues eyes, "anyways, this unicorn, her name was Minuette, and she was one of the very best friends I grew up with." He saw it now, in Johns eyes all he could see was confusion and denial, but in Alex's eyes he saw understanding and compassion. "Eventually, I don't remember how, we parted ways, but that is not the point. The point is she came from a world full of magic, where some wise princess ruled or something, she called this landEquestria or something. So magic is no big deal to the inhabitants of this world,I'm pretty sure they even use it on a daily basis, so overall if anyone is going to understand it, it's them. You see my point?"

John shot Slade with a very concerned look "Slade are you sure your alright....you sure you didn't lose some brain cells when you hit your head?"

Alex then hit John's arm, signalling him to be shut up. It was a brief silence before Alex said "given what we just witnessed, I believe you Slade, but how will we find this Equestira place even, I'm pretty sure they don't have a bus that just takes us there."

"And that my dear had already been solved, if these crazy withes got here then there's got to be a portal or something that we can use to get there."

John finally perked up the courage Slade " That's good Slade, but where? These withes could have came from a portal anywhere in the world and somehow ended up in this small town."

Slade quickly thought of a something to say, "trust me...I also have that figured out". A lie, he literally had no idea where he was going to even think about searching for this portal. "But before we do that, we need to head back to my hotel room and get some supplies ready, maybe two or three days max and then....." Slade continued his long speech about what supplies they would need and how long they would be gone, as the group got up and began to walk towards the forest path.

***

Immediately after arriving in the hotel room, Slade got suited up, in the same gear he had used back in Moscow. He didn't wear as much armor though, and he also decided to ditch his mask for the time being. He and his colleges packed various supplies; food,water,weapons, and other necessities.

They were ready, now it was time for the long walk to wherever the hell this portal thing was.

To not get the attention of any local citizens in the town, they simply walked back to Alex's house, she showed the two men several shortcuts in the woods. One reaching the area where they were attacked, they followed the large and hurried footsteps that the assailant had left behind. They went on for sometime, but they eventually ended, this must be where the portal was.

Before entering though, the trio took a vote and decided to sit down and take a break before entering. Using this break time Slade decided to check his watch, one Am, damn they had been up late. Besides the feeling of tiredness, there was also the feeling of fear. Who the hell knew what was on the other side? Sure Slade had met an inhabitant of this world, but that didn't mean that she was the only one there. There were bound to be more creatures in this land of Equestria, and most probably didn't have well intentions.

After regaining their strength, the trio headed to the portal, they stepped through. It was the weirdest feeling Slade had ever felt in his entire life. All that surrounded him for a few seconds was a bright and white light, it practically blinded him, but Slade had to keep going. The light became so unbearable, that he had to close his eyes, it took at least fifteen second before Slade was brave enough to look. Once he opened his eyes, he was relived to see that the light was gone, and that he could see the forest again, but it was a lot different.

The trees had a different color and design to them, so did the plants and the grass. Also the night sky was a lot brighter here than it was back in the other forest, this was all the evidence Slade needed to see to say he had traveled dimensions. Both John and Alex had not been far behind them, and they to took in the different scenery. "Holy shit, you were actually right Slade." stated John as he walked towards Slade "Now where do we go now? The footprints have officially disappeared".

Slade looked blankly at John, how did he know where to go? This was all new to him to. But luckily Alex saved Slade from embarrassment by giving him a thought. "Didn't you say that the unicorn girl you met lived in some city or something?"

"Yes, she said she lived in Canterlot, but never gave me a description of the freaking place, so sorry I have no idea" replied Slade.

"Well not much we can do now except wait until tomorrow morning, we need the rest, and then we shall go exploring" stated John.

The trio then set up camp and went to sleep for the night, an action they would soon regret.

*****

Author's Note

Man this was a long haul to write, finally Slades got his memories back! And the our favorite trio has finally ventured to Equestira! More to come very soon!