AJ and the others stared in awe at the empire as they moved through the streets at a slower pace before they heard Shining chuckle.

"You act like you've never been here before Applejack." He said as she groaned.

"How many times do I have to tell you, my name is AJ." She said as he sighed.

"Sorry just seeing you back after all this time, I know that your family and friends will be more than happy to see you." He stated while she looked at him confused.

"Sorry but I don't have any family that I know of. As for friends these are the only real friends that I have. Now you said that your wife was the ruler of this land, we need to talk to her and see if we can find a way back home. We need to get back to our units and let them know what happened." She said as he looked at her strangely.

"But this is your home Applejack, it has been up until 6 years ago when you vanished because of Discord." He stated as she grit her teeth.

"NO!" She cried as her friends took aim at them.

"What is it AJ?' Michael asked hearing her growl.

"This guy is saying that this is my home, but it's not. I was born in Russia and am a proud member of her armed forces, so don't tell me that this is where I belong." She growled as he patted her back while he kneeled down.

"Don't worry about it AJ you know where you belong and it's back home with all of us." He said getting a smile from her.

"Thanks Michael." She stated and looked back at Shining.

"Lets just go find this Discord guy and have him send us back." She stated getting a nod from the men.

"I'm sorry but Discord was imprisoned when he sent you away. I doubt that Princess Celestia will let him do it again." He said as she grit her teeth.

"Then let me talk to her, I have a duty to fulfill to my country and I want to go home. This place is too weird for me." She said looking around at the ponies that were staring at them.

"Alright but I'm telling you it's not going to happen." He said as he led the way to the large castle that rose up into the sky.

"We'll see when I meet her." AJ stated and waved the boys on as they took up defencive positions around her making her smile.

"Guys, you know I can take care of myself right?" She giggled while Mihail grunted.

"Doesn't mean that these little horses won't try anything, they seem to know you AJ or at least someone that looked like you." He said getting a nod from her while they all scanned for any threats.

Once they made it into the castle they were led to a large throne room where a pink mare sat listening to her subjects talk before she spotted them and froze.

"Hey Cadence, look who I found out in the ice and snow!" He yelled across the room pointing at AJ with his hoof.

"He didn't find anyone, we found each other." She corrected before she felt something slam into her. Thinking fast she flipped while she was still in the air grabbing the knife that was on her side and slammed the pink blob into the ground and was about to deliver the killing blow when she felt her hoof grabbed.

"Calm down AJ." Nikolai said gently taking the knife away as AJ looked back to see the frightened face of the pink pony from the throne.

"Cadence!" She heard the sound of hooves rushing towards them only to hear a thud as one of her boys took him down.

"GET OFF ME YOU STUPID THING!" He yelled.

"Shut up and stay down." She heard Mihail growl as the click of the safeties went off.

"Stand down boys." She ordered as they lowered their weapons a little but kept their fingers on the triggers.

"Applejack what are those things with you?" Cadence asked as she was helped to her hooves.

"They are my teammates and friends. They're the only family I've had since I woke up." She said while the mare looked at her confused.

"But what about Applebloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith?" She asked while AJ tilted her head.

"Who?" She asked while the mare looked at her shocked.

"Your brother, sister and your grandmother! How could you forget them?!" She cried making her step back.

"Look I don't know who you guys think I am but I'm not this Applejack. My name is AJ that's it. Now Shining Armor said something about a Princess Celestia that could help us get home, we have to let our commanders know that we are still alive and what happened at the research center." She said as Cadence gave a slow nod.

"Of course, I'll need to send her a letter so it may take some time till they get here. Why don't you and your, friends take a look around the empire till then." She said as she nodded.

"We also have some dead out in the fields that need to be taken home for burial." She said as the mare gasped.

"Oh I'm so sorry. I'll let her know that it's urgent." She said as a paper and quill appeared before her shocking the others.

"How did you do that?" AJ asked staring at the floating quill and paper.

"It's magic." She simply answered while AJ gave her a none too amused look.

"So seriously how are you doing that?" She asked getting nods from from her boys.

"I am serious!" She pouted as Artyom tapped AJ's should.

"Telekinesis comrade." He stated getting a nod from AJ.

"Ok, well you do your 'magic' thing we'll take a look around." AJ said rolling her eyes as Cadence huffed.

"It is magic." She grumbled as they passed by her chuckling as they left the room.

