Celestia watched everything unfold from a window high above the castle courtyard. Taylor had taken a seat in the castle garden, been approached by an unfamiliar unicorn and was now following her out of the castle grounds. The Princess seemed concerned, which had Twilight even more concerned.

"Shouldn't we go after them? We don't know who that is or where she's taking Taylor."

The Princess shook her head. "He's in a volatile state right now. If we try to interfere, there's a chance we could lose him for good."

"So what do we do, just sit here and watch him go? What if this is a trap?"

"I don't think it is. In fact, that unicorn may have just saved us a lot of trouble. Look." Celestia nodded her head out the window, gesturing to two of her royal guards. "I know each and every one of my Royal Guards on a personal basis. Those particular ponies are not among them."

"Who are they?" Twilight asked, already knowing the answer.

"Who else? Members of the Order. They've been masquerading as my guards for months now. I've been playing along, mostly out of curiosity, but with things being what they are, I believe it's time to send them on their way. They were keeping a close eye on Taylor since he went outside. I believe that they intended to capture him once they had an opportunity, which would have been problematic for us all. Hence, that mystery unicorn might have been a blessing rather than a curse."

Twilight was growing anxious. Everything being laid out before her like this was overwhelming, to say the least. Fortunately, Lyra would be back soon and-

The lavender unicorn paused. Lyra had gone to retrieve Taylor some time ago, yet she hadn't returned. Could she have gotten lost? Did she see Taylor leaving and follow him? Twilight bolted out the door as fast as her legs could carry her, trying to convince herself that nothing bad could have happened.

Minutes passed as Twilight barreled through the halls, nearly crashing into several ponies along the way. Why did this castle have to be so big when she was in a hurry?! The doors to the courtyard were still wide open. Fortunate, as they were massive and would have slowed Twilight down significantly. She dashed through them and skidded to a halt outside, her eyes darting around, looking for any sign of Lyra.

There, across the courtyard, just a brief glimpse before they passed out of sight behind a wall, she noticed the seafoam green unicorn being escorted out of the castle grounds by three large stallions dressed in the glistening armor of the Royal Guard. She recognized two of them - the ones Celestia had pointed out - but the third was unfamiliar. Twilight raced across the grounds in their direction, closing the gap quickly. As she rounded the corner, she came face to face with the same unidentified pony, who had allowed the others to go on ahead. He was clearly very new to the Guard, awkwardly snapping to attention after a brief delay.

"Umm... can I help you, miss?" he asked, seeming particularly nervous.

Twilight peered around him, seeing no sign of the others. "Where did those two guards take Lyra?!" she demanded.

"Oh, the Captain had to remove her from the premises. She was causing a disturbance."

"The Captain? As in, 'of the Guard'?" Twilight asked, perplexed. "That wasn't my brother!"

"Your brother? But I- " the guardspony managed to stammer before the realization hit him. "Oh no. What do I do? I was just recruited last week, I didn't know he wasn't -"

Twilight had no time for this. "Just go alert the Guard! A guest of the Princess has been abducted!" she shouted as she pushed past him. The Inquisitors already had plenty of time to make an easy escape into Canterlot, but she had to try to find them.

Sophie led Taylor through Canterlot, keeping away from the busy areas as much as possible. It was hard to concentrate on keeping her spell active with so many ponies around. Fortunately, they were nearing their destination. "It's just up ahead," she informed Taylor, turning to him, "the blue building on the right."

It was hard to miss. Three stories tall, painted the same vibrant blue color as Sophie's mane. He was beginning to notice a pattern with this unicorn. "It's a little conspicuous, don't you think?"

"Sure, if that was where anything important happened, but that would be silly," She smiled.

