A Star Pony Tale

by BlondeSky

Begrudging Acceptance

Chapter 33

Begrudging Acceptance

Astro and Spot were the only two in their group to have a cutie mark for a while. Through the end of the school year nopony else got theirs and it wasn't until the very end of summer that a third member of their group got one. It was in late August that Kara received hers after testing for her first black belt and receiving it. It wasn't quite as much of an event as Spot's due to the fact that it was significantly less of a surprise. It was still exciting though and the others were proud of her and happy for her. Her cutie mark was an image of the belt she had received. School started back up and she was more than happy to show off her newfound cutie mark to her classmates.

On the first day Kara normally arrived earlier than they were let in, but that was usually the only day of the year that she did. While she was enjoying getting to be a point of attention Astro let her and backed off slightly. She stood politely waiting for her to be done and simply looked across the crowd of ponies that stood out front of the school doors. It was then that she caught sight of something confusing in the group that was just over from theirs. For a moment she thought she saw a familiar looking orange pegasus in the crowd, but ignored it as if she'd imagined it. Still, she found her eyes glued to the spot where she had thought she'd seen him. As the crowd continued to move around she kept swearing that she'd caught glimpses of him. It started to annoy her and so she walked over to the point where she kept thinking he was.

She was shocked to find an orange pegasus colt sulking in the outskirts of the group. He looked just like the pony she'd run into months ago, but she could hardly believe that was possible. She felt like she would've at least recognized him slightly from school before or after their encounter on the street. He was in the grade below her it appeared which meant it was less likely that they'd come in contact during the school day. Still, she was puzzled by the fact that it was the first time she had noticed him. Standing next to him she thought about whether or not it was wise to try and talk to him.

Feeling nervous but also curious she tapped his shoulder so that he would turn around to look at her. As he spun his head around her to meet her gaze she felt rather less confident in her action. At first he just looked irritated, but it quickly changed to surprise as he recognized her. "What the hell are you doing here!?" he interrogated as his shock changed to anger.

"I-I go to school here." she answered simply as her anxiety grew slightly.

"Great." he muttered in annoyance, "What else? You live down the street to?"

"Well, I don't think so." she replied awkwardly.

"Whatever." he countered dismissively.

"I never got your name." she tried hoping to start a conversation.

"Yeah, I know." he said harshly.

"I'm Astro." she offered hoping he might return the gesture.

"Didn't ask." he snapped back.

"Well, I just thought… Look I'm just trying to be friendly." she said desperately hoping he'd accept the peace offering.

"And I'm not. Now whenever you want to end this conversation would be great." he retorted.

"R-right." she mumbled before walking dejectedly.

She returned back to where she had been waiting for Kara to find her already there. "Hey, where'd you wander off to?" she began before noticing her friends demeanor. "What happened?"

"It's nothing." she lied before looking over her shoulder at where she had come from. He was still eyeing her coldly from where he stood. Kara noticed this and looked from her friend to the unknown pegasus.

"Who's he?" she inquired.

"It doesn't matter." she answered dismissively.

"Actually I think it does." she argued taking more interest in the conversation.

"I just bumped into him once. He looked upset so I thought I might try and help. He didn't appreciate it." she explained.

"Define 'didn't appreciate it'." she said questioningly.

"He got mad and told me to leave," she explained clearly upset by it, "I just wanted to help." she added under her breath sadly. Her friend huffed angrily at her dejectedness.

"Forget him." she said in annoyance, "Why don't you go hang with the others?"

"Yeah, okay." she responded turning to walk over to them. She stopped as she noticed that her friend wasn't following her.

"I'll be over in a minute. I haven't gotten to show off to the lower grades yet." she added smirking proudly.

"Have fun." she told her laughing slightly.

"Will do." she promised.

She walked over to the group that was for the grade below them and found the colt in it. He saw her approaching and glared. She returned it as she walked up. "Hey." she greeted him with false cheer as she dropped the glare. He didn't respond and instead continued to eye her coldly. "You know any nice pony would say hi back." she continued mockingly while still smiling untruthfully.

"Hi! Happy now?" he replied in irritation.

"Actually no, I'm not." she snapped.

"And why is that?" he questioned still in an angry tone of voice.

"What's your name?" she asked him simply.

"Changing the subject much?" he argued.

"What is your name?" she repeated.

"None of your business." he answered coldly.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree. What is your name?" she repeated for a third time. He was silent for a moment and looked to be sizing her up.

"Zone." he told her after a few moments of quiet.

"Was that so hard?" she asked mockingly. He just glared in response. "Now that we've broken the ice-

"You never told me your name." he cut her off, "Isn't that what 'any nice pony' would do?"

She rolled her eyes before responding, "Kara. Anyways, as I was saying, I expect a full apology."

"Apology!? For what!?" he questioned incredulously.

"For whatever it was that you said to my friend that has her so upset." she explained glaring at him.

"Really?" he asked in annoyance.

"Yes, really. And I expect to hear about it, from her, by the end of the week." she finished before walking back over to her friends proudly.

-/|\-

When Astro arrived at school the next day she found herself looking over towards where she had seen him the previous day. She wasn't particularly interested in talking to him though for fear of a repeat of the previous day's events. When she found him among the crowd she quickly averted her gaze, but not before he met her eyes with his own. Morbid curiosity spurred her on as she quickly glanced back over at him. She almost did a double take as she found him gesturing for her to come over to him. Unsure of whether or not it was a good idea she walked over like he'd asked.

