Lovestruck wasn't quite sure what to feel at that moment. In fact, she wasn't even sure that she was feeling anything at all since every part of her body seemed to have gone numb. Maybe she was mad at herself for forgetting that this was Minuette's wedding and that she might bump into her. Maybe she was scared at what Minuette was going to do since she had crashed said wedding. Maybe, just maybe, it was because Minuette was actually talking to her and she couldn't run away. Well, she could, but that wouldn't solve anything.
"What are you doing here?" Minuette repeated, staring Lovestruck down with a brow raised in confusion.
"Buck," Lovestruck found herself saying again.
Minuette furrowed her brows. "Lovestruck, is that really you?"
Lovestruck felt her blood run even colder. "Buck."
"Why does she keep saying that?" Minuette questioned, looking to Bon Bon.
"I'm guessing she's pretty shocked out to see you," Bon Bon guessed.
"Buck."
Minuette blinked a bit, complete befuddlement washing over her features. "She's at my wedding."
Bon Bon waved a hoof in front of Lovestruck's face. "Hello? You still in there?"
"Buck."
Bon Bon sighed. "OK, she's in shock. Hang on." She took a glass of champagne from Lovestruck's tray, then sniffed it. "Was this champagne expensive?"
"No?" Minuette answered, unsure, "Octavia was the one who—
"Good enough for me," Bon Bon interjected. She tossed it onto Lovestruck's face, causing Minuette to cover her mouth in surprise. Lovestruck broke out of her shell-shocked state and sputtered. Bon Bon grinned. "There we are."
"I hate you," Lovestruck told her, wiping the excess champagne off her face, "I just got cleaned up."
"What are you doing here?" Minuette demanded, taking a step towards Lovestruck. Her features turned perturbed. "And why are you dressed like that?"
"Wait, hold on, you two know each other?" Bon Bon asked. She shook her head a bit. "I mean, obviously Lovestruck knows you, but I thought you guys weren't friends?"
Minuette winced a bit. "Well, we weren't friends, but I don't see why she'd be so upset to see me."
"We were acquaintances," Lovestruck corrected. She cut a sideways glance towards Minuette, who was inspecting her very carefully. Lovestruck sighed. "We... We went to the same school."
"You were classmates?" Bon Bon glanced between them before settling on Lovestruck. "Jeez, you made it seem like you two had this big, bad history with each other." She narrowed her eyes. "Why all the drama and secrecy?"
Lovestruck's face hardened. "None of your business, that's why."
Minuette's brows knit together once more. "Are you talking about the incident? Because we all know that wasn't your fault, Lovey."
Bon Bon gave Lovestruck a wary look. "Incident?"
"None of your business." Lovestruck turned her attention back to Minuette. "How did you even know it was me? We didn't really know each other during high school."
Minuette giggled a bit. "Well, you look different! Your mane is longer and it's not curly!" She leaned forward and touched a forelock of Lovestruck's mane. "Did you start straightening it?"
Bon Bon scoffed. "What, did you have a perm in high school?"
Lovestruck puffed her cheeks out. "No. I just had... poor hair management as a teen, is all."
"And now, since your bun is starting to look a little frizzy," Minuette commented, "have you tried using different products?"
Lovestruck shook her head. "I'd rather get back to what we were doing before you showed up." She spared Bon Bon a disapproving stare. "What was it you wanted me to do, Bonnie? Something about helping a certain piano player hook up with a... What does Parish play?"
"Harp," Minuette answered automatically, making Lovestruck wince a bit in annoyance. Her irritation only grew when Minuette let out a light gasp. "Wait, you're trying to hook up Frederick and Parish?"
Lovestruck put a hoof to her face in exasperation. 'Looks like the cat is out of the bag now...'
Minuette, however, did not react negatively. Instead, she put her hooves to her face excitedly. "Octavia has been trying to get them together for ages! You think this could be the night?"
Lovestruck faced Bon Bon incredulously. "You mean to tell me this isn't a first attempt?"
Bon Bon chuckled awkwardly. "I figured it would discourage you if I said anything about our previous escapades failing..."
'Oh, lord...' Lovestruck thought, her minuscule hopes diminishing as Bon Bon rightfully assumed.
"Like that time at the club," Minuette blushed, causing Lovestruck's plans to follow after her hopes towards destruction.
"Or that time at the wedding reception."
Lovestruck might as well have buried all her aspirations to save them the time.
Bon Bon let out a long whistle. "But one of us got laid that night. Amiright, Mini?"
Minuette's face turned scarlet, which brought Lovestruck to wondering exactly what the story was about the wedding reception. She tossed the thought away when it occurred to her that Bon Bon and Minuette were totally oblivious to the conclusion that often came from this situation.
"Did it ever occur to you that they aren't interested in each other?" Lovestruck questioned.
