What happened next was a blur to Lovestruck. She couldn't recall what she or Bon Bon did, but only flashes of random images that made no sense to her. Green glows, muffled cursing, and flying magazines pages passed through her mind in a strange procession, only increasing her confusion.

Suddenly, the images disappeared and Lovestruck was left sitting in her seat, feeling as though she had narrowly escaped death. She blinked her eyes a couple times and tried to regain control of her breathing. She turned to Bon Bon, wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

"What the buck just happened?" Bon Bon whispered, her eyebrows crinkling dubiously.

Lovestruck heard yet another muffled curse, only this time it came from her right side. She turned to face the origin of the sound and came face to face with Lyra and Vinyl, whose muzzles was bound by glowing, green bands. Lovestruck let out a small gasp and suddenly the bands disappeared.

'Oh, crap, I didn't mean to do that!' she thought, her mind becoming a flurry.

Lyra rubbed the indent on her face peevishly. "What'd you do that for?"

"Scared of we'd say something too mean?" Vinyl snapped, leaning forward to glare at Lovestruck.

Lovestruck's eyes fell downcast. It took what was left of her self control not to bury her face in her hooves and sink down below the table, away from their judging looks.

"Hey, back off," Bon Bon voiced hotly, taking the focus of Lyra and Vinyl's scowls, "this was the exact reason she didn't want you to come along."

Before Lovestruck could respond, she was silenced by the intensity of Lyra's glower. Her gaze seemed to penetrate into Bon Bon, who remained unperturbed.

"And just why are you here with her?" Lyra interrogated, her brows raising skeptically.

Almost instantly, Bon Bon's foundation crumbled. Her hard set determination turned into unmitigated surprise, her eyes widening and her jaw setting awkwardly. Lovestruck wasn't sure how Lyra was able to do it so smoothly and carelessly, but Bon Bon had gone from hero to zero.

'Guess instruments aren't the only thing she plays,' Lovestruck thought.

When moments of silence passed, Bon Bon's eyes fell away from Lyra's. "I, uh, can explain that..."

"Really?" Lyra snorted and rolled her eyes before she resumed her glare. "Because it looks like you two are on a brunch date!"

Lovestruck's ears pinned against her head at the volume of her voice. She glanced over at Frederick and Parish, neither of whom seeming to notice the quarrel that was taking place. Looking back at Lyra, her statement suddenly sunk in.

"...Brunch date?" Lovestruck blurted out, unable to mask her confusion.

"We're not on a brunch date," Bon Bon responded finally, her nervous tone disappearing, "seriously, where'd you even get an idea?"

Lyra zoned in on Lovestruck and narrowed her eyes. "You ran off whenever I asked you why you were hanging out with Vinyl." She faced Bon Bon again. "And you said you had some business to attend to before breakfast."

"That business being of the fecal variety," Bon Bon told her, eliciting a series of groans from the rest of the table, "I just happened to run into Lovestruck while I was there."

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that? First, you ignore me during the wedding to talk to her—" Lyra cut her eyes towards Lovestruck, making her wince. "—and then you ditch me at breakfast this morning!" She scoffed. "I thought we were friends, Bon Bon."

"And you just ran off in the middle of breakfast," Vinyl repeated harshly, reminding Lovestruck of her presence. She arched a brow suspiciously. "What was that all about?"

Lovestruck scrambled through her mind to find a valid excuse. She had the runs? No, that wouldn't explain her running off with Bon Bon... They were secretly lovers? Oh, no, no, no, that was definitely out of the question... She just really hated socialization and risking confrontation? While true, it would only dig her further into the hole she shoveled herself into...

Should she just tell them who she really was?

The truth: she was a delinquent who got expelled from the most prestigious magic school in all of Equestria and ended up as a student to the new leader of a lost empire.

The lie...

"What was your major?" came Vinyl's voice from earlier that morning. "Probably something to do with relationships, amiright?"

