Novo was a sweetheart. The warmth of her wing provided protection and comfort. Love and care. Novo had her beak on the top of Celestia's head and a wing on her back. She herself was holding a cup of sweet tea they retrieved from the cafeteria down below. Novo was right. The refreshments here were amazing.
Novo sighed into her mane and asked, "Do you remember when we first became this close? Twilight's disappearance traumatized you."
Celestia took one final sip and nodded to the window they were facing overlooking Psera. "Yes," she replied peacefully. "Twilight is as close to a daughter I'll ever have. I... Started seeing her ghost everywhere. I just couldn't move on without her. Then you had to knock on my castle door asking for an audience."
Novo smirked and playfully corrected, "It was actually for sugar."
"...was it my sugar?" Celestia could feel Novo slowly grin on top of her head. Her reaction painted a grin on her own face. "I knew it."
Novo nuzzled Celestia's head softly and queried, "Can you blame me? I came there to help, but... I also wanted some sugar." Celestia had to cover her mouth to keep from giggling at Novo's silliness. It was so cute... And oddly arousing.
Celestia sighed behind her cup and took another sip. "Yes, well my sugar is restricted from all, save for the pony who loves me most of all. And has stolen my heart in return."
"Do I not love you?" Celestia looked up into the saddened eyes of Novo. A look that very much shattered her heart.
"No... No, sweetness," she backpedaled. "I know you love me and I love you. We just have not reached that stage yet. You have yet to take me out on a date."
"Could this not be considered a date?"
Celestia hummed and silently admitted it qualifies. They were having a late night snack together watching the twinkling beauty of Psera's night. Yet... Celestia smirked and admitted, "It is. But it's not the proper way to get one under the sheets with you."
"Are you sure?" When Novo licked her neck, Celestia closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side to allow more access. The feel of someone else being intimate with her, making her body shiver with want... It was alien. It's been so long she forgot what it felt like.
However their time alone was interrupted when the paper cup in Celestia's hold clattered to the floor. Empty, but still something that caught her attention. Her eyes snapped back open and moved down. But Novo's claw was in the way. "Hold on, sweetness, hold on," she ordered. How did that cup drop? She didn't let it go.
Novo backed off and observed Celestia gazing at the cup with contempt. Since it was empty, it should've been more easy to pick up. But... "My magic doesn't seem to be working," she announced.
Novo blinked to her and then bent low to get eye level with the cup. "What do you mean?"
"I mean my magic just... Switched off." Celestia moved from the window back into her room to try on something else much easier. A feathered pen. She closed her eyes and strained. Focused. But still no success. She shook her head and looked to Novo with desperate eyes. Like a scared puppy in the cold and rain. "My magic isn't working, Novo, my magic isn't working!"
Novo quickly rushed over and attempted to relieve her worries. "Okay, okay, calm down... Celestia, your mane." She reached out and lifted pink strands of hair into Celestia's sight. Celestia's real hair. Not glowing. Not moving on its own. It had fallen from the air and onto the floor. She hasn't seen it like this in over a millennia.
Celestia held it up herself with eyes of terror and mumbled, "This isn't good."
Suddenly, the little light they had in Celestia's room lost brightness. Everything turned pitch black. Both inside and out. "...what just happened?" Novo whispered.
"The lights just went out. Okay, something is definitely going on. Hopefully, I can light this candle." Celestia scuffled around in the dark and ended up bumping into something that shattered. "Oops," she mumbled. Then a match was lit and they had a glowing candle that highlighted her and Novo's faces. Thankfully these rooms came with those. Why, she had no clue. But that wasn't the issue right now.
Novo glanced to Celestia from the lick of fire and asked, "You have pink hair?"
Of course that's where her mind would go. Celestia sighed and deadpanned, "Yes. You didn't seriously think I had spectrum, did you?"
Novo smiled and admittedly shrugged. "I don't pay attention to you all-mighty alicorns and your manes. I just roll with it and deal."
Alicorns... Celestia gasped and asked urgently, "What about the others? Quick, grab the candle."
Once Novo had the candle in a claw, Celestia creaked open the door and peeked out. The entire hall was blackened. One would have guessed it to be Fresh Dawn. But no other creature except the Princesses knew of Fresh Dawn's... Uniqueness. And since this was still a hallway and not some other unknown dimension, they were still in the Castle. No Guards seemed to be in sight right now.
So Celestia crept across the hall to the room directly across. She knocked lightly and called in a small but urgent voice, "Cadance... Cadance, Shining, are you awake?" A tense three seconds and no response. Celestia rolled her eyes and used her hooves to push down the door handle. Flurry more than likely had her own room. And since the door was unlocked they didn't catch them at some rather intimate moment like she and Novo were having. Although, they did look rather cute together.