A sad question to come from herself, a student of love. Cadence had always told her to remain hopeful and optimistic about the possibilities of love coming to fruition. Lovestruck, however, was not keen on seeing the water in the glass and more on the lack thereof, which brought her back to her current predicament: the love she had been inspecting had a possibility of not even existing.
When the two mares didn't respond to her question, it brought that sad realization close to being a reality. "No? Really? Do you think the reason that they didn't get together despite your efforts is because they just aren't that into each other?"
Bon Bon cleared her throat. "Well, to be fair, Octavia's been trying to get them together way longer than us, and she's besties with Frederick, so..."
Lovestruck shook her head. "Sometimes your friends aren't right." She had enough to know. "And even if Frederick actually likes Parish, which I am honestly doubting now, do we even know if Parish likes him back?"
Minuette pouted. "I figured all those lessons with Cadence would open you up to the idea of love, not shut it down, Lovey."
Lovestruck narrowed her eyes. "Geez, shout louder, why don't you? It's not like I'm trying to blend in or anything.
Minuette returned the look, although it didn't seem nearly as nasty. "Well, you did sneak into my wedding without an invite."
"I didn't know it was your wedding!" Lovestruck protested.
"But you still snuck in."
Before Lovestruck could reply, she felt Bon Bon put a hoof on her shoulder very tentatively. "Uh, listen, I know you two are trying to buff this out, but..." She subtly nodded towards Beauty and Frederick, the former of the two getting up from her seat. "You might wanna figure out a course of action for our little mission we got going before Beauty gets back."
Lovestruck made the gracious decision to ignore Minuette and gave Bon Bon a disapproving look. "They're drunk. If they do anything together now, it's just gonna make things awkward." She cut a glance towards Minuette. "Regardless."
"But... But the plan!" Bon Bon protested. "You're supposed to work your magic on them or whatever!"
Minuette's eyes widened. "Wait, were you gonna use your actual magic or is she being metaphorical?" She held her hooves up. "I mean, it's not that I don't think you don't have control over your magic or anything like in high school, but—"
Lovestruck shot Minuette a sharp glance, which brought the bride to silence. She resumed her focus on Bon Bon. "Bon Bon. Think of your old best friend. Think of the pineapple. Do you want them to go through that?"
Bon Bon, who had been ready to tear into Lovestruck, closed her mouth while her eyes widened a bit. Then, she sighed in surrender as she closed her eyes. "No one deserves to go through that."
"Good girl," Lovestruck told Bon Bon, "now, if you excuse me, I'm gonna go start picking up dirty dishes because I think one of my coworkers is giving me the stink eye."
"Wait!" Minuette put her hoof on Lovestruck to keep her from leaving. "You aren't about to leave like this never happened!"
Lovestruck looked at Minuette's hoof, then brushed it off. "Don't you have a reception to get to?"
Minuette's eyes narrowed. "You can't just drop into my wedding unannounced and uninvited, then expect everything to be completely normal." her gaze softened. "Also, I feel bad for not inviting you now, even though we didn't know each other that well in high school..."
Lovestruck glared at her. "For the record, if I had known this was your wedding, I never would have—"
"Uh, Lovestruck?" Bon Bon interrupted, tapping her leg. She nodded her head back at Frederick's table.
"What?" Lovestruck blurted out spitefully, whipping around to face the cause of her misery and irritation. She froze very suddenly and her eyes widened upon the sight before her.
Frederick was making his way over to the bar where Parish was still sitting all by his lonesome.
"Oh, no, no, no," Lovestruck moaned, her legs feeling a bit weak beneath her. Multiple scenarios ran through her head all at once, and very few of them showed a good ending to them. Friendships ruined, love lost, unadulterated awkwardness to ensue throughout all of it that would bring nothing but pain and total misery within its wake.
She needed to act.
"What?" Minuette turned to look herself and she blinked in confusion. "What's going on?"
"Bon Bon, I need you to veer Frederick away from Parish right now," Lovestruck ordered, "any contact between them right now is going to be extremely awkward and detrimental."
Minuette tilted her head in confusion. "I thought you said you didn't think they were interested in—"
"Dammit, Mini, now is not the time for who is right and who is wrong!" She pointed at Frederick's wobbling form. "If there is even a small chance of Freddy and Parry liking each other, then a drunk confession is the last thing they need." She recalled every single bad rom-com she ever watched with the exact premise and shivered. "It will make things so awkward that they will never want to talk to each other again."
Minuette's eyes widened. "Octavia would be heartbroken if that happened..."
"That, and, well, we don't need another pineapple incident..." commented Bon Bon.
"Enough about the pineapple, help me stop a horrible, awkward incident!" She looked around the room frantically until her eyes fell onto Vinyl Scratch, who was leaving her booth for what she assumed was a break. "Do you know how to DJ?"
