The Unknown Daughters Reunion:The Early Days

The first thing that the alicorn sensed, was the bright light surrounding her.
Then, there was the heat.

'thirsty' she thought.

Opening her eyes a little, she saw the blurry beige of stone, and the blue of the sky.

With a groan, she tucked her legs in and rolled over onto her belly. Righted once more, she lifted her head and blinked a few times to clear the drowsiness and clear her vision.

It was daytime. The sun was shining, as a breeze blew through the trees.

'what day is it? How long was I unconscious?' she asked herself.

Though she was thirsty, she was not terribly so; so it must have been less than a day.

'The Foals!' she thought in panic.

Struggling to get up, she spread her wings. Wincing from the pain in her right wing, she knew she must have landed on it when she collapsed.

Flying unsteadily, she was half way to her front door when she remembered that they were in suspended animation.

And landing on unsteady legs, she caught her breath.

'They will be fine. Even the ravages of time cannot harm them in their state.'
'However, there are other tasks that I must perform before I may bring them out of it' she told herself.

Turning around, she walked slowly to where she had awaken.

"Now where has my notebook gone to?" she asked of her surroundings.

Looking around, she found it up against the divider wall. The wind having carried it there throughout the early part of the day.

Picking it up with a hoof and shaking the dust off, she set it on the wall as she flipped its pages.

'First thing of order; is to turn the power distribution systems back online. Though the foals will be fine, the greenhouses and my frozen foodstuffs will not be should I not restore the power.'

The freezers needed power, and the greenhouses needed their sprinklers working. Already they were likely hot and dry enough to begin wilting the crops without cooling sprinklers to replenish them.

Walking to the first substation, she turned the inverters on by hoof. Seeing them responding to the battery's residual charge, she turned the auxiliary circuit on.

As expected, the inverting system tried to meet the demand, and then tripped and tried again repeatedly. Walking out and proceeding to the next substation; she performed the same task there, this time the tripping duration halved.

After making a round of all eight substations, the auxiliary circuit was online and steady. Energy being supplied by the solar panels, powering the auxiliary circuit, as well as recharging the batteries.

Returning to the first substation, she switched on the primary circuit, and repeated the process throughout the grid.

An hour later now, she headed to the nearest water pumping facility.

Though the extraction pumps were useless without a well right now, there was plenty in the reservoir tanks to keep the greenhouses watered for a few days. And with bringing the pressure pumps all online, she had the immediate water needs covered.

Her next task would be re-drilling the wells and dropping casings in addition to the lines and valves.

Though such would not be difficult for an alicorn, it would be excruciating to use her horn for a few days after what she just pulled off.

Like it or not, she had to get at least one well going before the reserve ran too low. But that was not going to happen today.

Walking to the greenhouses, she turned the automated sprinklers on, and checked on the crops there. Indeed they were looking like they had a rough late-summer's day.

Finally trying her wings again, she mostly glided back to her castle. Landing on her balcony, she pushed the doors open and walked into the still and dimly illuminated surroundings.

In the now evening light, she utilized her nighttime eyesight to make her way to her study. Walking in, she scooped up her flashlight with a wing.

Walking down the hall, she came to the lower level stair.

Flipping on the flashlight, she held it with her good wing as she made her way down the stairs to the breaker panels.

Rearing up on her hind legs, she opened the panels and flipped the mains on.

Starting to buzz softly, she sidestepped to another panel and turned on a couple breakers connecting the battery backups.

Immediately, the emergency lights came on, and switched back off.

Jumping back down, she went over to the wall switch and pressed it.

With a distant click, the room was bathed in light.

Turning off her flashlight, she closed all of the panels and went back upstairs; the lights turning on as she went.

Reaching up and hoofing a glass from the cupboard, she filled it from the tap, and chugged greedily. Filling it once more, she sipped while she made her way to the refrigerator.

Hearing it humming, she opened the door to assess any damage.

Only slight; she took some items out, and made a leftover salad. While she ate, she stared at the empty packaging she left on the counter.

'The world shall never see their like again...' She thought, as a passing thought of preserving the packaging as a relic crossed her mind.

Laughing away the concept of enshrining waste materials, she finished her first meal of the day.

Tossing the discarded wrappings in the trash, she lingered for a moment.

'I should incinerate these when my horn recovers, lest I become too sentimental over disposables!' she chuckled as she closed the drawer.

Heading up to her chambers, she retired for the evening.

Though she found she could't sleep. Her mind raced, she tossed, turned, got up and paced, over and over again until it was mid morning the next day; When finally, she had passed out.

Everything was out of place with her resting habits now;

First; the magic recoil exhaustion and oversleeping.
Second; she was used to using sleeping spells due to the dreamscape being a chaotic nightmare of its own. And with her horn was out of commission, there was none of that.
Third; she physically hurt everywhere, and again, her magic was unavailable to remedy the damage.

Getting up that next evening, she checked up on the foals, the water supply, the greenhouses, as well as the energy supply.

All was in excellent standing, except the water situation. She predicted that it would only last three more days at the most.

Meaning that she could either wait only two days to sink a well and use the remaining reserve to prime it, or three days and magically draw the priming water herself...

As it was, the discomfort was going to be the same either way.

Checking on her reserve cache of magic crystals that she left outside, showed that there was little left in them; maybe ten percent..

Heading to the greenhouses, she turned the sprinklers off, extended the shade screens, and opened the louvers wide to cool them. Anything, to give herself an extra day.

On the third day, she had no choice but to sink a well.

Though successful, it took the entire day and was a miserable experience for her.

The resulting mess outside of the pumping station would have her repairing the grounds in the coming months.

Clay was everywhere. Between not being able to carry it away immediately, as well as the conventional flushing she had to resort to; The surrounding greens were partially destroyed.

But finally, the greenhouses were back to normal again. And in a few days, the reserve water supply would be back to full capacity.

Celebrating with the last of the leftovers and some frozen fruit, she retired before dawn and slept soundly for the first time.

Two weeks later she did so again, with infinitely better results. Her magic now back to use with little discomfort; she sunk the reset of the wells every few days.

Bolstered by the experience, she turned her attention to the fracking plant... but that is another story fought with trial and error.

There she now was; nearly three months on her own, and the city was stabilized.

Energy was abundant, as well as was food.

The second round of foals were out of suspended animation and growing again, the first; Awaiting that joyous day they would be released from suspension and open their eyes to the green world around them.

The nightmares had ceased. The dreamscape was quiet, and what would become the 'princess of earth'; slept soundly at night.

No need for sleep spells, subversion, lies of silence, nor fear of unwelcome visitors.

Surround by the wilds of a reborn earth was:

A tiny island of the past's future. Soon to become; the future's past.