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// Costa Del Bronco 
// Story: House of Sun 
// by Riossumari 
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The hot air balloon drifted through the sky gently, Sweetie and Spike looked over the edge at the landscape beneath them. 
“Hey, I think we’re there!” Sweetie announced, Twilight and Sunset walked over looking down themselves. Beneath them was a rather large tropical resort, consisting of a large building with smaller huts surrounding it, a dock with different boats of varying sizes, a large waterfall and small lake just a short distance away from that. 
“Yes! That’s it alright! Costa Del Bronco, let’s set down and get everything started!” Twilight said. Shining walked over and began to let the air out of the balloon so as to slow its descent to the ground. They landed just outside of the main building each pony hopping out and gathering up their respective bags, a moment later the staff approached them led by an older mare in a suit. 
“Greetings your majesty, allowme  to say how honored we are to have you here to vacation. I’m chairman Cinch, the mare in charge of resort.” she said. 
Celestia walked up and shook her hoof with a smile, “Well, its certainly nice to meet you. Thank you so much for letting us book a few rooms on such short notice.” Celestia replied. 
Cinch smiled and nodded, “Oh its no trouble at all really, after all we’re hosting a vacation for the Royal family, the House of Sun itself.” Cinch said, she looked over the rest of the group and smiled at them. “And I must say, I can certainly tell that you all...love each other so much. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to my office work. Sugarcoat and Lemon Zest will help you to your rooms, and we’ll see that your belongings are brought as well.” she added before nodding politely and walking away. The white mare in glasses walked up to them with an almost blank expression, 
“I’m Sugarcoat your majesty, this way please your rooms are ready.” she said. The group followed Sugarcoat close behind Lemon Zest following behind to make sure no pony trailed off. As they walked Twilight was busy looking through a brochure with Celestia. 
“Look at how much there is to do here, river rafting, base jumping, nature walks, zip lining, and of course we could always just relax by the pool or the beach.” Twilight said. 
“Oooh, I could use some excitement! And Zip lining sounds like a lot of fun, I honestly can’t decide on which to do first!” Celestia said as she looked over the brochure with Twilight. Luna seemed to groan at the mention of all the things Celestia wanted to do, 
“I’d prefer to do a little more relaxing myself, I get enough excitement from patrolling the dream realm every night.” she said. Sunset nudged Luna and smiled at her, 
“Oh come on, we need to do something exciting while were here at least.” Sunset quipped.  They finally reached a group of four huts just off the beach, Lemon Zest holding out her hoof with a smile. 
“Here you are, your rooms all ready just for you dude. We’ll have your things brought up while you're out having fun. Enjoy your stay at Costa Del Bronco!” she said before she and Sugarcoat trot off. 
“Four rooms huh? So how do we split them up?” Shining asked, 
“How about Aunt Luna and Celestia can take one, I’ll bunk with Sweetie Belle, Sunset with Twilight, and lastly you and Spike?” Cadence suggested. Every pony nodded in agreement and each one went into their rooms to get organized. A moment later they all gathered outside ready to discuss what they would do with their day. 
“So what now? What should we do first? River rafting? Zip lining?” Celestia said with an eager grin, 
“I’d really prefer to just relax actually mom, there’s plenty else we could do.” Twilight said. 
Sunset gave Twilight a nudge, “Come on Twi, this is our big family vacation let’s have some fun!” she said. They went back and forth trying to decide what they should all do on their first day, but no pony could decide what as they all had different ideas of how to relax. Then Cadence, suddenly spoke up, 
“What if we all split up for the first day? Then we can all get back together for dinner at the all you can eat buffet later?” she suggested. 
“I’m alright with that, what about you Tia?” Luna asked. Celestia naturally agreed with her sister and they all split up into groups to go have fun.




Cadence and Sweetie Belle trot through the resort, 
“Thanks for coming with Princess Cadence, I’m glad some pony wanted to go on the nature walk! I wanna see all the birds and other animals there are!” she said. 