"I moonlighted back in college, but what does that have to do with—" Bon Bon paused in realization. "Oh... Y'know, I don't think Vinyl would be very happy if I—"
Lovestruck's horn flicked on and she glared at her very threateningly.
Bon Bon swallowed. "Well, here goes nothing!"
As Bon Bon darted away, Lovestruck turned to Minuette. "Can you encourage everyone to get on the floor and try to keep everyone busy while I handle Frederick?"
Minuette nodded. "I can try!"
"You're the bride, ponies will do anything for you as long as you ask! Get Octavia on board and the world is yours for the taking!"
Minuette arched a brow at Lovestruck's hyperbole, but she rushed to the dancefloor nonetheless. The music suddenly turned up and the bass thumped loudly enough to make Lovestruck's entire body pulse along with it. Her eyes found Bon Bon, who had slipped on Vinyl's spare headphones and was attempting to maneuver the complex equipment. She put on a determined face and turned the controls, causing the whole booth to light up with bright, neon colors. Meanwhile, Minuette dragged Octavia down onto the floor, causing the rest of the guests to join in. Frederick, however, did not take the bait as Lovestruck had hoped.
As Frederick woozily made his way to the bar where Parish was sitting, Lovestruck pondered a plan. She looked at the table beside her and an idea flicked on in her head. She picked up different plates as she went along, uncaring of whether they were empty or not. She hoped she wouldn't get chewed out for it, though she knew with her luck it was more than likely a possibility.
Then, as she came near Frederick, she tripped. Lovestruck knew that she'd get in trouble for breaking the plates and glasses, but she figured the sacrifice was worth the cause. She cursed silently to herself and brushed all the broken pieces together. She held back a sigh of relief when Frederick paused in his mission to acknowledge her.
"Need a little help?" he asked, sounding a bit unsure of himself.
She glanced up to see Frederick, who was focusing a little too hard on her. She shook her head. "No, I'm fine."
He laughed and let out a hiccup. "Here, let me help."
As he looked down in concentration, Lovestruck spared Parish a look. He hopped off his bar stool and whooped as he galloped over to the dance floor, where everyone else had gone. She smiled to herself and gathered all the plates together in her magic. Frederick didn't even notice that he had gone.
"Thanks, but I got it," she said to Frederick. "Enjoy your party."
Frederick grinned at her. "Oh, believe me, I—" He blinked when he saw Parish wasn't where he had been before. "Wait, where did he go?"
Already, Lovestruck disappeared from her previous spot and she tossed the broken plates into a nearby trashcan. 'Well, glad that was avoided.'
The loud music changed in tempo and suddenly, the dance floor was crowded into a new dance as a new song came on. Lovestruck saw Bon Bon being shooed away from the booth by Vinyl, who was glaring at her friend very disapprovingly. Bon Bon trudged over to Lovestruck with a frown on her face.
"Guess who's never allowed to touch Vinyl's DJ equipment ever again," she muttered, her tone very choleric.
Lovestruck smiled at her. "It's alright, it was for a good cause. Now we just have to keep them from talking to each other for the rest of the night."
"And how is that supposed to help the situation?" questioned Minuette, who had appeared behind them without being noticed.
Lovestruck's smile faded. "Frederick and Parish are drunk. Super drunk. And with drunkenness comes stupidness." She nodded her head towards Bon Bon. "Exhibit A."
Bon Bon, rather than argue, nodded solemnly in agreement.
"Point is, if they had done anything— a love confession, a hook-up, whatever —" Lovestruck rolled her eyes a bit "—it would have ended in disaster." She nodded to Frederick, who was sitting at the bar alone with his head against it. "He might be lonely now, but he'll be thankful we stopped this disaster in its tracks."
Minuette grinned. "You just love meddling in ponies' love lives, don't you?"
Lovestruck shrugged. "It's what I do." She nodded towards the dance floor. "Now, if I recall, you have a wife to dance with. I feel bad for taking up time out of your big night."
Minuette arched a brow. "Well, actually... I wanna talk to you about something before I go."
Lovestruck frowned a bit, but she held in her inhibitions. "Talk."
Minuette took a deep breath. "The incident back in Canterlot... That wasn't your fault."
Lovestruck blinked in surprise. Then, she laughed a bit. "Yeah, it was. I mean, it's pretty hard to say otherwise." Her laughter died. "And I thought I said I didn't want to talk about this?"
Minuette stared at Lovestruck with uncharacteristic earnestness. "I know you feel bad for what happened back in Canterlot... I mean, I feel bad and I'm not the one who got in trouble for it."
