//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Canterlot  
// Story: The Five: Into the Beyond 
// by lyra_lover777 
//------------------------------//

	The group of five cantered out of the castle, Princess Twilight flying above them. They were headed for the hot air balloon. 
When they reached it, they got it ready for flight while Twilight pestered Spike about the upcoming quest.
"Spike, you need me! You are all going to die if I don't come!" screamed Twilight as they began to take off. Ditzy the mailmare, Dinky's mom, would be accompanying them to Canterlot as Dinky's chaperone.
"Oh, look, somepony's not being arrogant!" Spike retorted. Twilight was taken aback. Why was he being so mean? "Anyways, you're not in the prophecy!" Twilight was about to say something, but Spike shushed her. "You can come with us to Canterlot, but that's it." he said before turning away. Twilight hopped on. Why was he being like this?
===
As the group sailed through the sky, Spike thought about his outburst. It wasn't like he didn't love Twilight, it was just she was always the one to complete all the quests and such, and he was known as her sidekick. He hadn't thought about it much, but after Twilight's comment, it all came pouring out of him like water pours off a waterfall.
Spike put his hand up to cover the sun. He could see the outline of the Canterlot skyline.
===
Coco didn't fell so swell. She hated heights, and hoped that they wouldn't be traveling by air for the rest of the quest. When she saw the Canterlot skyline, she sighed of relief before heaving over the side of the balloon. They sailed on silently, well silently except for Coco's heaves. In several minutes, the landing pad on the castle was visible. Spike started to suck up some of his fire he had put into the balloon, and they started to descend. 
Coco pushed the others out of the way when they landed and kissed the ground mercifully. When she was done praising and making out with the ground, they all trotted towards the entrance of the sisters' castle. Coco blushed horribly the whole time while everypony (and dragon) gave her weird stares. All Coco said was,"I hate heights." 
The group reached the giant doors at the entrance to the castle. Only Spike and Twilight had been here before. So when they walked up to the guards and walked leisurely into the castle, they turned around to see everypony else gawking at the size of the castle as they slowly entered it. Coco had never been to somewhere so important. Sure, she had been to The Castle of Friendship, but this was Canterlot Castle, Castle of Celestia and Luna, and she was going into it.
===
Spike walked at the front of the group with Twilight while everypony else gasped and gawked at every stained glass window and painting. The two had made peace and were rolling their eyes every time there was a "Gasp!" or a "Ahhh!" Which ment their eyes were pretty much rolling continuously. Spike shook his head when they all gasped for the millionth time at a stained glass window of the Mane 6 defeating Nightmare Moon. 
They soon reached the doors of the throne room. When they entered, only Princess Celestia was inside. Everypony, except Twilight and Spike, dropped in a deep bow. Meanwhile Spike gave a little bow while Twilight ran up to her old mentor and hugged her.
Spike looked back to see Dinky, Ditzy, Roseluck, Amethyst, and most of all, Coco, spluttering nonsense as they started up at the ruler of the sun.
"Who do we have here, Twilight?" asked Celestia.
Twilight explained the whole situation in great detail, taking over an hour. The whole time, everypony recovered from their shock, except for Coco, who was staring wordlessly at Princess Celestia. She would mutter something along the lines of "P-princ-c-essssss Cel-l." before fainting and then waking up several minutes later to repeat the process. 
Eventually Spike got so annoyed with her that he went over to her and slapped her, hard. Thankfully this helped her recover and she was awake by the time Twilight was done.
"Well, I knew this time would come, at least someday." said Celestia.
"How would you know?" asked Twilight.
"Because I was the one that conceived it." 
===
Roseluck stared up at Celestia. She had been the first to recover from the shock of seeing the princess. But now Roseluck watched as Princess Celestia walked over to the wall. She pressed her hoof against a impression in the wall. A slot slid out of the wall under her hoof and she levitated out three objects. One was a book titled "The Beyond". The second was a unfinished map. The third and final object was a small bronze gear.
"You're quest will take place in the beyond." Celestia said.
"So we have to go east to the dragons and griffins? that should be easy. We have lots of maps and good relations with them." said Spike.
"No, you will be heading West. What you are searching for are these." Princess Celestia floated the small gear up for all to see. "There once was an explorer named Marco Pony several centuries ago. He traveled into the Western Beyond on an air ship. On board he had a weapon of unimaginable power that he and I had created together. It could turn Discord to dust with a single zap. We were going to use it to destroy the meanece that will soon attack us. Anyways, this object was on the air ship when the ship was attacked by an unknown species. The ship and weapon blew apart and the weapon's pieces were scattered over the beyond.
One of the explorers survived and came back with the half finished map and this gear, part of the weapon. He then wrote this book of his travels.
Celestia floated the objects over to the group and Roseluck took the objects into her magic grip. She flipped through the book.
"Giraffes, elephants, hippos, and cannibalistic unicorns? Wait,WHAT!?" said Roseluck.
"You are the chosen ones. You can back down and let everyone here die, along with yourself, or go risk your life for the safety of the whole." said Celestia.
Roseluck was a little surprised at the Princess's bluntness, but understood that she was worried.
"Now," said Celestia. "You can rest for the day and then you must get going. I will have a  sailing ship ready for you in the morning at the docks of  Vanhoover. You will travel there tonight and leave at dawn." Coco looked relieved that it was a sailing ship. But not Amethyst. Roseluck knew she hated water.
Twilight looked at Celestia and Celestia said," You must stay behind, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight hung her head and slowly nodded. Then they all waved to Twilight and Ditzy, and Spike gave Twilight a hug ,and then the group headed for the train station, headed for Vanhoover.