//------------------------------//
// Testing the Waters 
// Story: Dark Matter 
// by moguera 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 20: Testing the Waters

Their work done for the day, Applejack took Bloom and Dinky back to the farm with her after Bloom had taken the opportunity to say hi to Spike.  Swift Stride had terminated his session with Twilight a little early, explaining that he needed to find a room in town.  Though Applejack had previously offered him a place to rest on the farm, Swift strongly suspected that said offer had been unofficially retracted after she had gotten a taste of his true nature at the hospital.  Fortunately, he was more than happy to find his own shelter.  Arkenstone wasn't exactly sure where Swift would go, as the inn hadn't been rebuilt yet, but he felt a much greater peace of mind knowing that Swift was out of the library for the time being.
As they sat down at the table with Spike for dinner, Twilight gave Arkenstone a searching look.  "You looked ready to jump out of your own skin the entire time that Swift was here," she noted.
"Unfortunately, that was more or less the case," said Arkenstone.
"He seemed nice enough to me," said Twilight.  Sure, Swift Stride had a shifty look to him.  But, in her brief discussion with him, Twilight was amazed at the breadth of Swift's knowledge.  They'd started discussing the nature of Morning Star's Dark Matter and Twilight had been shocked by Swift's knowledge in the fields of chemistry and physics, enough that he'd easily been able to keep pace with her in spite of not having even looked at Morning Star's scrolls.
"He can seem quite pleasant when it suits him," said Arkenstone, "However, his attitude is often mercurial and it can be very hard to predict his actions.  It's the main reason we Knights generally regard him with suspicion."
"That seems kind of...petty to me," said Twilight.
"Perhaps it is," admitted Arkenstone with a shrug, "But it's the little things that ultimately add up.  I'm sure you noticed how knowledgable he is on certain topics."
Twilight nodded.  "Yes.  I was amazed he was able to follow everything I was saying about Morning Star's Dark Matter.  Normally, I'd expect to have to simplify my words to make another pony understand, but I didn't have to do it this time."
"Yes," agreed Arkenstone, "Swift Stride is very intelligent, unquestionably the smartest amongst the Knights.  Even highly-skilled mages like Arcana and Sunset agree.  He is especially brilliant in the fields of chemistry, biology, botany, pharmacology, and psychology, especially as they pertain to certain practices."
"What kind of practices?" asked Spike, his ear fins perking up as he asked.
"He is an expert in explosives and poisons," replied Arkenstone, "I have observed him fighting on two occasions.  His outfit conceals innumerable bombs of a variety of types and yields, and countless different poisons with varying degrees of potency."
"With your nose, I'd figure you could sniff out exactly what kind of bombs and poisons he carries," Twilight noted.
Arkenstone shook his head.  "I can place some of them," he said, "But there are even more than I can't.  If you've never encountered something before, you can't definitively identify it.  I am familiar with quite a few different poisons and drugs, but Swift has many many more.  As far as the explosives he carries, all I can discern is that I am very uncomfortable anytime Swift stands near an open flame."
"Yeah," said Twilight, shifting nervously, "I can imagine that."
"But, what truly worries me about Swift Stride is that there is something more to him that I can't readily identify.  For all that he has so many tricks and trinkets that he can use in a fight, it never feels as though he truly needs them.  That's why I've always felt that Swift is the strongest Knight."
"He actually sounds kinda awesome," commented Spike.
"It might be," agreed Arkenstone, his ear twitching as another fly buzzed past.  "But that doesn't make his presence any less worrying."



Though he'd said otherwise, rather than actively seek shelter for the night, Swift instead found himself wandering through Ponyville's streets, taking in the sights and watching ponies as they finished their business for the day, forming a steady trickle in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres, where the tents brought in from Canterlot provided shelter for ponies as they waited for their homes to be rebuilt.  Rather than follow that stream of ponies, Swift instead took a route that led him across the town and out into a different section of the countryside.