They were under the sheets snoring the night away with Cadance tuckered within Shining's hooves. Her head lay on his chest while he chose to be in an upright position facing the ceiling. As cute as it was, Celestia was worried. Because Cadance's mane wasn't moving either.
Celestia walked around to Shining's side to look directly in Cadance's face."Wake up now." Cadance mumbled something and shuffled her head but arise she did not. "Wake up!"
Cadance yelped and sat up as fast as a deer caught outside of the woods. "I'm awake, I'm awake," she mumbled. Then locked tired eyes on Celestia before they almost popped out of their sockets. "Celestia? What... What happened to you?"
Shining yawned and was more gracious with his rising. But he did get out of the bed and stood in front of Celestia. "What in Equestria? Why are you two in our room? And... Whoa." He eyed Celestia up and down and lifted her mane with a hoof. It was really long. So long it was dragging the floor. "Uh... What happened? And why do you look so worried?"
"Can either of you use your magic?" Celestia asked. "Something's wrong, I lost mine."
Lost her magic? That's unheard of. Cadance attempted to use hers on the door to close it back. But... Her tired look slowly changed to that of surprise. Then struggle. "I... I can't use mine either," she whispered. "Shining, can you?"
Shining was straining to use his himself. With scrunched eyes and grunts. But in the end he huffed and relaxed with a shake of his head. "No," he answered. "No, my magic is useless. What's going on, why can't we use our magic?"
Before they could answer, Luna rushed into the room in a panic. She nearly ran into the door. "There you are," she scolded in a hushed tone. "What's going on, nothing is working! I lost connection to the dream realm! And the rest of IHT is worried. No one can use their magic."
Right, Luna must've been in the midst of a dream when she lost touch with hers. As for everyone else, no clue. Celestia shook her head and replied, "I am not sure. Novo and I were talking when my magic cut and... The power." Celestia strolled out of the room and past Luna in favor of her own. Specifically her window to gaze out in wonder. There was nothing out there save for the stars in the sky. They could at least make out silhouettes of distant buildings. Even Twilight's Central PDS was offline. But other than that, everything was just... Black.
The Rulers gasped at the sight. Whatever happened it knocked out all of Psera's energy. The castle was more than likely already notified. Yet there was no clear action being taken. Luna backed away from the window and asked, "Okay. All energy is out. Is it nationwide?"
Celestia shook her head and left the window to face her sister. "Not sure. All I know is that everything just dropped. There is no clear or visible source. And..." Celestia gasped and whispered, "Dawn. She may be affected even worse than all of us."
The Princesses and Shining shared her worry whereas Novo was completely clueless. Apparently she was going to be the one holding the candle for them directly in the middle while they held their discussion in the dark. She merely sighed and accepted her position. No use in fighting it.
As late as it was, she had to know if Dawn was okay. Celestia opened the door and bumped into the two less likely ponies to be up at this hour. Surprising, considering one of the two's situation.
A guard out of the plenty with them was holding a flame to light Arcadia and Madun's path amidst the darkness that was the castle. They were wearing housecoats or Robes as they call them here in Psera. Might as well be the universal language. Arcadia tilted her head to the side and asked Celestia, "Your mane... Is pink?"
Celestia blushed and sighed in defeat. "Yes, my mane and tail are actually pink. Now that we got that out of the way, what's going on?"
Twilight smiled while Madun continued walking back towards the room. "Solar flare," she lied. "Everything will be out for quite some time, around seven hours. But you will have your magic back up and running before it is time for you to raise the sun. No worries." Twilight looked past Celestia at the rest of them in her room. "Quite the party you have going on here."
Celestia followed her gaze to the all the ponies in her room. And they all looked like a mess. Quite the party indeed. She bit her lip and faced Twilight with a mask on her face. "Yes, well we were all concerned about our magic. I see you're less stressed about it. Odd, considering Psera looks to you solely for magic." It was strange indeed. Very strange.
Twilight nodded and started the move back towards the Suite to catch up with Madun. "Yes, well I calmed down when I learned of the situation. No need to fear, your magic and the power will return in a matter of hours. Good night, everyone." And with that, Twilight and Madun crept back down the hallway with a conversation they were having on their own. "Now you're saying Dawn can't get sick because..."
Celestia held up a hoof before Cadance could leave and pushed her back into her room. Then lightly shut the door. She waited until the sounds were gone, then turned to face them. "Twilight has a good poker face, but I can see right past it. She's terrible at lying. She always has been."
