"Comrade Stalin, comrade Molotov, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are waiting for you in the throne room," the guard said, opening a massive door in front of two men. The leader of the Soviet Union and the minister of foreign affairs looked at each other.
"Thank you," Molotov said to the guard, and made a gesture, offering Stalin to come first. Stalin nodded, and entered the throne room. Molotov followed behind. Right after the men entered the room, the door behind them closed with a loud booming sound. The Soviet leader looked around. He wasn't nervous, yet he was interested. Windows of the throne room were made of multicolored glass, and showed the pictures of many epic stories, that happened back in the past. At the far end of the room, stood two thrones, on which sat two leaders of Equestria -- Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. In front of them, stood a massive wooden table with feathers, ink and papers. So, two men walked towards the Equestrian leaders. Their walk was fast, yet soft. As they got close enough to the table, both Celestia and Luna stood up from their thrones.
"Comrade Stalin, comrade Molotov," Celestia started, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person."
"Same for you, Princess Celestia," Molotov replied and shook Celestia's hand. After that, he did the same with Luna. "Princess Luna, it's a pleasure to meet you, too."
"I must admit... I don't want to be rude, but I thought that you might look a bit different," Stalin said, while looking with undeniable interest at two Princesses. And he was right -- when a man hears a word "pony", he doesn't imagine a figure of a human with short fur, wings, horn and pointy ears.
"Indeed," Luna agreed, "You look quite interesting as a species, too. I hope that didn't bring much trouble for you here."
"No, of course not," Molotov said. "We did a little research, and I must say, despite having different social systems, and despite being different species, we are not so different, after all."
"Is that so?" Celestia asked, being interested. "What can you say about it?"
"Both our nations want peace and prosperity," Stalin said in a serious tone, "Our special mission, that currently makes a research of your country, has informed us that most of ponies just want to live happily -- have a family, a job that will feed their loved ones, and friends. Of course, my words make it sound pretty simple, however, I can tell that people of the Soviet Union want exactly the same things."
"However, we are the beggars now. And when we beg for peace from our faith, we obviously can't choose," Molotov added.
"I suppose, that's the reason that you've wanted to meet with us?" Luna asked and looked at Molotov with her deep blue eyes. He returned the look, while his glasses shined, reflecting the sun ray.
"Yes, this is the reason," Molotov replied, and looked at Stalin. He nodded and brushed his moustache with his hand.
"Well, I suppose that we shall begin talking business," Celestia said with a smile. As her horn started to glow, a couple of comfortable chairs appeared near the table with a flash. Molotov even backed off, being surprised. However, Stalin remained stoic, and sat into the chair first.
"Your magic has a wide range of applications," he said, "I must admit, it is impressive."
"That's true, comrade Stalin," Luna said with a smile. "We can say the same about your technologies. They are far beyond our understanding".
"Unfortunately, most of technologies start to advance during the times of war," Molotov said, while making himself comfortable in his chair, "And what makes us sad, that we have to discuss a lot of things during these hard times."
"We recieved a lot of letters, that mentioned the future war. We, Equestrians, didn't have a lot of wars in our history. Of course, we had to deal with different overpowered foes, however, we don't know much about doing war," Celestia said, and exhaled loudly. "Please, tell us about the current situation in your dimension. Your letters gave us a general idea, however, we want to be sure."
"Of course," Molotov glanced from behind his glasses, and took a map from one of the pockets of his jacket. As he put it properly on the table, he started to show it to the Princesses. "As you can see here, the Soviet Union of Socialist Republics is the largest country in the world. After the Great October Revolution, many countries have been trying to attack us -- Germany, Poland, Japan, the USA, England and many others. However, our people fought back. WE FOUGHT BACK. Nobody liked the idea of socialism, because that would lead to multiple uprisings, and many people thought that our country should be divided and destroyed. But our people proved them wrong. With the will of their flaming hearts, they rose up to build and protect their ideas and their loved ones. After the last intervention force has been destroyed, they started to rebuild and renew their motherland."
"However, the peace didn't last long. When the pain of the Imperialistic War has faded away, selfish and greedy rulers of the West thought, that they can test their metal again. They thought, that they can lead fascists to power, so they would attack us again. And the greatest fascist of them all -- Hitler -- has already conquered all of the Europe," Stalin added with a stern look on his face. "He has conquered France, Belgium, Norway, many countries at Balcans. His allies from fascist Italy are trying to take over Adriatic and a great part of Africa. Japanese militarists from the East took over a great part of China, India and Burma. And they know no mercy -- they divide people by races, destroy and enslave the ones that don't meet their "arian" standarts. They build concentration camps, destroy cities under bombing runs and burn villages."
