Chapter One: The Bus Trip (Que for Revision)
"Alright children!" A stallion announced, only to be muffled by the multiple conversations that went on between the others on the bus.
That's what he called us: Children. It was probably to try and get under our skin, but it did a poor job of it since we all thought of him as a father figure of sorts. He was also the head of our orchestra, so some of the more "deeper" members of our group looked at him as the "father" of our group, and we his children. I thought that was pretty weird, but to each their own I guess.
We, and by 'we' I mean our orchestra, were on a trip to the beach; not because we had a concert to play there, though they did have few slots open for us to preform if the group decided to, but we were primarily going there as a 'reward' for our last concert. It, of course, was completely optional to go on the trip, but every one in our chamber orchestra received an invitation. Only about half, eighteen to be exact, decided to come thankfully.
The stallion who headed our orchestra was a rich one by the name of Fancy Pants. He was a kind, white coated stallion with a darkish blue mane who had founded our orchestra out of pure love for music. Of course, he had some endorsers along the way, but he didn't do it for the money, though it certainly helped keep the orchestra alive. Literally since this was most of our main source of pay.
Anyways, Fancy tried to speak over the bus's passengers to get their attention once again, but their conversations only drowned out his second attempt. He wasn't the type to shout at us, he was more of the type to always see the good side of things, but I could see no good side of this idea of going to the beach.
"Alright you rowdy fillies, be quite." A loud, dynamic, and crackling voice boomed over the built in speakers of the bus.
That got our attention.
Every head turned up towards the front of the bus, all eyes landing on the white haired, gray coated stallion that was propped up idly against one of the walls of the bus near the driver's seat. He had an annoyed expression, but I couldn't blame him; anyone should have some sort of annoyance after being on this bus for about five hours.
His name was Hoity, Hoity Toity, and he was one of those 'endorsers' of the orchestra and claimed that he was doing it out of "The love for the golden years of music" which I thought was either very nice of him, or just a cheap lie to get him more money. Probably more of a mix of the two.
Hoity turned and gave the small gray box he had used to put his voice over the speakers back to the bus driver before turning to Fancy, his expensive purple sunglasses propped up on top of his head revealing his tried eyes.
"Go on." He said before retuning to his seat in front of Fancy's own and flopping down, giving Fancy every eye and attention of everypony on the bus.
Fancy flashed a sheepish smile at all the sudden attention before turning and thanking the flustered stallion.
"So," He started, turning back to us and coughing a bit before continuing, "I'm sure you're all just as eager to get off this bus as me." He said, earning a few nods and sounds of agreement from the crowd of the bus.
He smiled at that.
"Well, I'm happy to say we're only about two hours away from our hotel, so just try not to get too loud and let our bus driver focus. Who knows, we could get there even faster." He said, sounding too close to a elementary school teacher as he spoke to his now groaning audience.
But it would take more than that to put a dent in his smile; he simply smiled and trotted back to his seat behind Hoity and sat down with his partner; a stunning white mare with a flowing, faintly pink mane and equally pink eyes. Her name Fluer de Lis, but most of us just went with the first word: Fluer.
Fluer was just a nice as Fancy, maybe even nicer somehow; she was at every practice and every show, providing support for all of us. She was like the guidance counselor of our orchestra, and I would be lying if I said she wasn't the best at it.
Everyone's attention turned back to their friends, seeing no more reason to stare up at the front of the bus, mine included.
"Well, at least were close." I turned around to give Fredric a glare. He recoiled from it slightly, a sheepish look crossing his face.
He was a relatively tall stallion; not to say he was buff or anything, but he was tall indefinitely. He was a lightly brown coated earth pony, a color that went well with his well groomed ivory mane and light green eyes. He wasn't exactly the strictest of ponies, but he could be stern if he needed to be. Though, thanks to the length of the trip, he was now very laid back.
A girlish giggle escaped the lips of another one of my groups, a light blue mare named Beauty Brass, though we typically just called her Beauty. Her normally well tamed brown mane was now slightly skewed to the side thanks to some of her tireless attempts at time passing on the bus, but I thought it looked quite good on her.
"He has a point you know, at least we won't be spending the rest of the night traveling on this cramped bus." She said from beside me, proving a good point that I refused to acknowledge.
