Author's Notes:

I feel like I did a terrible job with this but this is what my heart is tell me to write. Sorry if you were disappointed but this is the direction the story is going. Church will still be Church though. Might be some minor errors and I will do the prologue soon.

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” - Albert Einstein

Location: Canterlot Defense Management Headquarters

“Hey Dad are you in there?” I heard Amor’s voice say.

“Yeah, just give me a second.” I got off my bed and walked over to the door and opened it.

Amor nuzzled my cheek before she said, “We need to talk.” I looked at her in concern.

“What happened?” I asked as I looked at myself in a mirror. I was human at six foot one with a medium muscular build and a few gray hairs in my scalp.

“Is the world from my past life really gone?”

I sighed and hung my head, “I'm sorry.”

She put a hoof to my chin and made me look into her eyes, “How many times did I tell you to stop beating yourself up over this?”

“Many.” I said as I stepped into the center of the room. Almost immediately, armor was fitted onto me. It was an improved variant of the Hunter armor. Generation 3. “And you are going to have to tell me many more times. Okay, so I've advanced Equestria by thousands of years, did Celestia tell you anything?”

“No, just that she is so proud of you. Other than that there isn't much.” She said, as she put a hoof on the door.

“Well I need to report in to her anyhow.”

She nodded, “Love you dad.”

“Love you too Amor.”

I grabbed an improved unsc magnum from my nightstand and attached it to my hip. ‘No need to attract attention by carrying heavy firepower. I can use the warp to retrieve more weapons if need be.’

I walked out the door and waved Amor goodbye.

The building I was in was the Equestrian Defense Management Headquarters of I was the Commander in Chief. Instead of being built fashionable it was built defensible and functional. It basically had the same building designs as the UNSC Infinity though obviously not nearly as big.

I suddenly found myself with a weight on me, “Hello Commander,” Princess Luna greeted me. “A good day is it not?”

“I don't know, I haven't been outside.” She giggled and released me from her hug. “The assembly is this way.” She said as she trotted off in the same direction I was heading. “How is Amor?” Luna asked.

“Whenever I don't work on projects she attaches herself to me and she has also been protective and a bit possessive of me lately. Do you know anything about that?” I asked with a sigh.

“Celestia didn't tell you? We alicorns… We tend to react explosively when those we care about get hurt… I think you know where I am going with this.”

“...Fuck.” I said in realization.

“That is not the answer I expected.” Luna commented.

“What did you expect?” I asked with narrowed eyes in my helmet. Not that she could see.

She blushed lightly but answered, “I thought you would be… flattered or similar.”

“I'm not flattered. I'm scared.” I said bluntly as we arrived at the entrance to the assembly. Since I practically owned the place I kicked open the door with a loud bang.

Luna sighed disapprovingly. “You are doing this on purpose. Aren't you?” I shrugged as I entered the room. Celestia, a high ranking Lopez Bot, Twilight Sparkle and Cadence were all seated.

Celestia raised an eyebrow at my actions, “Kicking doors again Church?” I shrugged again and sat in my assigned seat at the head of the table.

A few minutes later representatives from all over Equestria filed into the room. Mares and stallions alike sat in the chairs they were assigned to.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Thank you for coming. Today we are here to go over our progress of the modernization of Equestria. The Commander has been very helpful in that avenue, providing us blueprints, resources, and workers. Let’s give him a round of applause.” There was a stomping of hooves for a minute until Celestia cleared her throat.

“Though… this integration has not been without its problems,” I raised an eyebrow, “Now we all know about the reports in Saddle Arabia of raiders attacking civilians with Equestrian defense systems?” Almost every hoof in the room shot up.

A very, very, very detailed explanation later…

“Okay, it seems we’ve run out of time. Again, thank you all for attending.” Celestia said as she left her seat and walked out the door. I left mine and took off in a sprint before anyone could ask any questions. ‘I’ve had enough of this cabin fever.’ I stopped at the entrance to the headquarters and pushed it open revealing a metropolis bustling with modified versions of cars, aircraft, and other modes. Besides technology, Equestria still used magic heavily, hell they still had the Elements of Harmony as one of their ‘defenses’ of the country. While I don’t doubt its capabilities I am glad that there is finally internet… Well kind of… Not nearly the same. Life is stressful.

I walked past ponies and robots as well as drones surveying the city. Many things had changed in the structure of Canterlot. For example it no longer looked like a blown up castle. Cars drove down streets while pedestrians walked on a sidewalk, tall buildings such as hotels, restaurants, facilities, industries, markets, stations, fast food chains adjacent to the sidewalk. All in all it was all in a decade’s work.

‘Let’s see… I have lot’s of eyes on me…’ Ponies were staring at my armor as I walked past them on the sidewalk. I had no true destination as of yet. ‘I need to get to my pelican but it is in lockup. If I leave out of the blue they’ll get suspicious… Eh, what do I care.’ I took off into a sprint, pushing past ponies and bots and jumping over cars as I made my way to my new destination.

A few minutes of monotonous running…

I finally stopped in front of a familiar building with a logo that said Canterlot Scientific Enterprises. ‘I doubt they ever found anything even now.’

The facility was triangle shaped and only had windows at the top. It was about ten stories tall and looked like it could hold itself in a bomb run. I approached the double doors which had two pony guards in security uniforms. They looked at me suspiciously, “Credentials?”

“Commander in Chief and Defense Management.” Not a lie. They narrowed their eyes and refused to let me in, “We can do this the hard way then. Before they could react, I grabbed the pony on the left side, a pegasus stallion and headbutted him before tossing him aside. The pony on the left, a unicorn mare attempted to charge a spell but I clocked her in the muzzle, knocking her unconscious. She crumpled to the ground immediately.

With that out of the way I checked behind me to see if there were any witnesses. Since I was in an industrial area there wouldn’t have been much of a likelihood of there being pedestrians. I checked the unconscious guards and found a round disc which fit looked like it fit inside a slot. I put it in one of my pockets and opened the double doors.

I entered a corridor which I followed to an intersection with two converging paths. On the left side was a sign that said ‘Storage Closet’ and on the right side the sign side ‘Elevator’. There was no competition. I purposefully turned right and came into view with an ordinary looking elevator with a call button on the side. I pressed the button and waited a few seconds before I heard a ding.

As soon as the door opened I saw a unicorn mare in a scientist outfit with a shotgun and a Minotaur holding a tablet. I immediately snatched the shotgun from the unicorn and decked the unicorn in the horn with it, incapacitating her and aimed the shotgun at the minotaur. I cocked the shotgun as a warning. The minotaur ran out of the elevator carrying the unicorn. “They better not have broken anything.”