Ponyville. Sweet Apple Acres. Braeburn was pulling an empty cart to the orchard, were his cousins Applejack, Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom were waiting. When he arrived, the four of them started filling the cart with baskets full of apples.

"Thanks again for comin' all the way from Appleloosa to here, cousin!" Applejack said. "The apple trees sure were full this season!"

"Eeyup!" her brother, Big Macintosh, agreed.

"It was no problem, cousin AJ. It's good to visit family from time to time!"

"How's Appleloosa, cousin Braeburn?" Apple Bloom asked. "And cousin Apple Bumpkin?"

"Not bad, lil' Bloom! Both are doin' just fine." he said while ruffling her mane.

"When is she visitin' again?"

"Ah have a better idea! Yer summer vacations are almost startin', right? Why don't ya go visit Appleloosa for a couple o' days? Ya never visited us before."

She turned around and looked at her siblings with sparkling eyes. "Can Ah, sis? Can Ah, bro? Please, please, please, pleeeeeeease?"

Applejack looked at her big brother, who just smiled and winked. She smiled back and looked at her small sister.

"Sure, Apple Bloom! How about next weekend?"

Apple Bloom's smile grew wider and she hugged her older siblings. "Thank y'all so much!" she looked at her cousin again. "What about mah friends Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo? Can they come too?"

"As long as their parents are ok with it, Ah can't see why not."

"Thanks, cousin. Thanks, sis. Thanks, bro."

"Prince Consort Braeburn Apple!" a loud female voice called from above. The four Apples looked up and saw a tall, midnight blue pony, the Alicorn Princess Luna. She was flying toward them and landed right in front of Braeburn. "Your presence is requested in Canterlot by my sister immediately."

"Why? Somethin' wrong?"

"Everything shall be explained once we are all together. Now come!"

Braeburn nodded and looked at his cousins. "Sorry for cuttin' mah visit short."

"It's ok, cousin!" Applejack said. "The job of a Prince is never over."

Apple Bloom gasped. "Cousin Braeburn is a Prince?"

Braeburn chuckled before disappearing with Princess Luna in a flash of blue light.

* * *

"D-D-Disappeared?!"

"I'm afraid so, Prince Braeburn." Princess Celestia said, sitting on her throne, looking down at the stallion. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, her assistant Spike, one of my assistants Badroulbadour and both of Twilight's Dusk Guards disappeared last night, as well as your castle, without leaving a single clue behind about who did it or where they went. I called you here, hoping that you knew what happened. After all, you made the castle appear, I was sure you knew what could make it disappear."

"How did you do that, since we have touched the subject?" Princess Luna asked.

"It's... Sort of a long story!"

"I'm pretty sure we have time." Princess Luna said.

"Specially when it concerns the possibility of pinpointing the location of the missing castle and the ones inside it!" Princess Celestia added.

Braeburn took a deep breath and began to tell the story of how he found the wonderful lamp with the giant demon that could grant any wish who lied inside it. He didn't skip any details, telling about the death of the trees in his town, the unexpected meeting with Princess Twilight, the stranger that turned out to be the Queen of the Changelings, the secret magic cave and the shadows dwelling in it, the demon inside the bracelet, the wish the lamp genie granted, the second unexpected meeting with Princess Twilight and the second wish the lamp granted.

"Y'all know how things wen't from there." he said.

"I see..." Princess Celestia said, rubbing her chin with her right foreleg while looking up at the ceiling.

"And now that y'all already know 'bout the lamp, Ah have a question: does any of ya Princesses know what is that lamp or where did it came from?"

The Alicorns looked at each other and then back and Braeburn. Both shook their heads.

"I'm sorry, Braeburn, but this cave you told us about is probably from before our time, because neither of us ever saw or heard about it before." the older sister said.

"Well, the origin of the artifact is of no concern at the time being." the younger sister said. "Our priority is to find Princess Twilight and the others!"

"My sister speaks the truth, Prince Braeburn."

"Yer right! What can Ah do to help? No, wait, scratch that. Ah already know what Ah can do!"

"And what would that be?"

* * *

"Hello, Prince! Already back from yer business trip to Ponyville?" Apple Bumpkin said with a smile when she saw it has her brother who was knocking on the door. "Long time no see, bro. What are ya doin' here?"

"We don't have much time, AB! Where is the bracelet?"

"Still in the chest inside the closet, why? By the way, where did ya moved the castle to?"

"Ah didn't moved no castle! Somepony stole the lamp and took the castle away!"

"What? Oh, that ain't good..."

"This is why Ah need the bracelet. Maybe Ah'll be able to use it to bring it back!"

Apple Bumpkin nodded and went to the bedroom that she used to share with her brother - he offered her a room in his castle when he started living there, but she politely refused; she liked that house. Braeburn followed his sister to the bedroom and watched her retrieve the chest from its hiding place. She unlocked it and passed the gold bracelet with a red gem encrusted on it. Braeburn silently thanked her with a nod and wore the bracelet on his left foreleg. He then proceeded to rub it.

"Slave of the Bracelet, I summon you!"

The gem started to glow and soon the red demon was standing in front of the siblings.

