When the pain in my horn finally dulls, I reach over the edge of the bed for the DS, only to fall onto the floor.

Right… not tall enough.

Soon after, Twilight, Spike and Starlight stop at my door and start knocking.

“Come in…” I weakly command.

The door opens with Twilight the first to speak. “Aita! Are you al-” She stops short when she sees Areola in the center of the room. “...right?”

Starlight and Spike’s jaws drop at the sight of Areola. One of them, Starlight, comes forward. “Is that… Queen Areola?”

“Aita! What happened?!?” I hear Twilight ask with concern before I doze off.

I see Aita practically faint in front of my eyes, so I do the only logical decision and float him next to me.

“Starlight,” I start. “take Aita to the throne room. Spike, go with Starlight. I’ll handle things from here.”

When Spike and Starlight leave with Aita floating behind them, I walk around to see the DS next to where Aita was just before. I pick it up with magic and try to turn it on. Unfortunately, it looks like whatever Aita did drained the battery on this device, not just his horn.

I turn around at the sound of groaning behind me.

“Ugh, where am I? …Twilight Sparkle? Is that you?”

The changeling I see seems to resemble Queen Chrysalis’ old form, except a slightly more green-shifted light scheme.

“Whoa… are you… Queen Chrysalis’ teacher?”

“Yes, I am. I must conduct a test for myself. This is highly unusual to have neurons firing off for real.” Areola proceeds to touch me softly in the chest, then nod. “Uh huh. That definitely confirms.”

“I don’t know what Aita did, but it seems to’ve brought you to the waking world, that and it seemingly dried out the batteries on this thing.”

“Hm… what are you holding?”

“Aita calls it a Nintendo Dual Screen, or just DS for short. Looks like I have a thing or two to do before I go back to bed. Why don’t you come with me now that you’re alive and well.”

In the library, I carefully put the DS onto the mirror so that it can charge. Meanwhile, Areola is looking out the window of the library out toward town.

“So, Ponyville right? I don’t remember this ordinary town boasting a castle.”

I turn my head and nod. “Yep. It was only a couple of years ago I got this castle. My hooves have been a little full ever since.”

“So, are you the-”

I interrupt, approaching the window Areola is looking out. “-legal guardian of Aita Bagley-Handy? Yes. Yes I am. Since that disaster from last Hearth’s Warming, I took him in and let him attend school to expand his circle of good friends.”

“What do you think caused him to pull me into the waking world?”

I open up the DS and attempt to turn it on. The screens turn white, then the top one shows the logo as that classic piano chime plays. When I see the calendar, it says June 14, 2017 at 12:15 am. On the top of the same screen, it says that it’s his birthday today. “Mm… I don’t think he meant to take you out here; it must’ve been a whole slew of things, starting with this DS.”

I pause, Areola responding by waving her right forehoof. “...Go on.”

“This DS runs on normal electricity that Equestria only has sparse amounts of. And each one of us emit a cranial pulse everypony, even changelings, can detect. Now what happens when the delta waves from rapid eye movement and electricity are bridged by extrasensory neurons?”

“Uh, lightning? Funnels to the waking world?”

“But more importantly, Areola, haywire magic. This DS was attempting to let Aita know that his birthday was today, but because it required electricity, any close proximity to it would lead to a discharge. You were in his dream, right?” Areola nods. “Then he had you on his mind when the discharge happened, thus you were led here.”

“Twilight… where’d Aita go?”

When Areola and I enter the throne room, Aita is sound asleep on Applejack’s throne while Starlight is on Fluttershy’s, and Spike on his own.

“Starlight, Spike, how are things going with Aita?” I ask.

“Spike and I were curious about what spell that DS triggered. So using Ampliatur Vestigium, I was able to find the main culprit: Sumnus Revivia. It’s really powerful stuff that I won’t mess with nowadays, especially after that time I tried to condense five lessons into a single session.”

Areola shakes her head in confusion. “She did WHAT?!?”

I turn my head to Areola. “Starlight’s good with spells; I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” I turn back to Starlight. “Starlight, is Aita going to be alright?”

“With a spell that powerful, he might be out of commission for the morning. He’s sure gonna feel that when he wakes up.”

I take a quick, deep breath. “Okay. I don’t know if he’s reentered rapid eye movement yet, but just to be sure, we’ll need to put him back to bed. Areola, would you be up to that?” Areola lets out a grin of inclination. “Great. Then Starlight, Spike and I will stay here until you’re done.”

So now, Areola takes Aita out of the throne room so that Spike, Starlight and I can discuss the adjustments we need to make.

I moan. “I didn’t expect Aita would involuntarily bring the former changeling queen back to life. Now he’s gonna miss half his birthday. We had so much planned for him this morning.”

“Don’t worry about it Twilight. Starlight and I have everything covered, right.” Starlight nods at Spike. “We’ll just offset everything by a few hours. And because this is, well, Aita’s birthday, I think we should let him stay up as long as he wants; just keep him occupied, and do not let him see the night, should his daily rhythm kick in again.”

I teleport in the communication journal and start writing.

Dear Sunset Shimmer,

Twilight Sparkle here. We’ve just had a little mishap here in the Castle of Friendship. Aita’s DS was attempting to notify him about his birthday, but because he had it on the side-table next to him, it led to a magical discharge that brought someone back to life. I know that all sounds crazy, but I’m notifying you because we’ll have to delay our party by a few hours as a result of the discharge. I hope you understand if we don’t get started right away.

Author's Note

The note at the bottom was originally the result of some attempt at consistency between EqG:OA and this.