They continued in silence for the remainder of their walk, Taylor obediently tagging along beside Sophie. He noticed that her pace had hastened. She was in a hurry, and appeared to be straining against some unknown force. At the same time, Taylor began to wonder why he had agreed to help her, and the Order, in the first place. Was he doing it out of spite, a way to harm Celestia, who refused to send him home? No, that wasn't it. He was upset, but not nearly enough to sacrifice Equestria to buy his freedom. He was having a hard time putting any of this together - it simply didn't make sense, no matter how many ways he approached it.

"We're here. Inside, quickly now." Sophie ushered him in through the doorway, glancing nervously up and down the street before closing and locking the door behind her. She breathed a sigh of relief, slumping against the door. "Augh! I knew you humans were resistant to magic but you," she jabbed a hoof in his direction, staring daggers at him, "you are annoying."

Taylor shook his head. It was as if a fog had lifted from his mind in an instant. "The hell was that?" he asked, blinking back a wave of mild nausea, similar to his first experience with Lyra's transformation spell.

"The easiest way to get you here. Or at least I thought it would be easy." Sophie stood, wobbling unsteadily in place. "Never again."

"I barely remember anything since the castle," Taylor said, still trying to recover.

"To be expected. You'll get your memory back in a while, but there are more important things to worry about before that. I need you to tell me everything Celestia said."

"How about I get my questions answered first? I'm tired of people playing twenty questions with me, it's my turn to do the damn asking around here for a change." Taylor said flatly, in no mood to negotiate.

Sophie folded easily, though she made no effort to hide her frustration. "Fine, whatever, but make it quick."

"I want to know exactly who you are, whose side you're on, what you did to me, and what we're doing here. That should cover it."

"Sophie Starbright, your side, minor suggestion spell, and I needed to get you away from the castle because it would be hard to ask you questions if you got yourself captured. Good enough?" she spoke as rapidly as possible.

"No, it's going to take more than that. You say you're with the Order, you mess with my head, drag me out here, and expect that little summary to be sufficient?"

Sophie sighed heavily. "Alright, I'm a member of the Order," as proof, she produced a small circular pendant bearing the crimson 'I' that the Order was so fond of, "but I'm not really with them. I can't go into much more detail than that right now, okay? As for the spell - I had to do something to get you out of there before things could progress any further."

That last part caught Taylor's attention. "What do you mean by that?"

The silver unicorn seemed reluctant to explain any further, but once more, she made a concession for this human. "Okay, the Order doesn't really need you to free Chelsea; I lied about that part. You were being painfully stubborn, so I decided to stroke your ego a little bit to help the suggestion spell along. The fact that doing so was what made the spell succeed says absolutely nothing good about you, I might add."

"Insults later, explanations now." Taylor snapped.

"Truth hurts, doesn't it? Anyway, they don't want to try freeing Chelsea until they have both you and Lyra contained. I don't know why she's so important, but I do know that your resistance to magic is a very real danger to the Order and their goals. They want you gone, or at least locked up until they can bring back their Queen. Now, I think I've answered your questions, so it's time for you to answer mine. How much did Celestia tell you?"

"Not a lot. I'm nearly spellproof, The Order's been around for a long time, she summoned a human once, and Chelsea's her mother." Taylor shrugged, not really sure what was so important.

Sophie's brow furrowed, mulling over his response. "That's everything? She never mentioned an artifact of some sort? Something called the Oculus?"

"Nothing like that. Why?"

"If she didn't say anything about it, then there's a good chance she doesn't know. The Oculus is a remnant of the old Inquisition, maybe even more powerful than the Elements of Harmony. The trouble is, nopony can figure out how to use it. Well," a sly grin spread across her face, "at least nopony in the Order."

She crossed the room, stopping in front of a crate filled with old books. None of them seemed particularly interesting, just old medical texts, a few history books, and so forth. Sophie casually shoved those aside, producing an ancient-looking tome bound in black leather - a fact which did not escape Taylor's attention, but he opted not to ask where the leather came from - with the seal of the Inquisition embossed on the damaged surface.