Cadence walked alongside her and smiled, “You can just call me Cadence Sweetie, were practically family now. No need to be so formal anymore.” Cadence said. Sweetie giggled happily at Cadence’s words happy to see that she could talk to her like Twilight and Spike. The two reached the nature trail and were greeted by a by a yellow mare with blue hair and goggles across her forehead. 
“Hi there, I’m Sour Sweet. Welcome to the nature trail, please be sure to stay on the designated path while hiking and don’t feed any of the animals.” she said with a smile. Sweetie eagerly trot ahead of Cadence as the two walked along the nature trail. The path was littered with gorgeous tropical flowers and plants, the sounds of birds chirping could be heard all around them. Sweetie stopped and looked around seeing all the birds in the trees, 
“There’s so many! I’ve never seen most of these birds!” Sweetie said excitedly, 
“There’s a few parrots over there! And look, over there’s a tortoise!” Cadence said as she sat next to Sweetie. 
“I’m surprised Twilight didn’t come with us, she would’ve gone full nerd at the sight of all the birds here.” Sweetie said to Cadence with a smile. 
“You’re right she’d love this, maybe we can get her to come with us tomorrow. She’ll probably spend most of the time just taking notes or pictures though. Come on, we’re not even half done with the trail yet!” Cadence said. They walked along the path taking in the sights of the local wildlife. As the two walked Sweetie paused and looked up at Cadence curiously, 
“Hey Cadence, how did you get your cutie mark?” she asked. 
“Mine? Why do you ask?” Cadence replied. 
“Well...when we were in Ponyville I saw an old friend and she’d gotten hers while we I was gone, and they’re trying to help another one of my other friends get hers. So I thought maybe you’d have an idea how I can get mine is all.” Sweetie answered. 
Cadence smiled happy to see Sweetie asking her for help, “Well...I got mine just before I became an alicorn actually, I was just an orphan pegasus living in a small village not too far from Canterlot. One day a witch came into the village with a magic pendant that tried to drain the love out of every pony in the village. I was so scared out of my mind when I stood up to her, but I was determined to show her that she didn’t have to be as bad as she was being. And so through an act of compassion I got my cutie mark.” she explained. Sweetie clung to every word Cadence said as they walked looking back at the cutie mark on her flank, 
“So what happened afterwards?” she asked.  Cadence paused and sat down looking at Sweetie, 
“The pendant she had broke, and all the love she stole came pouring out. Most of it went back to the villagers but some of it went straight into me, I thought I was gonna burst but instead I got sent somewhere I’d never been before. Next thing I knew, there was Auntie, Princess Celestia there to greet me with a smile. I was terrified, I’d thought I’d done something bad to end up there in front of the princess. But she instead told me what my being there meant and when I got back to the village, I had a horn and my own special brand of magic. A few days later Auntie showed up to take me to Canterlot and teach me how to be a proper princess.” Cadence finished. Sweetie smiled back at her excited to hear her story, 
“Wow! That’s awesome! Do you think Princess Luna and Princess Celestia got their wings like that too?” Sweetie asked. Cadence paused to think for a moment, she’d never really given it much thought before and she’d never really asked if Celestia and Luna were born alicorns or not. 
“Tell you what, let’s both ask them after dinner later. What do you think?” she asked Sweetie. The two mares finally finished walking the nature trail as the got close to the end though they heard voices, and shouting. Cadence kept Sweetie behind and looked to see Sour Sweet being yelled at by another yellow pony with pink hair. 
“Sour Sweet?! You moron, you’re disguise is Indigo Zap! Get it right, and don’t screw it up again! You know what’ll happen if SHE finds out you jeopardized the plan?” the other mare shouted. A moment later she stormed off angrily, Cadence looked at Sweetie a little concerned now. 
“What were they talking about? Why did she say her name wasn’t Sour Sweet?” Sweetie whispered, Cadence wasn’t sure what they’d just listened to but she was sure something was amiss at the resort.