"Um, hello." he began awkwardly not looking up at her.

"Hi." she responded doing her best not to sound confused.

"Just wanted to, uh, apologize about yesterday. I'm not really good with other ponies." he told her doing his best to sound sincere about it, "I'm Zone by the way."

"Pleasure to meet you." she said happily as her shock faded away and she offered him a hoof to shake. It was a moment before he took it, but she was just glad that he did. "I believe you already know my name." You know, maybe he isn't so bad, she thought to herself. Is this conversation over, he thought as she dropped her hoof back to the ground. "Do you know anypony else here?" she inquired wanting to have a conversation.

"Not really." he answered thinking of the unicorn from the previous day.

"That's too bad." she said sympathetically.

"I don't mind." he reassured her not wanting any favors.

"Well, maybe until you make some friends of your own you can hang with my friends and I." she offered.

"Really?" he asked doing his best to not sound worried.

"Of course." she promised.

"I'm really just fine." he told her not wanting to get roped into it.

"Don't worry. They're all nice. I promise." she informed him just thinking that he might've been shy. I already know one of them isn't, he thought in annoyance as he blamed her for his current situation. He felt that if he denied he was going to receive another visit that he didn't want. At least this girl is nice, he thought. If I had to choose I'd rather talk to her.

"No offence meant to your friends, but I don't know." he tried hoping she wouldn't take offence.

"That's fine, maybe another time." she answered feeling a little downtrodden, but overall still glad that he was talking to her.

"Yeah, maybe." he agreed hoping that maybe meant never.

"Well, I'm going to go over and talk to my other friends. If you want to come feel free. If not though, see you later." she finished before walking over to Spot, Ink, and Diplo who were already congregated in a circle. Her use of the words 'other friends' as if he was her friend elicited a frown of confusion from him, but he said nothing and didn't follow as she left.

While she was talking with her friends and waiting for the bell ring she found herself looking over her shoulder towards him constantly. She couldn't help hoping that she might eventually see him walk up, but he was always simply standing still by himself. "What are you looking for?" Spot eventually asked noticing the repetition of the motion.

"What? Oh, uh, well I met somepony and offered for them to join us but I guess they aren't interested." she said simply.

"Who was it?" Ink inquired.

"A pony in the grade below us. You wouldn't know him. I'll point him out to you next time I see him." she answered.

"Okay." she replied satisfied. After the exchange she tried to look behind her less with success. She was still hoping to find him trying to join the circle but never did.

As the doors opened and they were let inside she walked in with the rest of the crowd of ponies. She was hoping that she might see him at lunch and so the waiting began. She no longer had recess to spend with her friends so lunch was for the most part the time that she got to spend with them excepting when their schedules clashed during class. For her however she had essentially none of her classes with her friends. So she sat through all of her classes until her lunch block finally arrived she walked happily into the cafeteria. She quickly scanned it to see if he was in the lunch room.

She found both him and two of her friends already in the lunch room. Kara and Diplo were sitting at one of the tables together and Zone was sitting at a different table by himself. She was trying to decide who to sit with as she walked between the tables and quickly made her decision. She walked over to where her two friends were sitting and said, "Hey, that's the colt I was telling you about. Since he's all by himself I was going to go and sit with him."

"Wait what?" Kara asked incredulously as she looked over, "You're gonna go sit with him?"

"Yeah, he apologized and he actually seems like he might be nice." she told her.

"I don't know." she replied skeptically.

"You don't have to come with me, but I don't want to leave him by himself." she finished before walking over to sit next to him.

"Hello!" she greeted him cheerily as she took the seat opposite him.

"Oh, hey." he replied only looking up from his food for a second.

"How are you?" she asked starting the conversation.

"I'm fine. You?" he replied, but it sounded forced to her.

"Pretty good actually. Why are you sitting by yourself?" she inquired in concern.

"I already told you, I'm not good with other ponies." he answered defensively.

"Well, maybe you should try to meet somepony. They aren't that scary." she joked.

"I'm talking to you aren't I?" he retorted.

"Yeah, I, I guess." she mumbled in reply.

"Uh, sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out that way." he apologized hastily.

"It's fine," she promised, "you didn't hurt my feelings."

"Okay, cool." he responded sounding relieved.

At that point Kara sat down next to her with Diplo not far behind. He sat down next to the pegasus. Immediately Kara and Zone's eyes were locked in cold glares. "Um, do you two know each other?" Astro asked nervously. Neither responded and simply snorted in annoyance. "Right. Well, um if you know her already-

"I do." he cut her off.

"Well, then that's Diplo," she said introducing the unicorn colt. The conversation was rather tense from that point forward as Kara and Zone glared daggers at each other the whole time. When her other friends arrived she made sure to introduce them and did her best to stop the standoff with unsuccessful results. It wasn't until Kara had left the lunch table that it seemed to calm down

"What happened with her?" Astro asked in confusion.

"I don't know. She just hates me." Zone answered simply.

"Well, she'll warm up to you." Diplo promised.

"Didn't look like it to me." he muttered in irritation.

"She will." Ink promised optimistically.

"She's probably just upset about yesterday." Astro added.

"Yeah, I know." he agreed knowing that she was right.

"Anyways, welcome to the group." she replied happily.

"Cool." he said. Still not sure if that's a good or a bad thing, he thought to himself.