The meandering path eventually led to a pair of homes that seemed to be perched at the very edge of the Everfree Forest.  One home had the look of a quaint, country cottage, with a babbling brook that ran across the front yard, where it actually flowed under a small bridge that was part of the walkway leading up to the front door.  The house was surrounded by a variety of birdhouses and animal pens.  It was beautiful and homey.
Nearby, a second house had been erected.  This one had a more conservative appearance, crafted from dark wood planks and slate shingles, it contrasted rather sharply with the white plaster and straw thatching of its neighbor.  Both houses were illuminated from within and Swift could see figures moving through the windows of the cottage.  Adjusting his position, Swift got a better view of the cottage's interior and was awarded by the sight of an ebony colt sitting at a table across from a yellow pegasus mare and a tan earth pony stallion.  Even from this distance, Swift could see the colt's eyes, their vivid turquoise color and unique draconic shape.  So this is where the little guy lives.  He seems to have made a nice home for himself.
As Swift watched, the family in the cottage were working their way through bowls of steaming soup, which was supplemented by a loaf of bread that they used to sop up the remainder in their bowls.  Watching them eat and seeing Dawn Lightwing smile and speak with his adopted parents, almost resembling a normal foal as he did so, warmed the stallion's heart.  He'd felt a little guilty about Dawn's situation ever since he'd observed Morning Star send Terra Heart off on that so-called holy quest to exterminate the colt.  Swift could easily think of half a dozen ways that he could have disposed of Terra, but none of which were permissible given his mission at the time.  They would have ruined his chance to sabotage Morning's plans.
Abruptly, Swift's ear twitched and he shot to his hooves.  Kicking off the ground, he danced nimbly to the right, his spiky mane stirring as something powerful and sharp slashed through the air where he had been sitting.  Backpedaling away from the spot, Swift watched as a pitch-black griffon in equally black armor melted out of the darkness with a silence that belied his impressive bulk.
"Identify yourself," said the griffon plainly, his yellow eyes hard as he glared down at Swift, "I won't tolerate any suspicious activity."
"If it's suspicious activity you're looking for," said Swift with a cheeky grin, "I've noticed this big black griffon attacking random ponies who happen to be resting beside a public path."
The griffon's eyes narrowed and his body tensed, clearly readying for a charge.  However, rather than waiting, Swift ducked...primarily because he'd noticed another attack coming from behind.  Once again, his mane was stirred by a set of claws passing within inches of it.  Dropping down into his belly, Swift went into a forward roll that took him out of the way as the black griffon surged forward and brought both his claws down on the patch of grass where Swift's head had been resting seconds ago.  As he rolled, Swift caught a glimpse of his other opponent, a second, smaller griffon, most likely a female.  Her brindled coat was much more visible in the darkness than her companion's, which was probably why the black one had attacked first and drawn Swift's attention.  The female's forelegs were clad in gauntlets that terminated in large, vicious-looking fighting claws that the griffoness brandished with impressive speed.
"You know, the two of you really need to work on your hospitality skills," said Swift as he came back up on his hooves, "This is not an appropriate  way to say hello to somepony.  I've heard there's this pink mare in town who specializes in this sort of thing.  Maybe you could take some lessons from her."
Even as he spoke, Swift withdrew a small cylinder from his sleeve, readying it in the curl of his fetlock as the two griffons sprang upon him once again.



"Something wrong?" asked Caramel, looking up from his soup bowl at Dawn, who had stopped eating and was now staring out the window into the darkness outside.  His own bowl of potato and leek stew forgotten.
"Somepony's out there," said Dawn, "We're being watched."
"Oh no!" whispered Fluttershy, cringing and sidling up next to Caramel, "Is it somepony from the Cult Solar?"
"I thought the Royal Guard rounded them all up," said Caramel, wrapping a comforting arm around Fluttershy's shoulders.
"There was no way for the Guard to get all of them," Dawn pointed out as he got to his hooves.