"I found this in a part of the old Sanctuary that Celestia destroyed a thousand years ago. Apparently no one bothered to search through the rubble before they set to work sealing it all off. It talks a lot about the Oculus, but it never really explains specifically what it is or how it works. All I've gathered is that you need two things to get it working again - the Conduit and the Key. Following so far?"

"Sure, I guess." Taylor said, unenthusiastically.

Sophie clacked a hoof solidly against the floor, glaring at him. "Don't guess. This is important. I want you to take this book and get back to the castle. Give it to that cow of a Princess and figure out the rest."

Sophie levitated the book over, dropping it in front of Taylor. He started to pick it up, but paused, then quickly withdrew his hoof. "After all the lies you've told me, how do I know this thing's not a bomb or a weird wormhole that will summon Cthulhu or some shit?"

"I may not exactly be a fan of Celestia's, but given the choice between her and Chelsea, I'll take the one that wants to protect Equestria instead of burning it to the ground."

Taylor nodded. "Good enough for me. One last question, though. There are plenty of other ways to get this to Celestia, many of them much easier than dragging me out here using magic. Why give something this important to someone who's being hunted by the Order? If I get caught-"

"I'll answer that once you're ready to make a move on the Sanctuary. Don't worry, we'll be seeing each other again soon enough. After all, you'll need someone to help you get inside. Now get going." Sophie nodded her head toward the door, unlocking it with a flash from her horn.

Taylor huffed, grabbing the book in his teeth - still not sure how the hell these ponies could pick things up in their hooves without any thumbs - and pushed his way out into the streets of Canterlot once more.

"She could have just delivered the stupid book on her own, why did she drag me all the way out here just for th-"

Barely ten steps out the door, he crashed right into another pony, interrupting his train of thought. He shook his head, trying to recover from the solid collision.

"Shorry 'out 'at" he struggled to say, still carrying the book in his mouth. He glanced over to find that he had collided with a distressed Twilight Sparkle.

"There you are!" she cried, once the shock of having both literally and figuratively run into Taylor wore off. "The Order's got Lyra and I don't know where they went!"

The book fell out of Taylor's mouth, landing with a dull thud. "That's bad, and we'll have to deal with it, but I have something more important now. This book is the key to stopping Chelsea and the Order. I have to get it to Celestia right away."

Twilight quickly calculated their options, her face darkening. "If you're right, then this," she gritted her teeth, forcing the next part out, "takes priority over rescuing Lyra."

Taylor gave her a reassuring look. "We'll get another opportunity, and we'll have some inside help when we do. For now, I guess it's back to the castle."

He grabbed the book once more and, doing his best to ignore the pain in his leg, sprinted back toward the castle with Twilight Sparkle following close behind.

Even her subordinate's earlier scolding couldn't ruin this mood. Cerise bore a particularly vicious grin as she marched her new prisoner down to the holding cells. Lyra's capture put the Order one step closer to success. In truth, she had expected the human would be the one to make an appearance, but she had to admit - this was going to be so much more enjoyable.

She stopped a few paces short of Bon Bon's cell. "Oh miss traitor, I have a surprise for you." she said in a disturbingly pleasant singsong voice. "You seemed so very lonely, so I brought you something to cheer you up."

Cerise shoved Lyra forward roughly, barely suppressing her awful laughter as the unicorn stumbled over her chains. Bon Bon stared out in horror through bloodshot eyes, taking in the image of her best friend in shackles before pangs of guilt overwhelmed her. She averted her gaze, sobbing weakly.

"Oh come now, don't be like that. After all the work it took to catch her, you could at least try to be appreciative." Cerise laughed. "Go on, toss her in with her little friend. I'd love to stay and watch - really, I would - but I have things to take care of. Have fun, you two. Don't forget to ask Bon Bon about how she sold you out to us."

Cerise turned, practically skipping away as the Inquisitors unlocked the cell and forced Lyra inside. The reverberating slam of the door behind her punctuated it beautifully - she had won yet again.

Two down, one to go.

Author's Notes:

May 2nd, 2013 - Minor edits.