Novo set the candle down on the desk beside the bed and climbed in. May as well, they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. "Lying?" She repeated.
Shining shook his head and denied with a wave of a hoof, "Twilight doesn't lie. For her to lie would be the equivalent of the world ending."
Celestia walked past them all and explained her reasoning to the darkness of Cop. "Then we must all be in Tartarus. I have been moving the sun from its position for centuries. I have seen it rise and I have seen it set. I become the sun and it becomes me. I know the feeling of when a Solar Flare spits out from its corona. And a Solar Flare did not occur for the last few weeks." Celestia turned around and faced them. "Not to mention, the Psera we know would have freaked out entirely. There wasn't even an alarm. Or military scrambling. Which let me know they knew this was going to happen."
Cadance scuffed at her mane and admitted, "That does seem odd. And Celestia does know more about the sun than Twilight does. She would know a Solar Flare better than her. Despite her knowledge of... Practically everything."
The room bathed into a silence. A deep deadly silence none of them have ever experienced. Shared looks of worry but no sound. Shining tore his eyes away from Cop and looked back to their circle. "I think we should roll with whatever Psera does here," he suggested. Then added with a quick shiver, "No matter how concerning it is."
Novo suggested from Celestia's bed, "I for one think we should look into it."
"As do I," Cadance agreed. "Whatever they are doing could cause harm to other creatures out there."
Celestia shook her head from the front of the group and raised a hoof to slow them down. "No," she sternly ordered. "We barely have any permission to be here, and Psera is not a part of IHT. They do not fall under our treaties, rules, and regulations. Not to mention, we'll more than likely be leaving either tomorrow or the day after sometime. Psera's Queen is back and they are seeing to her health and protection. Our mission was to get her out. We have done what they wanted. Now it is time for us to go. End of it. If we search for anything, we risk the trustworthy credibility our countries have in our names, and Psera's descent back into their secretive darkness. We can't afford that. Especially with Twilight's warning that another threat is coming."
Oh right. They could lose a possible alliance with Psera. And their crazy weaponry. An alliance they needed.
But Novo was concerned about something else. She jumped out of Celestia's bed and repeated, "Another threat? What are you talking about? If there is a threat coming, I prefer to know it now." Did any of them know about this? Based off of their looks, it seemed that only Celestia knew.
Celestia sighed and whispered to everyone, "None of this leaves our circle." Novo nodded and straightened up into the look of a Queen. "While in the hospital, Twilight told me that she and Maheera... Actually held a conversation on the other side of the Mecrah Portal."
It was news that warped their minds. Cadance sat down like Novo and asked, "They held a conversation? No fighting? Talking?"
Celestia nodded and confirmed, "Maheera told her that Narmeelah... Was not who Psera thinks she is. She was a kind and loyal Queen on the surface, but she was willing to do dirty things to keep everyone away from Psera. As well as enforce the law. Anypony that came in were killed, and anypony that went out were killed. She kept Psera away from everyone, and everyone away from Psera. Maheera was one of the Ponies Narmeelah created using discarded magic and cast to the side. Dark magic. Just like ... You know who.
"Anyway, Maheera was trying to teach Narmeelah that all creatures, no matter origin, shape, or size, were equal. And that none were a threat to each other. She did so by infecting all ponies not from Psera and showing Narmeelah, but Narmeelah wiped them all out. And restarted all races except Psera in the process. Which is why Psera is so much more advanced than us. We're foals compared to the Pserateps."
Celestia sat down at the desk near the bed and stated, "Narmeelah's goal was to keep Psera to herself and her personal creations, and to keep her personal creations away from everyone outside. But now everyone knows Psera exists. And have spoken with them. I believe and theorize... That Twilight is anticipating Narmeelah's return to be angry."
Shining smoldered at her through the darkness and repeated, "Her return. Are you saying Narmeelah is alive? Psera's legend indicated—"
"That she disappeared," Celestia corrected. "Not cease to live. Clues and notes were found in her bedroom surrounding her diary. But as for herself, a body, even a fossil, there was nothing. So a confirmation of Death is still pending. Even after all these years. The only pony who actually read Queen Narmeelah's diary front to back entirely was Twilight, who said she has it locked up in a special location only she and a hoof of others could get to. Something in that diary must've scared her. Whatever it is, only she knows. And she's not telling. I suggest we keep it that way. It is not of any urgent matter right now, and what Psera deals with is their business until it concerns us. Until then, we stay out of it."
Luna nodded and agreed, "It is for the best. If Twilight needs our help, she will let us know in one way or another. Until then, we continue making sure she's okay as her family."