Outside the group made their way through the streets feeling all the ponies eyes on them making them sigh.

"I don't think I will ever get used to being stared at like that." Mihail said nodding over to the group of ponies staring at them.

"Yeah well you're not getting stared like a piece of meat." AJ stated nodding her head to a group of stallion that were smirking at her.

"They have to get through us if they want you captain." Artyom growled as the others nodded.

"Thanks guys I really- "

[This is Sokov, is anyone reading this! We are in heavy combat and request immediate support!] AJ's eyes widened as she grabbed the radio on her hip.

"Sokov this is Zvezda. Hold your positions comrades we are on our way. What's the situation over?"

[Zvezda, this is Sokov. We are engaged my mutant horses! I repeat mutant horses. Marking our location on your MCT.] She heard.

"Lets go, our comrades need us!" AJ ordered as the five took off through the street heading into the icy blizzard outside.

[This is Odessa, to Sokov. We are on our way to you comrades, hold your positions!]

[Roger that Sokov will hold.] AJ heard getting a smile on her face.

[This is Red Dawn to all red army elements, I have you all on our scopes. Zvezda, we will be linking up about a half click from you before we reach Sokov's postion. How copy over?]

"Red Dawn this is Zevzda, we copy. Is that you Romanov?" AJ smiled as she galloped ahead of her friends.

[Roger comrade captain. We have tanks and light armor with us, what are your orders?] The sergeant asked.

"Send a troop transport to our location and then head to Sokov's position." She ordered looking back to her friends who were lagging behind.

[Roger that Zevzda, sending a CV-99 your way.]

"Roger we'll hold position here and wait for our ride, Zevzda out." She stated as she stopped and waited for her friends to catch up.

Just as her friends made it to her they saw their ride come over a snow dune.

"Lets go boys, our comrades need us!" She yelled running to the small tank and opened the back doors watching as they climbed inside.

"There's no more room comrade captain!" Artyom said as AJ nodded and closed the doors before climbing onto the back just as the TC (Tank commander) opened his hatch and stood out.

AJ crawled trotted up to him tapping him on the helmet making him turn and gawk at her.

"No time to explain, we have a fight to win sergeant!" She yelled at him watching him nod.

"Forward comrades! Lets get there before the fight is over!" He yelled.

[This is Alfa group we are coming around their left flank Sokov hold your fire in that direction.]

[Roger that Alfa group, you are clear to make your attack when ready.]

[This is Odessa, we're coming to your rear now comrades hold your fire.]

"Red Dawn this is Zevzda, we are joining you at this time" AJ radioed as she saw a large convoy of tanks, BMP-8s, CV-99s, troop transports, and supply trucks ahead of them. She tapped the TC and waved him ahead of the convoy.

[Roger that we see you. Captain there is something on the top of your vehicle.]

"That's me, I'll explain later. For now we need to save our comrades." She said passing the lead tank.

'Sokov, this is Zevzda. We're coming on you right flank comrade, hold your fire." She said as they smashed through a small dune to where she could see tracer rounds and green beams being fired at each other.

[Roger that we see you, help us out here. We're almost out of ammo.]

"Gunner rotate 20 degrees left." The TC yelled down to his gunner as AJ hopped off the tank while her friends jumped out the back while the others pulled up and soldiers started to pile out and run to the nearby tanks for cover shouting orders.

AJ slid next to a group of soldiers followed by the others as the group looked at her.

"DON'T JUST SIT THERE FIRE YOUR DAMN WEAPON SOLDIER!!" She screamed snapping them out of their staring as they started to fire at the enemy.

AJ moved down the dune followed by ten soldiers as she turned to them signaling for them to keep low as she heard the tanks open fire.

[Zevzda, this is Alfa. We are in position.]

"Copy that move in and take the heat off our comrades." She ordered as the tanks ceased fire doing their job of keeping the enemies head down.

AJ came around a corner to see a pony hunched down before she fired a round into his face before moving on.

"On me comrades, this day is ours!" She yelled after them as they surged forward killing anything that wasn't human.

AJ watched as her soldiers caught them by surprise trapping them between her forces and Alfa group before they threw down their weapons and held their hooves up.

"WE GIVE UP PLEASE! WE SURRENDER!" She heard a mare yell as AJ smirked trotting up behind her soldiers.

"Good work men." She called to them as they looked back at her.

"Regroup with the others and check on Sokov." She ordered as Alfa continued to stare at her.

