The Hands Of Time

     "I love you, Mr. Nesterton!" said a purple pony

     "I love you too, Ms. Poopface!" said a rainbow haired pony.

This was the last line from a television that rifleman Robert Parker would ever see while on duty at Tau Volantis. The name of the show? My Little Pony. Yeah, It's been going on for that long now. The show had gotten so bad that not only in 2514, and with unitology at every corner you look at, it was the only escape you could watch to feel comfortable again. Problem was the show was horrible. The plot, the characters, the animation, the names, and the love interests. The lists goes on; but anyhow, Parker had seen enough. The silver suited solider began to get up and walk off from this horrifying television show.

He decided the best thing to do was stay warm on this ice-ball of a planet. He checked his RIG monitor to see how cold it was today. -40 degrees, heavy snow. Typical. Besides what would he suspect? Just before he could get a drink, the alarm in his cabin sounded off, and he rushed quickly back to the conference room, which ironically, WAS the TV room with the show on it. When he got their his commanding officer had him line up with the rest of the ten-man crew side by side.

"Alright, listen up!" yelled General Mahav. "We have detected a huge movement of the unknown enemy line and we have our first look at what the enemy looks like."

He showed a picture of what appeared to be a pink pony with grizzly pink hair and appeared to bounce whenever it moved.

"Now we, like all of you, have no idea of what in davy-jones locker this is, however, I will not allow this to circle our base anymore." he took a moment to pause. "We need a four-man scouting group to search-and-destroy whatever this thing is....Any takers?" He waited for a moment, and then hand-picked four men to send out.

"Kaufman! Ackerman! Roethlisberger! Parker! I need you four to find and destroy this pink monstrosity!" Ordered Mahav.

All four of the soldiers geared up, and prepared to open the hatch door to the icy graveyard they were about to uncover...

Tau Volantis, thirty minutes into searching.

The four soldiers were already about to head back just after they all heard a very loud roar in the distance.

"Wh-What was that?!" Asked Kaufman.

"I think it came that way!" Answered Roethlisberger.

"Your both wrong." said Parker, who was pointing back to where they came from. "Whatever it is, it must be following us."

The four men didn't get much farther, as the very beast that made the sound jumped out in front of them. It glared it's eyes at each one of them. The monster, which the men called "pinkie", looked exactly like in the picture. The mane was pink, it's skin was pink, and it smelled like pastry. The monster wasted no time in going after Parker and his men.

"Open fire!" yelled Parker.

They unloaded everything they had into the un-wealthy monstrosity. But it just kept bouncing toward them. It finally got to Ackerman, and it lifted him up with it's tail, and tossed him up in the air. He fell head first after landing, instantly snapping his neck, and then shortly, death.

"Ackerman!" yelled Kaufman. Ackerman was Kaufman's friend since childhood, but they had to keep moving.

"Guys, we have to run;...NOW!" said Parker.

The three remaining troops bolted for the nearest abandoned cabin, and when they finally did get there, they shut the door, and could finally catch their breath.

"puff...puff..What in the name of EarthGov...was that?" Said an exhausted Kaufman.

"THAT....Was what General Mahav wanted us to kill." answered Parker.

"Then why did we retreat then, hmm?" said Roethlisberger.

"Because. It was going to pick us off if we stayed there." answered Parker.

"Then how do we kill it?!" Snapped an impatient Kaufman.

"Easy, we set a trap." spoke Parker.

The veteran rifleman pointed out a very heavy crate on a cliff very near a bulldozer, with the ground not too far down from the small cliff. Though it would take timing to get the creature in range of the deadly trap, it would make killing it so much easier. And the best part, it would save ammo.

                                                                             ~~~

"Alright! Kaufman, Roethlisberger! Is the trap set?" yelled out the slightly nervous Parker.

He heard a faint yes from the cliff, and assumed it was his fellow soldiers. Now the hard part was guiding the thing towards the cliff. But Robert had a plan. Then he had stupidly forgot to use his RIG line to call his teammates.

"Guys, do you see this thing in sight?" called Parker from his RIG.

"Yes, we see it just over the horizon." Responded Kaufman on his RIG.

And not a moment sooner, the pink, bouncing "pony" came on it's way, attracted by all the noise of the bulldozer, and the scent of their foot-tracks.

"HERE IT COMES! GET READY!" called Parker on his RIG once more.