"That is very sad to hear," Luna said, while glancing over the map, but then lifted her head and looked straight into Stalin's eyes. "However, I need to ask you -- when you saw, what these people are doing, what did you actually do to prevent these catastrophic events?"
"We did a lot more, than any other country. For example, when fascists were trying to take over Spain during their civil war, many of our citizens volunteered to fight at the side of legit Republican government. We were sending them weaponry, tanks, artillery, airplanes. But, the force of the fascists was too strong -- they took over Spain. During the war, they were bombing cities and villages, they were killing the innocent. After that, we made everything that was possible in order to prevent their further rise to power. However, other nations were blinded by the idea that nazis would attack us first. And when they realized, that the nazis can take over the whole Europe, it was too late. Nobody in the League of Nations has listened to us, and now they are regretting about it. And now, when fascists have the resources of many conquered countries, they are finally thinking about attacking us. We had to make a pact with them. It wouldn't bring us much spare time to re-arm and upgrade our armed forces, but we count every minute," Stalin spoke, constantly showing different countries on the map to the Princesses. When he finished, he looked at them to see their reactions. And what he saw, was shock.
"I... I literally don't know, what to say. I've never heard before, that someone can start a war just because other people look different," Celestia said quietly.
"You make it sound simple, it's a complex problem. However, you are right -- they are trying to conquer the world because they think that they are superior. They don't care even about the bourgeoisie, that gave them the money to rise up, which could be very funny, if it wouldn't be so sad," Molotov added.
"And now these bloodthirsty barbarians want to attack your country? And you are absolutely sure, that they will kill everyone on their way?" Luna asked. Her voice shook slightly, while she tried to keep herself in calm mood after hearing such horrible things.
"We know too well, how these people's minds work," Molotov replied. His voice was calm, but everyone could hear a bit of sadness in it. "Many people have tried to take over our country. Many people have failed. Our nation always fights back. But the question is, at what cost we will win in this future war. I am absolutely sure, that our people will win, but that wouldn't matter if there would be noone to celebrate the victory. We've been through the Imperialistic War, we've been through the Revolution and the Civil War. We want only peace, but when an intruder comes, Soviet man picks up a rifle and fights back."
Everyone remained silent for a couple of minutes. Celestia and Luna's minds raced, trying to process all things that they heard from these two men. Celestia looked carefully at Stalin. He remained stoic, not showing his emotions. Yet, she saw in his eyes a great power of will. It looked like many nations depended on this man, and all their hopes, will and faith were giving him this inner power. Meanwhile, Luna glanced over Molotov. On her side, she saw a soft, calm man. However, she also saw that this man would protect his country's interests and his people at all costs, even if it means doing war. His glasses were reflecting the rays of sunlight, making it hard to read his eyes.
"Now, we understand why you wanted to meet with us so desperately," Celestia broke the heavy silence. "And now you have my word -- we will help you in every possible way. Our country literally works at principles of friendship and kindness, and I couldn't forgive myself, if I would know that I can't help someone in need. Especially when many lives depend on our decisions."
"However, only will is not enough. Our dimensions are too different, and we need to make a plan, how we could help each other in current situation," Luna said.
"You are right about our common interests in this matter -- the portal, that leads to your dimension, is located near our capital -- Moscow. Long-range bombers are able to reach it, and of course, we can't throw away the worst possible variant, if the advance of the fascists would be too strong -- there is a possibility, that they will come to your world, and conquer it, like they did with Europe," Molotov agreed.
"We understand your concerns, comrade Molotov. However, your world has no thing that we call "magic", and our world has no technologies, that could be as advanced as yours. So, we have to come up with the cooperation system, and prepare ourselves for the future war," Luna replied.
"I think that we should start with technologies. We can bring our engineers, workers, equipment and documentation to Equestria, in order to build new factories that would produce all sorts of things -- starting with military production like tanks, airplanes and weaponry, and ending with civillian technologies, like agricultural machinery or vehicle production. That would not only boost Equestria's technology level, but also would help to re-arm your own army, in case if fascists would find out about your world," Molotov started. Stalin nodded in agreement.
"More than that, Equestria can be a great "safehouse" for our people, so to speak. Many souls and their personal belongings should be evacuated, because they will not survive under the rule of nazis. And you don't even have to feed them or provide them clothing or personal belongings -- they can bring all the equipment with themselves. They only need some place to stay, and nothing more," the Soviet leader added.