"THAT'S A ORDER!!" She screamed glaring at them as they scrambled to check on their comrades while Artyom, Mihail, Nikolai, and Micheal jogged up behind her.

"Mihail take command of the armored unit here, Nikolai you're in charge of Alfa group. Micheal you're in charge of Sokov, and Artyom take command of the soldiers with Red Dawn. Find out how they got here and see how our supplies are in food, ammo, and fuel." She ordered watching them take off to their assigned tasks as she walked up to the the prisoners who were staring at her.

"What are you doing here and why were you trying to kill my soldiers?" She asked as they looked at her with glares.

"Captain Snowflake, 1st pegasus division Equestrian guard." She stated as AJ smiled bending down to look at her in the face.

"Oh me and you are going to have a fun time." She laughed before punching her in the face and grabbed her by the mane before she could hit the ground.

"What are you doing here and why did you fire on my soldiers?" She asked only to get the same answer while she responded with a backhand to her face.

"I can keep this up all day. The quicker you answer me the quicker you and your friends well get medical treatment." She smiled watching the younger of the soldiers fidget watching their commander get beaten.

"Your soldiers lives hang in the balance captain. All I want to know is just those few things and I'll leave you alone so you can get treated. Do you have a family captain? Children, a wife or husband? How do you think they would feel if you die over some simple information and in vain hm?" She asked as the mares eyes teared up and looked away.

"I-I have a wife and child." She whimpered.

"I see and do you think the information I want will put your nation at risk?" She asked as the mare slowly shook her head.

"Then tell me what I want to know." She stated softly.

"We were sent by Princess Celestia to extend our borders when we ran into your friends over their." She said pointing to Sokov.

"When we saw them we felt threatened when one started to shout at us and we couldn't understand when one of our recruits fired a beam hitting him in the chest." She continued pointing to one of her soldiers that lay dead in the snow field.

"She panicked and that's when his friends started to shoot those orange things at us killing a few of our own before you showed up." She whimpered looking down as a soldier ran up to them while AJ let the mare fall to the snow.

"Report." She ordered.

"Captain AJ, we have four dead and five wounded from Sokov. They are out of ammo and are severely dehydrated." He said getting a nod from her.

"I see, get them what they need and back on their feet. We have a few dead ourselves that need to be picked up from ground zero." She sighed.

"Lets get everyone packed up and ready to roll. We'll take our comrades with us when we leave here. I have to talk to some this Princess Celestia about her ponies killing my troops." She growled looking down at the sobbing captain as a few of her soldiers came to comfort her.

"You are weak, you have no place on the battlefield. Only the strong will survive as you learned today, now get up. We are heading back to the Crystal Empire" She snarled marching the eight guards towards the trucks and had a few privates chain them to the insides of them.

She sighed and looked over to see her men taking their dead off the battlefield as she heard the crunch of boots behind her.

"Hello Captain AJ, I assume you will be taking command yes?" The bearded soldier asked as she nodded.

"Yes I will be taking command Romanov, until we get back home. Command needs to know what had happened. How did you get here anyway?" She asked as he sighed.

"We got your distress call and were on our way to the base when a light engulfed us. We've been lost in this damned storm with no radio contact for hours. I'm just glad we were able to make contact with everyone before they froze to death." He stated getting a nod from her.

" I'm happy to see you all made it out alive then. I think some Americans attacked the base, black ops most likely. They came in under the storm that had hit our sector, they were their to either take or destroy the orb. They succeeded in destroying it after we got the scientist out alive. So the project isn't dead we were even able to recover much of the research paperwork on disks and drives for when we return home." She smiled getting a grin from him.

"Good job comrade. Now lets head to this empire after we pick up our other comrades." He said as they headed for the vehicles where she was smiled and waved at from her soldiers, getting thanks for the quick response.

[This is Sokol 1 to all elements, I will be taking over until we get home. There is a friendly place not far from here that has food, drinks, and warm beds along with plenty of drink to warm you up. The locals will not understand you so don't bother unless I'm with you and can help you, report to me if any of the locals wish to talk and I'll translate. Sokol 1 out.] She said as she hopped onto the top of a T-109.

She sighed as they turned away from the battlefield and headed to ground zero to pick up the last of their dead before they headed for the empire.

'I can't wait to see what they have to drink when we get there.' She thought. Next Chapter: New Contact Estimated time remaining: 60 Minutes