A lie it was, then.

Lovestruck cleared her throat. "You know how I said my major is Interpersonal Relationship Skills?"

Vinyl's expression shifted to intrigue, though her anger still remained. "Yeah..."

'C'mon, keep it short and simple...'

"Well, you see, when I was at the wedding, I noticed Frederick and Beauty Brass talking to each other and I wondered if they were together and then I ran into Bon Bon and asked her about it and she told me they weren't, but that Frederick might be interested in Parish and then I ran into Minuette and she told me more about it and offered me a place to stay when she found out I didn't have one and then I was your roommate and then we had pancakes and then I had to go to the bathroom and then I ran into Frederick and found out he was going on a lunch date so I decided to follow him but then I ran into Bon Bon and she wanted to come with so we came here together and we found out that Frederick's lunch date is Parish and then you two showed up and now I'm just trying to make sure we don't get caught spying on them because I have no idea what's going on and I just feel morally obligated to see this through so can we please move past my horrible inadequacy to communicate well with others and just find out what's going on?"

'...what the buck is the matter with me?'

Bon Bon cleared her throat. "And that's what you missed on Glee."

"What makes you think I'm gonna believe a word of what you say?" Lyra huffed, glaring at both of them.

Meanwhile, Vinyl scanned the cafe over her violet shades. She stopped instantaneously. "Uh, Lyra..."

Lyra didn't appear to hear her. "I mean, it was one thing when you were ignoring me—"

"Lyra," Vinyl repeated.

"—but now lying to me? Bon Bon, I swear, sometimes I feel like I don't even know you."

Vinyl sighed heavily. She took a hold of Lyra's chin, promptly silencing her, and turned her head in the direction of where Frederick and Parish were sitting (somehow unaware of the scene that Lyra was making). Were it not for Vinyl's hoof, Lovestruck would have guessed that Lyra's jaw would have slammed into the ground.

"Now do you believe me?" Lovestruck questioned, unable to hide her satisfaction.

Lyra's head snapped towards Lovestruck at such a frightening speed that she thought that she'd been possessed. "Have they been together this entire time?"

Vinyl's brows crinkled together. "That doesn't make any sense... If they're together, then why would they keep it a secret from us?"

"I don't know," Lovestruck sighed, "That's why I said I wanted to find out what's going on because I have no idea what's going on."

"Well, why haven't you gotten closer to listen to them?" Lyra asked.

Lovestruck scowled at Bon Bon wordlessly.

Bon Bon groaned. "We can't just waltz over there and take a seat by them. They'll recognize us!"

"Maybe we won't have to..." Vinyl murmured to no one in particular.

"What?" Lovestruck blurted out, whipping around to face Vinyl incredulously.

Vinyl waved a hoof dismissively as she squinted over her glasses. "Shh, I'm reading their lips..."

"Again, what?"

Lyra's eyes widened in surprise. "When'd you learn to read lips?"

"College," Vinyl explained, not even breaking her gaze, "I work better with music, so I just started reading lips and took notes during lectures while I wore my headphones."

Bon Bon lifted a brow quizzically. "Is that how you know what everypony is saying even though your music is at full volume?"

She held a hoof up to silence everyone. "I can't concentrate with all of you talking, so please be quiet."

The mares complied and each turned their attention to Frederick and Parish. As each word left their lips, Vinyl managed to get every one out in almost perfect synchronization.

"I wish we didn't have to meet up like this..." said Parish, looking down dejectedly.

Frederick's expression turned to sympathetic and he took Parish's hoof in his affectionately. "I do, too... But, we both know that we can't go public with this yet..."

Parish pulled his hoof away. "You've been saying that for months, Freddy."

Lovestruck turned to Vinyl. "Months?"

Vinyl cut her eyes at her, but nodded nonetheless. She continued on with her reading. "'Parish, this isn't easy for me, either...'"

Lovestruck looked back in time to see Parish turn away from Frederick. "I hate this... I hate hiding away..."