Lovestruck pursed her lips. "Why have this conversation now? We weren't close then, we aren't close now..." She shook her head. "You know, no one even knew I existed until that stupid incident? Now, that's all ponies seem to remember me for." She scoffed. "If they bother to, that is."
Minuette looked at her with such pity, it made Lovestruck wanna scream. "I just feel bad—"
"For not knowing me before I got booted out of school for something that wasn't supposed to be my fault?" Lovestruck blurted out, a tinge of anger in her tone. "I know I screwed up and I know that I burned some bridges when what happened, well, happened. But, this—" she gestured to herself and Minuette's dialogue "—won't change that."
"What happened to you wasn't right!" Minuette shouted suddenly. She blinked in surprise at her own volume and her cheeks tinged red. "You were wrongfully expelled for something that was beyond your control and although you caused some damage—"
"Expelled?" Bon Bon interjected, suddenly reminding the two of them that she was there. "You got expelled?"
Lovestruck bit the inside of her cheek. "I never wanted to have this conversation. I already put this all behind me when I started learning from Cadence." She looked off a bit. "And if I hadn't been expelled, I probably never would have had the chance to learn from Cadence, so it's not like I care anymore." She returned eye contact with Minuette. "Now, if you would excuse me from this unpleasant trot down memory lane, I'd like to finish working and then head back to one of those Paraspite-wrecked hotels for me to sleep in. I'll take any bed at this point."
Minuette tapped her chin in thought. "I think I could get you a room... I mean, I am the bride, so I guess it wouldn't too much of a hassle to ask someone to bunk with you."
Lovestruck grimaced. "I don't do well with sharing space. And I don't want your charity, either."
"Well, you'll have to make do," Minuette told her sternly. "Now, how am I supposed to contact you? How do you even receive mail when you're travelling? Mobile mailbox?"
Lovestruck furrowed her brows. "Since when did we start exchanging info?"
"Since I decided I wanted to know what you've been up to," Minuette responded. "It's no secret that you're learning from Princess Cadence, but I want the inside scoop! Who's the mare under the mentor?"
Lovestruck let out a single, humorless laugh. "That'll be a story. But, what makes you think I'll tell you anything?"
"You get a room, I get a story." Minuette grinned. "Seems pretty fair to me."
Lovestruck opened her mouth to argue, but she was silenced by Bon Bon's hoof. "Take the room. Please. Just don't cause anymore drama or hassle for me to put up with, and I'll be good."
Lovestruck smacked her hoof away, but let out a sigh in surrender. "Fine."
"Awesome," Bon Bon said. "Now, I'm gonna head back to the dance floor and hang with Lyra. Talk later, bye!"
When she left the two Unicorns to themselves, Lovestruck grinned. "Do you want me to try to make that happen, too?"
Minuette laughed. "You can try." Her smile faltered. "Seriously, how am I gonna contact you? You don't seem like you're going back to the Empire anytime soon and I don't think I can put down your address as the residence of Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor without raising a couple of flags."
Lovestruck sighed, opened up her shirt a bit, and pulled out her necklace. "This is how. Turns out Crystal Ponies had pretty advanced technology, all things considering" She grinned a bit. "It's like a mobile messaging system and it's great."
"Whoa..." Minuette breathed, looking at it. "Did Cadence give you this?"
"Yep." Lovestruck slipped it back on and re-buttoned her shirt. "Now, I gotta get back to work. And you have a wedding to get back to. Like you said, your wife is gonna be wondering where you've been." Lovestruck stopped stacking plates for a moment upon a random thought. "You know, when I saw you earlier tonight, I was really worried about what would happen if you recognized me. Now... I dunno. I'm not worried anymore." The corners of her mouth tugged upwards again. "I'm actually happy to see you, married and all."
"So am I," Minuette replied. Her own smile weakened a bit. "I just wish that we met up under better circumstances, I suppose."
"Hey, life's weird that way." Lovestruck nodded her head towards the bar. "Go on, now. Get sloppy drunk and whatnot."
"Wait." Minuette pulled her closer again. "How do I send you a letter through that... thing?"
"Magical signature," Lovestruck explained. "You know about those, right?"
"Yeah, Twilight had Spike use it to send letters to Princess Celestia." Minuette frowned a bit. "It's... been awhile since I've seen her, too."
Lovestruck arched a brow, but said nothing as she flicked her horn on and focused on Minuette. "Use your magic so I can get your signature."
Minuette nodded and she turned her horn on as well, a golden light emitting from it very softly.
Lovestruck's green aura slowly faded into the golden color of Minuette's, then changed back to its original color. She let out a long breath. "There. That should do it."
Minuette touched her own horn. "I've never had my magical signature copied before."
Lovestruck grinned even more. "I'll try not to abuse it. Now, who am I gonna be bunking with tonight?"
Minuette smiled. "Wellllll..."