The green and purple baby dragon was carrying a stack of scrolls from the library to the study room, where Princess Twilight Sparkle was with her coltfriend, Braeburn.

"This library is amazing, Braeburn! There are so many books here that I never even heard of before, all of them filled with information. History books, magic books, recipe books, there are even books from across the seas." she gasped. "'Geography of the Dragon Kingdom'? But ponies know close to nothing about dragons and their land. Whe-Where did you found this book, Braeburn?"

"Well, Twi--"

"I brought the documents you wanted, Twilight!" Spike said when entering the room, interrupting Braeburn.

"Oh, thank you, Spike!" she said while levitating the scrolls to her table. "So, about those books..."

Braeburn chuckled. "Ah will explain it to ya soon, Twilight." he said while walking toward the door, but stopping before leaving to look at the baby dragon. "An' Ah'm sorry, Spike!"

"Sorry? For what?"

Braeburn chckled again before leaving without saying anything.

"What is he talking about, Twilight?"

"It's... Nothing, Spike. Don't worry about it!"

An unicorn mare walked into the study room, carrying a few books in her saddlebags. Her coat was white and her long, orange mane was tied in a ponytail.

"I have arrived, Your Highness." she said with a voice so sweet that made both Spike and Twilight blush without even realizing. "And I brought the books from Canterlot that you request!"

"Wh-Who's that?" Spike asked.

"That's Badroulbadour, one of Celestia's assistants. I asked Celestia to send me a few books from the Starswirl wing." she levitated the books from the unicorn's saddlebag. "Which she brought as fast as she could. Thank you so much!"

"Badra-what?"

The mare giggled. "You can call me Badroul, Mr. Spike!"

"Mr. Spike, huh? Good to see that somepony finally recognizes that I am a big dragon!"

Twilight smiled and turned back to the books and scrolls on her table. "Thanks for everything. Both of you. But now I need some time to study so, if you don't mind..."

Badroul nodded. "I understand, Your Highness!"

"Ok, Twilight."

The pony and the dragon left the room and Twilight magically closed the door behind them. Spike went back to his room and Badroul to the lobby but, when she was about to leave the castle, black forelegs with lots of holes wrapped around her torso and face, covering her mouth.

"Aren't you a pretty mare? Maybe not as pretty as the last mare whose identity I stole, but I take what I can get!"

Badroul tried to scream and began to squirm, but even though her magic skills were above the average, her physical strenght wasn't that great and she was too scared to focus on casting any kind of spell. Suddenly the black foreleg in front of her turned white. She turned her head around as much as she was allowed to and noticed she was taken hostage... By herself? The horn of the other self started glowing green - even though the normal color of her magic was blue - and she felt her eyelids gowing heavier.

"Rest now, beautiful mare. I take things from here!"

Badroulbadour slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

"Do you really have to go?" Twilight asked her coltfriend, who was about to board the train to Ponyville.

"Cousin AJ and cousin Big Mac are askin' for help and, knowin' their pride as well as Ah do, they wouldn't ask for anypony's help if they could do somethin' 'bout it!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Wish I could go with you, but I still have a few unfinished business in the castle!"

"Ah understand, Twi! But Ah'll be back in a couple o' days, so fret not, mah love. We'll be together again before ya can say 'pappy pony picked a pluck of prickly pluffnuggets'!"

The Princess giggled before nuzzling her lover's neck. "Just don't push yourself too hard! I know how you get fired up when applebucking."

"Alright, Ah know. Ah will take a break o' ten minutes after every hour of applebuckin', what 'bout that?"

"Perfect!"

She nuzzled him one last time before he boarded the train. Soon after that, the doors were closed and the train departed. Twilight waved at it until it disappeared in the horizon. The Princess stretched her wings and took off, going back to her castle. When she landed, she saw one pony that she didn't expected:

"Badroul?" she called. "You're still here? I thought you were going back to Canterlot!"

