A Rose by Any Other Name

by vortex123

Coronation

Ivan had left me with a pony Faunus named Starswirl, he has pony ears and human ears, though his hair concealed his human ears if you're not looking close enough. He was as pale as Ivan himself, but unlike Ivan, Starswirl was more scrawny looking. He was wearing a blue wizard hat and cape, both of which have various stars, crescent moons and bells. What caught my eyes were the bazar different and somewhat clashing colors (Red, dark orange, bright orange, yellow, green, dark blue, blue, pale blue, cyan, black, purple and white). I also noticed he had crystals and vials with the same colors. All that looked especially strange considering he was wearing a simple grey shirt and pants. Also with plain old dark grey shoes.

"I get loving many different colors, but isn't that over kill?" I decided to ask him, since we have a little time before the event starts. He rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes, I'm aware of how ridiculous I look. But I assure you, it's well worth it. I'd rather be prepared for anything, then be caught off guard just because I wanted to look fashionable." He says with a smile.

"Prepared?" I asked in confusion. 'How's tacky clothes, along with colorful crystals and vials, gonna help anyone?' I think in confusion.

"Come now." He says with a mock huff. "I may be old, but I can still use Dust. And if that's not enough, I can always use my semblance. Gods, you kids are so quick to count those my age out." He says with a chuckle. Before I'm able to decide which part of that I wanted to ask about first, the princesses (as they were apparently called) made their presence known. But instead of Faunuses, two miniature horses came out. One was white (not simply pale, but full on white) with pink hair. The other was dark blue with semi light blue hair. They both had wings and a horn, and they both had shoes, a necklace and a crown. With the white one's being yellow, and the blue ones being black. There's more, but I'm too far away to fully make them out.

"What the-?" I started to ask before I was cut off.

"Shhh!" Starswirl sharply shushed me, before looking back at the miniature horses.

"Now announcing Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!" I heard someone (who's apparently got a great set of lungs, since I could actually hear him from so far away) yell, causing the crowd to quiet down. Then the white one steps forward.

"Faunus of Equestra, we humbly ask for your attention!" She yelled, causing me to flinch at the sudden volume.

'Dear God that's loud…' I think in shock.

"Many of you know me, but for those that don't, I am princess Celestia." The white one, who's apparently named Celestia, said.

"And I am princess Luna." Luna (apparently) says.

"I cannot begin to express our honor of having the privilege of being chosen as your leaders. We know it's been trial after trial for you all, what with the Grimm becoming more of a problem as time goes on." Celestia continued.

'Grimm? There are Grimm here!? Then why were they all alone in that room? And where are their weapons? Shouldn't they be armed in case of an attack?' I think in shock. After a few moments, I realized I had a hand on the gun. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I look at it's owner, only to find Starswirl. For some reason, he has a knowing look.

"Do not be alarmed young one, I assure you, the Grimm won't make it within 10 feet of here." He says with a comforting smile, which turns into a grin. "And even if they do, I'm sure a fighter like you will have no trouble with the likes of them." For some reason, I grin as well.

"But-" Luna started, causing me to flinch again as I feel two things press against my head. "-you needn't worry. We shall do everything in our power to eliminate that threat once and for all! We will not stop until every Grimm has been wiped off the face of this planet."

"Of course, we cannot do this alone. For that dream to become reality, we must band together with other powers. So from today onwards, we will be forming an alliance with as many creatures as we can, starting with the humans." Celestia said. The audience was not as thrilled as those two were.

"You can't be serious!" Someone from the crowd yelled.

"The humans are one of, if not, THE most negative race out there." Someone else yelled.

"How is working with them gonna decrease the Grimm problem? Wouldn't they just make things worse!?" A third one asked.