"I think that's a good idea, especially when you say that this will affect our economy in a good way," Celestia agreed. "This makes me think about another proposal."
"What do you mean, sister?" Luna asked, being confused.
"We can let these people build their military training centers here, far from the frontline. This would not only provide them safe training conditions, but also this can be used to train and re-arm our own forces. And also, I am thinking about enchantments," Celestia replied with a smile. "Magic is a very powerful matter, and it can be used to enhance the abilities of the military technologies."
"Your thinking is wise, Princess," Stalin said, while brushing his moustache. "However, we still need to research the possibility of applying your magic to our machinery."
"Of course. But, we can start with easier task -- building factories and military facilities at our territory. We have a lot of land, that we can't use ourselves, and we have an army, that we need to train and re-arm. We also need to supply your own army with machinery, weaponry and ammunition. That would make a great starting point," Luna pointed out.
"You have a good point there. We can make a joint research of what factories and facilities we need to rebuild and evacuate, what equipment, documentation and workforce we need to bring here, where to place future military bases and factories. That also includes building powerplants, communications, railroads and highways," Molotov stated, and looked at Stalin. "Comrade Stalin, what do you think about it?"
"You are right, comrade Molotov. But don't forget that we have only a little time to prepare ourselves," Stalin replied. "I think that we should let the task of choosing where we should build our facilities to the Equestrians. First of all, we are the guests here, at their homeland. And also, they know their land better, than anyone else. Am I right, Princess Luna?"
"Yes, you are right. We appreciate your modesty, though we could help if you've asked," Luna agreed with a small smile. "However, given the circumstances, we don't have much time. We can give you the map with possible locations for your facilities, when we recieve a list of what do you need to move here, what workforce will you bring here, and what each facility would do. Can you prepare this list tomorrow?"
"Of course. We have a pretty good idea of what do we need to move here. Because the war is coming, we had to come up with a few plans for a possible evacuation of civilian population, workforce and equipment. All that we need is to correct these plans, so they would meet new requirements," Molotov said with a nod.
"Good. I think that soon we will have a good and productive relationship between our countries," Celestia said and stood up from her throne. Luna followed her move. "Comrade Stalin, comrade Molotov, do you have anything to add to that matter?"
"No, Princess Celestia, I think that we're done for today. We will start our work on the list as soon as we can," Stalin rose up from his chair, with Molotov following his moves. "We thank you for your kindness and your interest of helping us during these hard times. I can tell a lot about the country when I look at its leaders. And I tell you -- you may not be socialist, but you are definitely different than other leaders of bourgeoisie societies that I've met. You have noble and kind souls, and that interests me. You have my word, Princesses -- when we will get over the future war, I will make sure that we will make both your and our worlds a better places. We will return tomorrow. It was a pleasure to meet you, Princesses."
As everyone exchanged the handshakes, Stalin and Molotov walked out from the throne room, and the guard, that stood on the other side of the door, bowed.
"So, comrade Stalin... What do you think?" Molotov asked, as he and Stalin walked through the halls of the castle.
"Those two Princesses form quite an interesting pair," the Soviet leader said, brushing his moustache. "They are just different. I've never seen anyone, who would be so disturbed by the word "war". I can see, that they have the spirit and the resources to keep everyone in their country... Happy. However, what's more important, they actually use these resources to make their subjects happy. They do a fascinating job. I think that the result of your recent research can confirm this statement. Can it?"
"Of course. I was stunned by the prosperity their land posesses," Molotov agreed.
"I'm glad to hear that," Stalin said and stopped, leaving Molotov slightly confused. The Soviet leader exhaled loudly, and the foreign affairs minister could swear, that he saw a slight bit of sadness on Joseph's face. "I wish our country couldn't be bothered by wars and interversions every twenty years. Tell me, comrade Molotov... And what do YOU think about these Princesses?"
"Well... As you stated, they are quite interesting. Unlike the Englishmen, they don't want to force us into combat with fascists. And they are not like the Americans, who seek for any potential profit for them. I don't blame anyone -- that's their lifestyle. However, if our world could have more rulers like these two... Maybe we wouldn't need to fight with anyone at the first place. So I'm glad that they are our allies now," Molotov replied. Stalin slightly smirked, and after that, returned his stoic expression.
"Very good, comrade minister. I'm glad that I have you by my side at these hard times. Now, we have a lot of work to do," Joseph said, and the pair of Soviets returned to their walking across the wide halls. As they exited the castle, they sat into their ZIS armored limo, that stood nearby, and set off to their temporary headquarters. They had a lot of things to do. They had no time to lose.
The war was coming.