"Princess Celestia asked me to stay here for a while to help you. Your castle is new, after all! You need every help you can get." she said, her voice still the same, but carrying far less sweetness than normally.

"Are... Are you ok, Badroul?"

"What do you mean, Your Highness?"

"Your voice is... No, nevermind that! You're welcome to stay here for as long as you want."

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Twilight trotted past Celestia's assistant and back to the study room, closing the door. Badroul smirked and went ustairs, into Twilight and Braeburn's bedroom. In her hurry, she forgot the door wide open behind her and proceeded to inspect the whole room. After looking for around twenty minutes, she found it hidden in the wardrobe, under a pile of brown jackets.

"Finally." she said, while levitating a black and white oil lamp in front of her face. "The Lamp. I finally found it! It's finally mine! After so, so long, I can finally have Equestria under my hoof!"

"Who's there?" asked a white unicorn stallion and a grey pegasus stallion at the same time, both holding spears and wearing a lavender armor.

"Oh, forgot about those buffoons..." she sighed before shooting a green beam of magic at the white unicorn, knocking him out. The gray pegasus stallion charged at her, but she dodged his attack before hitting the back of his neck with a foreleg, knocking him out as well. She levitated the Lamp into the saddlebag on her back and pointed her horn at the guards. She was about to shoot another spell, but reconsidered and smiled before turning around and leaving the room.

"Why erase their memories when I can just let them remember everything and let them blame somepony else?" she thought. "They have witnesses, they won't even think about looking for another suspect." she chuckled when she left the castle. "Not that they would find evidence. Or the 'culprit'!" she looked up at one of the towers of the castle. At first glance, there wasn't anything wrong with the tower, but if anypony inspected it from above, they would notice a green cocoon with an asleep unicorn mare trapped inside. Queen Chrysalis removed her disguise, briefly showing her true appearance, but there was nopony around to see. Soon after that she disguised herself again, this time as a pale yellow pegasus mare with brown mane and a flaming wheel as her Cutie Mark. She took off right after that, flying toward the town of Appleloosa.

"Now I have love energy enough for only one more transformation, but at least I don't need to worry about seeing my disguise in a 'Wanted' poster!" the disguised Chrysalis landed in front of an inn. "But the next part of my plan only starts after everypony is asleep, so I might as well rest for a while!"

A while after midnight, Chrysalis flew out of the window in her room of the inn and toward the castle. She landed on the foot of the stairway, smiling.

"Next phase begins now." she sat on the first step of the stairway, grabbed the Lamp in her saddlebag with her teeth and placed it on her lap. With her hoof shaking of excitement, she proceeded to rub the Lamp, unable to contain the shiver than ran down her spine. "Almighty Genie, rise up and grant me my wish!"

Suddenly the stars in the sky disappeared all at once, and the moon too soon after them. The blue smoke coming from the Lamp took shape of a titanic blue humanoid demon.

"I am the Slave of the Lamp and slave of the one who possess it." he said with a voice so loud that, if it wasn't for the magic that allowed only the ones present at the time of the summonning to see or hear the Slave of the Lamp, the whole town of Appleloosa would have heard him.

"Yes, yes, yes yes yes yes YES!" she shouted. "The reign of Queen Chrysalis starts tonight!" she turned her head around, looking at Princess Twilight's castle with a smirk on her face. "But, of course, every Queen needs a castle. And I already have one right here."

"Tell me, Master, what is your wish?"

"See this castle behind me? Take it along with me back to my hive in the Badlands!"

"Your wish is my command, Master!"

The Slave of the Lamp grew four times his already tremendously big size before grabbing the castle and lifting it with ease. Queen Chrysalis flapped her wings and landed on top of one of the towers. The Slave of the Lamp then flew away from Appleloosa and toward the Badlands, Chrysalis, now back on her true form, was laughing maniacally on top of the castle.

Author's Note

Badroulbadour! Does this name rings any bells? Well, it should, because that's the name of the princess from the original tale. Another character cameo, yay!