The story of Chapter 7

Hi all,
I missed my goal of once-weekly uploads with this one, but I wanted to get Rusty and Dew out of clopper territory before the start of chapter 8. And that turned out to mean a longer chapter than usual. Hence, delay.
I'm pretty happy with how this chapter turned out. Some of the writing seems a bit awkward to me, I might go back and make a couple small adjustments at some point. Anyway, my main plan for it was to have a good amount of backstory. But the way it went... I actually get a little emotional reading through Rusty's monologue, and that doesn't happen very often with me. I'm hoping my readers will find it as impactful as I do... Sorry in advance.
Two brony clans down, an unknown amount to go. Why physicists? How are they related to bronies? It'll make sense, I promise. Probably. Onto the next chapter!