"Calm yourselves. We do not want to attract the Grimm, now do we?" Celestia asked, causing everyone to quiet down. "Thank you. Now I could go on and on about how it would be beneficial to have them as allies, but I believe it would be much better to hear it from the mouth of a human. It is with the upmost pleasure, that we introduce Ivan, the ambassador of the human race." She finished. With that, the princesses stepped back, and Ivan stepped forward. He then took out a microphone, and did a mic check.

"Greetings Faunus of Equestra! I, am Ivan. Now I know the humans and ponies have not seen eye to eye since the fall of Zorgarth." Ivan started to say (in a much better volume). The Faunus in the crowd began to murmur, but allowed him to continue unhindered. "And while I will not make excuses for what course of acts the human king at the time decided to do concerning Zorgarth. After all, what he did was stupid.reckless.arrogant.idiotic.childish. And overall, an embarrassment that will forever stain the history of human kind." During that section of his speech, everyone in the crowd got slack jawed.

"Humans are known (by most anyway) to put their own race ahead of others. To hear a human speak so poorly of their own royalty, so openly, it's not something most nonhumans would ever conceive." Starswirl elaborated, probably noticing the confusion on my face. "I guess it makes sense for a wolf Faunus to not know about that, given your history with the humans."

'History?' I think in confusion. As much as I wanna ask, I'm pretty sure I'd look stupid for asking a pony about my (apparent) race's history. "Thanks for clearing that up." I say.

"It's no trouble at all." He says with a smile. We turned our attention back to Ivan, though I noticed the crowd giving him their full attention now.

"I will however, ask that we not let the actions of an old fool, control the course of our future. And while both sides may hate the other, surely both sides can agree that that very same hate would be better directed towards the Grimm. As you have said, humans produce a lot of negativity. But with that, we have had to deal with the Grimm much more frequently, and have had to advance much quicker because of that fact. I seem to recall ponies being just as negative as my race, to the point where the Wendigos appeared, and that's something not even my race have accomplished. And yet, through the friendship of three ponies, the Wendigos were banished from this land. So if something like that is possible, why wouldn't it be possible for our races to become allies? With my race’s technology, and you race's knack for Dust manufacturing, we could drive the Grimm back to the depths of Tartarus where they came from. I already have someone who I plan to enlist to help us in this endeavor. Of course I still have to talk to them about it, but if my eyes aren't fooling me, I have no doubt that they would be willing to help." He said before allowing us to digest what he said.

'...I have silver eyes. He's talking about me...' I think in shock.

"Honestly…" Starswirl groans in disapproval. "Did he really have to say that before clearing it with you? I know you're a warrior of light, but still."

"Took the words right out of my mouth…" I muttered in agitation, earning a chuckle from him.

"Let us cast aside the folly of the past, and become a beacon of hope for future generations to come!" He finishes with passion. While the crowd wasn't exactly going nuts, they did seem more open about the alliance, if only a bit sour about it. He stepped back, and the princesses stepped forward.

"That was a wonderful speech, Ivan." Princess Celestia stated in that booming voice again.

'Why couldn't he have been the end of the coronation?' I think, flinching at the volume.

"We will be having an announcement at the humans home land, and will be making a similar speech there. For now, enjoy the celebration, make it a moment you'll never forget!" Princess Luna said with a smile.

'Celebration? But I don't see any…' My thoughts trail off as I noticed the guards starting to usher the crowd through double doors (which I didn't notice until now), which lead to a much more festive looking room. 'Not gonna lie, it's kinda weird that they didn't host this in the room that the actual celebration would happen.

"Ah yes, I'm sure I know what you're thinking." Starswirl said, gaining my attention. "Ponies tend to become overwhelmingly emotional at the most smallest of things. So it's best to tell them something they aren't gonna be happy with, in an area where they can't grab anything to hurl at the one giving the news. This way is just easier on the staff, and those giving the news. And with how enclosed this area is, deploying sleeping gas would be much more effective then in an open area." He explained.

"Makes sense." I say with a shrug. When everyone else in the crowd left the room, the princesses and Ivan approached us.

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