"I am the Slave of the Bracelet and slave of the one who wears it." he said. "What is your command, my Master?"

"I want mah love, mah friends and mah castle back. Can ya help me?"

"Unfortunately I can't undo the magic of the Slave of the Lamp." he said. Braeburn's expression saddened. "But I can take you to where he took your castle."

"Please, do it! But first, Ah need two favors. Can ya make a map o' Equestria and mark an 'X' on the spot where the castle is?"

"As you wish, Master." the genie snapped his fingers and a map appeared right in front of them, with a spot marked on the Badlands.

"It's not that far away from here." Apple Bumpkin pointed out. "Compared to the rest o' Equestria, that is!"

"Thanks, mister" Braeburn said. "Now, can ya send a message to Princess Celestia?"

"Yes, Master." the demon said, materializing a quill and a scroll on his hands.

"Write as Ah say, please!" he cleaned his throat. "Dear Princesses Celestia and Luna." the Slave of the Lamp began to write. "Ah summoned the Slave of the Bracelet an' he was able to locate the castle. Ah'm sendin' y'all a map with this letter. The location of the castle is marked on it. The Slave of the Bracelet is takin' me there an' Ah hope to be able to set things normal, but Ah just wanted to warn y'all, just in case. Signed, Braeburn Apple."

"Done, Master!"

"Great! Now please, send it to the Canterlot Castle." the Slave of the Lamp snapped his fingers once again and both the letter and the map disappeared. "And now, ya can take me to the place where mah fiancée is!"

"And me too!"

"AB?"

"If yer goin' on an adventure, Ah'm goin' with ya! Last time ya ended up locked in a cave with shadow monsters an' almost died. Ya always need somepony to watch yer back. Besides, Ah always wanted to go on an adventure too!"

"Are ya sure, AB? ight be very dangerous."

"Big bro, do ya think Ah care about danger? Ah just want to have fun. Ah like to live in Appleloosa, but sometimes life here gets really borin'!"

Braeburn chuckled. "Ah told Twi the same thing a while ago. Ok, AB, ya can come. But ya need to be careful, ok? Never leave mah side. Ah don't know who stole the lamp or what we'll find there, this is why we need to stick together. Specially if that Queen of the Changelings is the one behind all this. The Princesses told me they can change their appearance to fool others!"

"Alright, Ah get it. Let's go!"

* * *

Twilight woke up on the cold floor of a room in her castle. After looking around for a while, she noticed that she was in the dungeon.

"Huh! I never knew we had a dungeon. I really need to find some time to explore the castle! Wait, what am I talking about? What am I doing here, anyway? Hellooo? Anypony there?"

"Your Highness? Is that you?" called a male voice from outside her cell in the dungeon.

"Nightingale? Yes, it's me, where are you?"

"I'm in a cell." Nightingale, a grey pegasus stallion wearing a lavender armor - a Dusk Guard - answered. "Dove is here too. Why are we here? Can you free us?"

"Actually, I'm locked too! I'll just teleport out of here and free you two!" magic started to flow on her horn, but suddenly disappeared. "What?" she tried again, but the same thing happened. "What's going on?"

"It's no use, Your Highness!" Dove, the white unicorn stallion, said. "There are magic inhibitor gems all over the walls of the dungeon and, as long as we're in here, we can't even cast the simplest of the spells. It will only make you tired. Believe me, I tried!"

"Who is responsible for this?"

"That white unicorn traitor!" Nightingale said, stomping his hoof on the floor.

"White unicorn? You mean Badroul?"

"We found her in your bedchambers." Dove said. "She was looking for something there. And she... Knocked us out. Please, forgive us, Your Highness!"

"It's ok, gentlecolts."

"But I can't believe Badroul would do such thing!" Twilight thought. "She is one of Celestia's most faithful assistants. What's going on?"

She heard the sound of a heavy door being opened and then heard the sound of hoofsteps.

"Who's there?" Twilight asked.

She saw a silhouette coming down the stairs. When it came closer to her, she could see it was a tall, dark pony-like figure with a long, green mane. Twilight gasped, but her surprised was suddenly replaced again.

"You!"

"Yep. Me!"

"Why are you here? Why am I here? What is going on?"

"You're in my home, Twilight Sparkle!"

"Your home? Not a chance! I've never been in this room before, but this is definitely my castle!"

"Yes, maybe this was your castle, but this is my neighborhood."

"What are you talking about?"

"Take a look through the window, Princess!"

Twilight turned around, flapped her wings and flew up to the barred window. She gasped; she was no longer on top of a mesa in San Palomino Desert, but on the bottom of a canyon which appeared to be on the Badlands.

"This can't be good..."

"You're wrong, Sparkle! This is actually really, really good."

"I disagree with you! This is not good for me at all."

"And who said it was good for you?" the Queen chuckled before turning around and going back upstairs.

"My friends will find you, Queen Chrysalis! I can't wait to see them give you what you deserve."

"I'd like to see them try." she said before closing the door.

Twilight sighed and sat on the cold, stone floor.

"Help me, Braeburn..."

Author's Note

I was watching a gameplay of Catherine while writing this chapter. At some point, the main character mentioned a "magic lamp". I couldn't help but giggle!