//------------------------------//
// The Elements of Harmony Hotel 
// Story: A Holiday in Haywaii 
// by Key Lime Pie 
//------------------------------//

‘The Elements of Harmony Hotel. Where we offer Kindness, Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, Loyalty and a sprinkling of Magic to each and every one of our customers.’ Rainbow read out from the sign in front of the grand beachside hotel.
‘Oh, it’s marvellous! Twilight, this must have cost a fortune!’ Rarity told her purple friend.

‘Not when I told them we were the Element of Harmony ourselves! We’re quite famous! Look!’ Twilight then pointed toward a statue garden, which had reincarnations of each of the ponies defeating Discord.

‘They gave us a special discount, all inclusive, all areas! As long as we give quotes for them to put on their leaflet, and offer to be the mascots of this place.’

‘Wow! Mascots of a fancy pants place like this?’ Pinkie asked, scanning the statues with vigor.

‘Yes, and we should check into our room!’ Twilight told everypony, strolling into the foyer where they were greeted by two unicorn Bellboys who levitated their suitcases straight away.

‘Have them put outside of Room 67 please!’ Twilight told them, and they obliged silently, trotting up the stairs with the smallest of ease. ‘Feel free to look around while I check us all in.’ Twilight told her friends, who started looking around the grand foyer in amazement. Applejack found herself looking out the window at some very odd fruit trees that were being picked by hoof. 

‘Why, I should show them the bucking technique! They’ll be grateful for that time saver!’ Applejack said, making a mental note to do that in a moment.

Pinkie Pie & Fluttershy wandered over to the bulletin board to see if there was anything that would catch their interest. 
‘Wild animal Safari tour... be guided and see the wildlife of this native land.’ Fluttershy read. ‘That’s so wonderful! A chance to see the animals up close!’ Fluttershy squeaked, beating her wings in excitement.

Meanwhile, Twilight had checked everypony in and signalled for the rest of the girls to follow her up the stairs, which they did, discussing the activities that they wanted to do in their own free time amongst eachother. The floor was laid with plush red carpet with jewels embedded along the sideboard at regular intervals. This place reeked of money and lavish indulgence, a place where the rich would stay on their holidays.

A large portrait of Celestia hung at the end of the corridor, wings outstretched, and her horn glowing. She looked surprisingly intimidating in this portrait. Twilight walked past everyponies luggage outside room 67 and took a closer look at the painting. She had never seen Celestia this angry before, ever, and it scared Twilight a little, even if it was a painting. There was a little caption at the bottom, which Twilight read out loud,

‘Artists depiction of Celestia using The Elements of Harmony to defeat Discord and put Equestria into order – Circa B.C 0.’
Twilight knew that B.C stood for ‘ Before Celestia’ and was generally used by historians to split time between when Celestia ruled Equestria and when she didn’t. Still, it just hit Twilight now. It was the year A.C. 2105. Had Celestia been ruling for that long? And she hadn’t seemed to have aged at all. Was Celestia immortal? Twilights brain went into overdrive and a cog inside bust loose. She couldn’t think straight. Maybe once she got home she’d do some reading up on her mentor, but Twilight reminded herself this was a holiday and she shouldn’t study...about things like that. She should read about the place she was in. 

Meanwhile she saw her friends had already gone inside the room and taken the liberty of pulling Twilights suitcase into the room.  She followed them inside and had to stop, awestruck at their room.

It was huge, much bigger than Twilight had expected, larger than how it had looked on the leaflets. Six single beds were laid out at one end of the room, each with plush white pillows and a fluffy duvet in the colour of each respecting ponies pelt. In the middle of the room there stood a fantastic rug that felt soft underneath your hooves, even softer than the plush carpeting that was everywhere else. At the other end of the room was a snack bar and mini fridge, which was already stocked, as Twilight could see Pinkie Pie was already helping herself to some snacks. There was a door at one side near the beds which Twilight could only assume lead to the En Suite. To top it all off, a dazzling chandelier hung from the ceiling, sparkling in the Haywaiian morning light.

‘Oh Twilight, it’s much more than I imagined!’ Rarity announced, eyeing the chandelier above her head.
‘Yeah, this place is awesome! This bed is softer than a cloud! And that’s saying something!’ Rainbow Dash yelled, propping up a pillow against her head, relaxing in said bed.

‘I’d like to thank y’all for convincing me to spend my prize money on a holiday for all of us. Sometimes I guess we just need a break.’ Applejack said, smiling at all her friends.

‘GROUP HUG!’ Pinkie shouted and pulled all of her friends towards her with her somehow magically long hooves. Everypony looked at eachother and laughed. Twilight cleared her throat, breaking the laughter.

‘I didn’t plan anything for the first day so you can all run wild if you want! But remember, meet back at the hotel room at quarter to ele-‘ She said, before everypony ran out the room , leaving Twilight dizzy and unable to finish her sentence.
‘Well, that’s my friends for you. I’m going to go and find a library and read up on Haywaiian tradition.’ Twilight said to herself, locking the hotel room door behind her.

...

Rarity sauntered towards the beach, wearing an elegant straw hat that had a red ribbon tied around the rim, and saddlebags that were a light blue, the same as her diamond cutie mark. She had thought of wearing a bikini but no-one else was around here so she thought not to. And all that packing of them!