The monster set it's sights on Parker, and began to charge. Or better yet, bounce it's way toward him.

"Steady...Steady......NOW!"

As soon as Robert spoke the words, Kaufman and Roethlisberger set the bulldozer in motion, and then came the heavy crate; right on top of the things head.

*CRASH*

Robert didn't even have to dive out of the way, his calculations were perfect, just like his childhood.

"Alright guys, you can come down now....Guys?" Robert called on his RIG line several more times but with no Answer.

The nervous rifleman had to climb up to the source of where they were, only to find them both dead, and headless.

"NO! Great, now what?" Parker asked himself uselessly. Just then though, he got a RIG call from General Mahav.

"Parker!..*BANG BANG* We're under attack! We need you and your men to report back to base NOW!" said General Mahav.

But before Robert could respond, the transmission ended, leaving Parker to have to report to base by himself.

The snow cabin, Tau Volantis

Parker finally arrived only to find his snow cabin in ruins, due to the roughness of his RIG call an hour ago. He wondered if General Mahav was still alive... Anyhow, Parker walked-in on the ruined cabin, with the TV thankfully busted by the supposed break in. It wasn't until he came into the mess hall that he found Mahav's body, and even better, he was still ALIVE.

"General Mahav! Thank goodness your still alive!" said an assured Parker.

But it wasn't all giggles and laughs, as Robert could tell, Mahav was near death.

"Parker...*cough cough* Thank goodness your still here..where is the rest of your crew?" asked a wounded Mahav.

"Sir..They're all dead. I'm the only one left." said a disappointed Robert. "But we did kill the pink snow beast though." Parker added.

"That's great soldier...but you need to get out of here..it's not safe..there IS a domed village not too far from here, but you'll need access to get in though..." and with that, general Mahav took out a security card, and handed it to Robert.

"Here, take this...it's what you'll need to get in...*cough cough*..but I'm not going to last soon...It's north-west of here..When you see a purple heat balloon flying over it...that's the spot..*cough cough*.." and not a second later after Mahav said this, he died in Robert hands.

"Sir..Whatever did this...I WILL END IT!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. However, right after saying this, he heard a low growl, and light...hoof-step? But to his horror, what came around the corner was terrifying.

It was a pure white Alicorn with white wings, a flowing, colorful mane, now blood stained because of the break-in, and it had a golden tiara. It also appeared to have a golden sun on it left butt cheek. It stared down Parker a few moments before finally charging. Robert wasted no time either firing his weapon at the forsaken thing. However, the alicorn was faster, and it latched it's front hooves on him, now with blades coming out of it's knee-caps, and started to stab Robert on his right shoulder.

He muffled in pain, but still managed to get the thing off him by blasting it's chest open, and pushing it away. It yelled in pain and stumbled backwards, but it didn't budge far, as it charged again, but this time, Robert was ready. He side-stepped it, and began firing at it's back and as it fell to the ground, almost dead, it rolled over, and slashed it's stomach open even more, and it released these little spider-like things at him. Robert easily mowed down almost each and every one of them; HOWEVER, one was missing. Robert counted twelve of the crawlers, but he only shot eleven of them...

He wondered where the last one went, but before he could wonder any more, the last one jumped on his back, and got under his helmet. Robert threw his helmet off to get it off him, but it was no use, the darn thing latched it tentacles around his throat, and began to squeeze. Robert couldn't scream....Nor could he fight it...But it was only a matter of seconds...it squeezed hard enough to pop his his head off with an audible click.

However, after his head came off, the new head adjusted itself onto it's new body, but something made it want to pick up Robert's head and cut it open..then replace it's own brain with his... (Don't ask why.)

                                                                                           ~~~

Robert awoke with what sounded like a gasp. He got up slowly, and felt for his helmet; only for it to be nowhere to be found. He felt his own head, but it felt different...Almost like he had been transformed by something. Then he instantly remembered fighting that ugly alicorn...And then that thing squeezing his head...

He rose up to his feet, which now felt like they were farther away. He looked in a broken mirror, and he was in shock to what he saw.

He looked like a walking stick with a torn vest!

But when he tried to talk, only a deep, bellowing moan came out, and when he tried to scream, a high-pitched...he didn't even know how to even DESCRIBE IT!

Luckily, he found the key General Mahav gave him and put it in a savored vest pocket.

He had a long way to go if he wanted to get to the hidden village in time...