Our bus seats were quite oddly organized, but in a good way. They were set so that the seats that were normally in front of you were turned to face you with the front of the seat, rather than the backs of them. Not only did it give generous amounts of room, but it let groups of friends, such as my own, talk much more easily rather than having to crane your neck over the back of your seat to talk with a friend behind you.
"I still don't know how you convinced me to come on this trip." I said, letting out a puff of air that blew up a tuft of my hair and earning a soft smile out of the last member of our little cult.
"Well, I'm happy you came Octavia." Said Harpo, a lavender coated stallion with a stylish, yet messy, dark blue mane, in an attempt to cheer me up, "now I don't have to be alone with these two." He said, almost earning a chuckle out of me, but I managed to choke down the laughter to keep up my appearance of 'No fun.'
I tried to stay annoyed, I really did, but I just can't stay that way when Harpo tries and cheer me up. It's like I feel pity for him caring about whether I'm having a good time or not, even if he doesn't say it explicitly that he cares. But it's a little bit comforting to have someone trying to make me see a good side of things, especially since I'm usually not having a good time when it comes to road trips like these.
I let out one more deep sigh, blowing up some more stray black hair out of my eyes; they had gotten ruffed up thanks to the bumpy roads we had taken.
"Fine...you win." I admitted sorrowfully as I sat back up in my seat.
Fredric made a little hoot, going in and giving Harpo a hoof bump of victory while Beauty merely smiled at me: I couldn't help but smile a little myself.
Those two hours passed in a haze of conversation, bathroom breaks and power naps; but the hotel never seemed to arrive. We had been stuck in heavy traffic that was going who knows where for who knows how long, and then we found that the initial road we were supposed to go on was closed for construction. Fancy didn't seem to mind though, he just kept on talking to his companion that sat close to him and told the bus driver to just go around. Hoity was asleep without a care in the world and no clear intent on getting up anytime soon.
Eventually, I heard the vague bus driver speak up to Fancy Pants.
"Um, sir?" He spoke, clearly annoyed and flustered on the inside, but was definitely not up to expressing that blatantly to someone with Fancy's status.
Fancy didn't seem to hear him.
"Sir?" He spoke a bit louder, this time managing to catch the attention of Fluer who pointed him out to Fancy.
Fancy turned around, the everlasting smile jumping on his face when he answered the driver cheerfully despite the bags under his eyes.
"The bus is running on fumes, and nearly flames. I hate to say it sir, but we need to refill and let it cool for the night." He said, clinching his eyes for some sort of complaint from Fancy, but he never received it.
"Oh that's fine." Fancy began, almost sounding happy about it, and getting a slightly shocked look out of the driver.
"If you would, just find the nearest place to let us off for the night, well just rest there." He said, "Oh, and if you could, pick us up in the morning?" He added nicely, shocking the driver further more.
"O-of course, sir." He stammered, taking a left.
Fancy turned back to Fluer, but half way there, he turned back to the driver.
"Oh, and here's something for all the trouble." He said, happily passing the stallion driver a small bag of bits.
"Get yourself a good dinner." Of course the bag of bits was a lot more than enough to get him a good dinner, but there was no difference in the amount to Fancy.
"Sir, you really don't need to." He tried to back his way out of the money, but Fancy was persistent if anything.
"No, please take it." He said, quickly turning away and preventing the driver from protesting. I managed to catch a childish grin cross his face when he turned back to face Fluer, who gave him an exaggerated roll of the eyes, but even she couldn't hold back her giggle from the grown stallion's child like behavior.
"Well," I started as I turned back to my group to tell them news.
"I guess we're not done with this bus yet." I said, getting a raise of the brow from my friends.
"What do you mean?" Fredric asked, oblivious to the conversation.
"I just heard the bus driver say he has to refuel the bus and let the engine cool. He's letting us off at a hotel and picking us up in the morning." I explained.
Both Fredric and Beauty let out a groan, while Harpo simply stared at me as if I had just told him his puppy had died.
The outside of the bus was dark, the only things visible outside the windows being the occasional passing street lamp and lit interiors of the few buildings with there lights still on. The inside however was moderately well lit with the buses lights. It was approaching 11:00 right about now, about three hours off schedule, which didn't help me with my regret of coming along on this beach trip.