‘Oh, I hope it isn’t too much.’ Rarity said out loud to herself, placing a hoof on the clear white sand. She immediately regretted the decision as she found it was scorching hot, pain running into her hoof.

‘Oh Horseapples!’ Rarity said, covering her mouth quickly. Luckily, no-one was around to hear that! Rarity told herself off for acting so uncouth and walked on the beach, this time around bracing herself for the heat. She found a suitable spot where she could lay down and maybe even get a nice tan. She had remembered to put on UVF protection however, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t get a tan! Opening her saddlebag with her mouth, she drew out a towel and laid it down upon the sand, before sitting back and relaxing. Pulling a pair of sunglasses out from her bags she proceeded to put her forelegs behind her back. 

‘Ahhh, bliss.’ She said to herself, before she sensed the cold sensation of...shade? Obviously somepony was blocking her light. She’d just kindly ask them to move out of the way. She took off her sunglasses, and began to speak.

‘Would you be as kind as to...as to...move...’ Rarity stopped herself from talking as she stared at the pony before her eyes.
He had a tall and impressive build with taut muscles and a firm stand. His navy blue pelt complimented his ocean blue mane with white tips, in a quiff sort of style, giving his hear the appearance of a wave. His tail flowed down, a waterfall of hair cascading down, much longer than any normal Stallions tail was – tradition was for it to be short. A cutie mark of a wave with a surfing board atop of it emblazoned his flank, which Rarity for some reason couldn’t keep her eyes straying from.
‘Yes, was there something you wanted?’ He asked in a smooth voice.

‘Oh, uh, nothing, except, you’re blocking my light a little.’ Rarity replied, trying to keep her composure. Stay cool, stay calm. 
‘Oh, I’m sorry gorgeous. Here, let me get out of your light.’ He said, going on to lying down next to Rarity. Rarity gulped and shifted a little away. As good looking as he was, he was acting a little...forward.

‘Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. Name’s Haysellhoof. And yours...?’ 

‘Rarity.’

‘Rarity! And how fitting it is! A mare as pretty as you sure is a rare sight around here...’ He continued flirting in a cool tone, grinning a perfect white tooth smile.

‘Oh, there are lots of other mares around here just as beautiful...okay, maybe not.’  Rarity joked, and they both laughed at her little bout of false vanity.

‘Let me get you a drink.’ Haysellhoof said, winking and walking over to a bar near the hotel.

Rarity wasn’t sure where this was going, but she was enjoying it for now, at least.


~/*\~


Applejack sauntered over to the row of strange fruit trees where ponies were busy climbing up and picking them precariously. She noticed how impressive these workers were, managing to shimmy up the tree and pick these fruits with their mouths, before dropping them into a bucket beneath that lay on the sand. Impressive as it was, simply bucking these trees would save them a lot of time and their productivity would go up by a lot.

A pony with a white pelt and thin, dark brown hair trotted over to Applejack with a smile on her face. As she got closer, Applejack noticed there were three of these strange, brown ‘fruits’ on her flank.

‘How can I help you, ma’am?’ The pony asked her, ‘My name is Cocoa Nut, owner of the Coconut Fields.’ She said, extending a hoof in a friendly hoof shake.

‘And I’m Applejack from Ponyville, working at Sweet Apple Acres. Say, these strange fruits...they the, uh, Coconut things you were talkin’ about earlier?’ 

‘Yep, they sure are! Coconuts are native to Haywaii! You can only get them here, so we make a lot of money importing them all over the place! Say, you never tried a coconut before, have you?’ Cocoa continued, to which Applejack shook her head.
‘That’s a shame! You should definitely try some, see what you think.’ The white Earth pony grabbed a coconut from one of the buckets and split it open by cracking it with her hoof. Giving half to Applejack, she opened her mouth to talk.

‘Now, you can drink the coconut water inside or tip it out. Your choice. It’s said to give you extra energy and a shiny coat.’ Cocoa continued, downing the water in one quick gulp. 

Applejack took a gulp, being an experimental pony, and winced at the flavour. It sure wasn’t apples; but it wasn’t all bad either. 

‘Pretty good.’ Applejack said, drinking the rest of the water to find that there was only hard white flesh left in the fruit, encased by the hairy brown shell. She saw Cocoa Nutt eating both parts and decided to try some. It was much sweeter than the water, and had a nice, sweet flavour with a nutty tang to it. They weren’t half bad! Applejack reminded to take some home so everypony could try some.

‘Hey, I’ve got a faster way to get your coconuts down from the tree.’ Applejack said, walking over to one tree that wasn’t being worked on.

‘Oh, I’d love to see, really?’

‘Sure as sugar!’ Applejack yelled, drawing back her hindlegs ready to buck the coconut tree and collect the foreign fruit. 
Cocoa Nutt saw what she was doing and widened her eyes in shock.

‘No! You can’t do that, then you’ll-‘ 

But it was too late. Applejack bucked the tree with all her might and several coconuts came crashing down. One unfortunate Coconut was feeling particularly mean that day, and decided to land right on Applejacks head.

‘Oh...ponyfeathers...’ Applejack mumbled, before falling over, unconscious. 

‘Get hit by one. *sigh*’ Cocoa tutted, dragging Applejack toward the hotel for someone to patch her up and make her better.