"Parish." Frederick's expression hardened. "You know how much I love you, but I just can't..." His expression softened, sadness coating his eyes. "I just can't do it yet. My family, they wouldn't... They wouldn't understand."

Parish faced Frederick once more. "Why does it matter what they think? If they can't accept us, then why bother putting up with them?"

"My family has connections," Frederick pressed on, "if I came out with something like... this, they would see to it that no one hire us. How could we have a life together if we can't even provide for it?"

"It's just not fair!" exclaimed Parish. This time, Lovestruck actually heard his voice and not Vinyl's reading. The cafe went still and seemed to collectively glance at the two stallions before tensely returning to their meals. Parish seemed to take note of this and ducked his head down in shame. Frederick looked at him empathetically and walked over to Parish's side, pulling him into a loving embrace.

Lovestruck briefly thought back to the night before. Parish was a drunken idiot downing shots like it was the end off the world, whooping and hollering like a college frat colt. Now, he appeared as though the weight of the world hung upon his shoulders. Frederick fared no better, judging from his own expression. Suddenly, their drinking habits began to make a lot of sense...

'Secrets can do that to a pony,' whispered her mind.

"Dang it," Vinyl hissed, breaking Lovestruck out of her thoughts, "I can't see their lips now."

"Maybe we should leave," Lyra said suddenly.

Lovestruck whipped around to face her. "What?"

Lyra grimaced. "This is obviously something private between the two of them and we have absolutely no business to listen in on their conversation."

"Didn't seem too opposed to following us," Lovestruck muttered.

"Ahem," Vinyl interjected, "in all fairness, you left without telling us. At least Frederick didn't ditch us without a good excuse."

Bon Bon groaned. "Alright, before we launch off into another heated debate about this morning, can we just figure out a plan of action?"

"What do you mean?" Lovestruck questioned, arching a brow.

"I mean, we need to figure out what we're gonna do about this." She gestured towards Parish and Frederick. "We can't just sit and wait for them to notice us."

Lovestruck peered at Frederick and Parish. She couldn't make out what Frederick was whispering to Parish, but she could tell that it wasn't helping Parish whatsoever. Her ears fell flat against her and she looked back at the arguing group.

"We should leave," she said finally.

Bon Bon blinked at her. "What?"

Lovestruck sighed. "Listen, you're right when you say we can't wait for them to notice us. We have to get out of here before either of them see any of us and we have to do it quickly."

"What do you suppose we do after we get out of here?" Bon Bon shot back, "I mean, we aren't just gonna go back to the hotel, are we?"

Lovestruck didn't respond for a moment. Instead, her eyes drifted back towards Frederick and Parish. She felt her heart ache at the look of utter anguish on Parish's face.

"No." She faced them once again. "I have a better idea..."

It didn't take long for Parish and Frederick to leave the cafe. They exchanged their farewells and went their separate ways, like nothing was between them. Lovestruck couldn't bear to think about how many times they had to do so.

"I don't see why we had to leave the table..." Lyra grumbled, struggling to get comfortable.

"Hey, you can thank your bestie for this one," Lovestruck told her, nodding her head towards Bon Bon, "we were crammed into this same bush before we got a table."

A loud snap, followed by a muffled squeal, startled a yelp out of Lovestruck. She whipped around to face Vinyl, who had a hoof clamped over her muzzle.

"Sorry," Vinyl whispered, her cheeks tinged pink.

Lovestruck sighed. "Anyway, it was better to hide than it was to be in plain sight."

"I could have told you that..." muttered Bon Bon.

Lyra rolled her eyes. "What now? You said we aren't going back to the hotel, so what's the plan?"

Lovestruck zoned in on Parish, who appeared to be making his way towards the hotel. She flicked back to Frederick, who was going in the opposite direction.

"We follow Frederick," she replied, eliciting a groan from Bon Bon, "don't gripe at me, I'm just trying to figure out where he's going."

