//------------------------------//
// Chapter 28 
// Story: The Collapse 
// by Lightwavers 
//------------------------------//

Twilight stood next to her friends. She ran her gaze over them. Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Gilda, Pinkie Pie, and professor Radiance. Most of her friends. A tear rolled down her cheek. Why did Rainbow have to be so stupid? Gilda still wasn’t talking to her.

“Applejack? Applejack!”

A yellow filly bounded out of the milling crowd in front of them and barreled into Applejack, sending them both tumbling down to the barren ground.

Rarity smiled at them, then looked back to the crowd. Looking for Sweetie Belle, Twilight knew. The Everfree’s victims might be free, but they were scattered all across the former forest in pockets of about twenty each. Apparently they’d been trapped inside strange cocoons that kept them alive but sucked at their magic, feeding them the necessary nutrients in a deep, dreamless sleep. So far, the unicorns and earth ponies had been able to use magic if provided with a power source, but none of the pegasi could do the same.

The Everfree might be gone, but Celestia’s doppelganger was on the loose, able to turn to shadow and fly through solid stone. The night was still eternal, ponies were displaced all across Equestria, and the griffons were still raiding, maybe even at war by now.

Still.

She had her friends. Equestrians were hardy creatures, able to withstand cold and stave back starvation. They’d done it before, back before they’d settled this land, and they could do it again.

It would be a logistical nightmare, but Twilight excelled at organization.