"It'll seem worth it when we get there." Beauty said in a last ditch effort to get me abroad the "fun" wagon when I brought this up.
"I hope so." I groaned.
When we finally arrived at a hotel, not the best but definitely not the worst, I desperately got off the bus, nearly trampling a few others in the process, and stretched my legs; a cramp had been killing me for the last thirty minutes of the ride.
Fancy herded the rest of the musicians into a big cluster and spoke the situation that I had already told my friends, the crowd voice the same groan as well. Hoity wasn't exactly happy when he got woke from his nap only to be told he would have to get off the bus and go back to sleep again. He and Fancy, especially Hoity, decided to just leave the instruments that they had decided to bring on the bus, simply not feeling up to the task of loading them off and would much rather get some sleep instead. It's not like we would actually use them anyways.
Fancy went inside the hotel to go get the rooms for all of us, if they had that many available. Hoity opted to go with him for both his time and Fancy's money's sake, probably a good idea considering how loose Fancy is with his money.
This left us with Fluer as our care taker, which all of us saw as something akin to having a substitute teacher on a school day. We still liked Fancy and Hoity, they were sort of like a comedic duo, but Fluer was just too nice to compete with.
I turned away from the hotel door and back to my group, who was already engaged in a conversation.
"Do you really think he would let us drink?" Asked Fredric, sounding genuinely interested in the subject.
"Probably." Beauty shrugged, earning a look out of Harpo, one that he also gave Fredric.
"Why would you two want to drink? You guys are the biggest lightweights I know." He asked.
Harpo could drink, and not only that, but he was the only one of our friends that had actually drank an alcohol other than wine. But the thing was that he might be able to hold his drinks a bit too well, meaning that by the time he was starting to get a little tipsy, it was time to leave with the other two, now wasted, others. It was thanks to his impeccable ability to hold out against alcohol that he always got picked as the "designated driver", thus his reason for not liking to drink with Harpo and Beauty.
I, on the other hoof, wasn't into drinking like that. Tasting the wine for the enjoyment of tasting the wine? Sure, I would do that, but not drink it for the sake a good buzz that would probably lead me into trouble.
"Why don't you two figure that out when we actually get to the beach?" I asked, not really expecting an answer, but getting one none the less.
"Where's the fun in that?" Beauty asked, getting a nod of approval from Fredric. All I could do was roll my eyes and try to change the topic while we waited for the two stallions inside the hotel to return.
Eventually, they came back out; Fancy holding six key cards in his magical grasp with a smile while Hoity walked behind him, a frustrated and tired look plaguing his face.
"Aright, gather round so I can give you all the keys to your rooms." Fancy said with a smile.
"We had a shortage of rooms, so you will be splitting the room between four others, so buddy up now before you have to room with me." Hoity threatened playfully with the only smile he could muster.
Fancy certainly had an influence on Hoity for those years of their partnership; he used to be so uptight, but now he seemed a lot more relaxed and carefree. As sure as I am that most of the ponies around here wouldn't mind rooming with Hoity, I'm even more sure they would rather room with their friends instead.
Fancy laughed at Hoity's playful threat as he began handing out a key card to every fourth stallion or mare until there was only one key card left, along with him, Hoity and Fluer.
'I guess they weren't lying when they said there was a shortage of rooms' I thought, but maybe they were lying and they wanted to indulge in the joyous excitement of splitting a room with friends.
Beauty, Fredric, Harpo and I made our way to the room that matched the number on the key card. Upon opening the door to our room, we found a much nicer hotel room than what the outside would make you expect. It was a simple three room, including the bathroom, layout. It included a nice looking couch that folded out into a bed, a television, and another more comfortable looking bed in the "bedroom". The room with the couch also doubled as a sort of kitchen; coming equipped with a small fridge, a table and a set chairs.
I didn't hesitate to go and crash onto the bed, claiming my, and unintentionally Beauty's, spot as I hit the soft surface of the mattress. We always bunked with the other of the same sex, it wasn't a personal thing, just how things went without a word spoken against it.
The boys, Harpo and Fredric, stayed up and watched a bit of television after they folded out the couch and covered it with some spare sheets that we gave them. They decided against going to bed right away, and instead decided to stay up and watch some television. Me and Beauty had other plans though; We would go to bed early so we could get first dibs on the shower early.