Bon Bon dragged her hoof down her face. "He's probably just gonna walk for a little bit before he goes back to the hotel."

"Why's that?" Vinyl questioned, wiggling uncomfortably.

"Precautionary measures. Ponies could make connections if they show up at the same time together." She squinted through the foliage. "Though he is going pretty far..."

Lovestruck's eyes focused in on Frederick. She arched a brow when she saw him staring off into a random direction and followed his gaze. A tall clock tower stood not too far from where Frederick stood, reading the time distinctively.

"He's got somewhere to be," she murmured to herself.

Bon Bon smirked and nodded. "Right on. Think he's meeting somepony else?"

"Do you think he's cheating on Parish?" Lyra breathed, horror taking over her face.

"No way," Vinyl cut in, shaking her head indignantly, "Frederick would never do something like that."

Lovestruck sighed. "How about we quit jumping to conclusions and actually find out?"

As soon as the word left her mouth, Bon Bon tumbled out of the bush. She shook off the leaves and twigs, standing upright like nothing happened. Meanwhile, Lyra and Vinyl struggled to get out at all, their faces red with embarrassment.

For what felt like the hundredth time, Lovestruck let out a sigh. "You guys are the worst when it comes to covert operations."

"You're telling me..." Bon Bon muttered, rolling her eyes.

Deciding not to engage her, Lovestruck helped Lyra up when she tripped out of the bush. She brushed off some of the leaves and wiped Lyra's face free of any flora.

"Still wanna follow us?" she asked, arching a brow with a sense of haughtiness.

Lyra pouted at Lovestruck. "I liked you a lot better when you were serving us at the wedding."

Lovestruck's cheekiness disappeared almost instantaneously and she turned away from her. She raised her brow in confusion when she saw no sign of Frederick within the immediate vicinity. She turned to Bon Bon, who seemed to come to the same conclusion, and sighed. "Great. Looks like we lost him."

Vinyl peered over her glasses. "Think he saw us and bolted?"

"Wonderful," Bon Bon groaned, dragging her hoof down her face, "we just had to hide in the bush, didn't we?"

"You're the one who wanted to sneak out!" Lyra snapped.

"And you're the one who wanted to leave in the first place!"

"We wouldn't have had to leave if you hadn't ditched me back at the hotel!"

"Are you still on that? Honestly, you are so—"

While the two of them argued, Lovestruck glanced lazily at Vinyl. "How often do you have to deal with this?"

"More than I should," Vinyl replied, "I'm so glad I'm single."

Lyra and Bon Bon cut towards them suddenly. "Hey!"

Lovestruck rolled her eyes. "Since you two can't get along, I'm suggesting that we split up." She held up a hoof when they prepared to argue. "Listen, how about Bon Bon and I go after Frederick while you and Vinyl go check on Parish? I'm sure he could use a shoulder to lean on right now."

"You seem pretty keen to get rid of us, so I'm gonna say no," Lyra shot back, narrowing her eyes harshly. Lovestruck saw a corner of her lip tug upwards. "Not gonna shake me that easy, Lovey."

Bon Bon flinched. "Uh, Lyra, you might not want to—"

"It's fine," Lovestruck snapped, silencing Bon Bon effectively. She looked down the pathway, where Frederick had been looking when she last saw him. "C'mon, let's go after him."

"And if he sees us?" Vinyl inquired suddenly.

"We're sightseeing. For all he knows, I'm a local and I could just be showing you the sights." She stopped instantaneously. "Dammit, where was that backstory when I needed it?"

Lyra arched a brow curiously, but if she had anything to say she kept it to herself. As the group continued on their journey, Lovestruck wondered if it would be acceptable for her to throw herself into the river to the falls.

Author's Notes:

Lovestruck, what have you gotten yourself into now?

(In all seriousness, thanks for sticking with me and Lovey! Stay tuned for next chapter!)