Given the circumstances, he'd anticipated the possibility that a few escaped members of the Cult might come to Ponyville in a last ditch effort to kill him.  He'd been especially vulnerable the past few weeks, cut off from his magic and most of the other ponies tasked to protect Ponyville being out of commission.  Thankfully, that threat had yet to materialize.  However, Dawn realized he was still quite weak, having only just regained use of his magic a few days ago.  It would still be another week at least before he was ready to start training in earnest again.  Attempting to utilize the techniques of the Gale King in his current condition would probably setback his recovery.  However, if the pony outside was really a cultist, Dawn might not have a choice.
"I'll go see," said Dawn, heading to the door.
In spite of the situation, both Fluttershy and Caramel knew better than to try and stop him.  Instead, Fluttershy watched him go, mouthing "be careful."
Dawn opened the door and stepped out onto the front porch, his pupils dilating as he quickly adjusted to the surrounding darkness.  One of the main capabilities of his eyes was that they afforded him superior night vision and motion sensitivity in comparison to the eyes of regular ponies.  While the world outside their little cottage wasn't as clear as day to his eyes, he could see, using the light of the moon and the stars, quite easily.  More importantly, his eyes were instantly drawn to the commotion taking place beyond the front yard, over on the other side of the path.  Dawn saw the large, ebony form of Skan descending upon a single pony, who easily jumped out of the way.
Spreading his wings, Dawn took to the air, intending to fly over and try to defuse the situation before it went too far.  Even if the strange pony was a cultist, Dawn had to at least try and talk him down from doing anything rash.  However, as he landed, Dawn saw the black-garbed earth pony duck out of the way as Zhan slashed at him from behind and then rolled away just as Skan brought his talons down.
The earth shuddered from the impact of Skan's blow, but Dawn hardly noticed.  Instead, Skan and Zhan immediately went on the offensive, converging on the earth pony from separate angles.  As they charged, the earth pony twisted his body and slammed his forehooves down, seeming to meet the griffons' charge head on.  They clashed a loud thudding noise and raising an impressive cloud of dust as metal rang out against metal from within.  Every once and a while, Dawn could see something spark as attack met defense, but otherwise, couldn't make out anything that was taking place within the cloud.
Then he silently scolded himself for forgetting on of his most basic and important skills.  Now that he had his magic back, Dawn was once again free to fall back on his wind sense.  However, after spending so many weeks unable to use and having to get used to working without it, Dawn had almost forgotten about it until now.  Relaxing, he took a deep breath and spread his wings slightly, allowing his magic to carry his awareness out into the air around him.
The skill came back to Dawn with an easy familiarity that was warmly welcomed by the colt.  Dawn was afraid that he'd grown lax, but he could easily feel and understand the eddies and whorls in the air, produced by interfering objects.  He could feel the two griffons fiercely exchanging blows under the cover of the dust cloud...as well as the shape of the pony who was now sitting right next to him.
Dawn jumped and looked sharply over to see the strange earth pony now sitting next to him, grinning as he poured a hoofful of pine nuts out of a cloth bag and munched them down with considerable relish.  Even as he watched, the stallion tapped his hind hoof on the ground in an a strangely rhythmic pattern that seemed to blend between the clang of metal against metal issuing from the cloud.  "Dang!  Those two are really going at it."  He chuckled and looked over at Dawn before glancing down at his sack and then holding it up to the colt.  "Want some?"
Dawn looked over at the cloud, then back at the stallion, his expression neutral.  Through the air, he could sense that both Skan and Zhan appeared to be in no danger of hurting one another, even as they parried and deflected one another's attacks.  Instead, it appeared to be a well coordinated effort on their part to pen in a single target, a target that was no longer actually near them.  The entire scene reminded Dawn of something he'd seen in one of Spike's more humorous comic books.
"Sure," he said, holding out his hoof.
The stallion cackled gleefully as he poured a helping of nuts out into Dawn's hoof and then some more for himself.  Dawn began munching on his helping, noting with approval that the nuts had been roasted.
"So..." mused the stallion, "how long do you think it's gonna take for them to figure out I'm still not in there."
"I'm surprised they haven't dispersed the cloud yet," noted Dawn.
"Eh...the smoke bomb I dropped is set for continuous emission," said the stallion, "It should keep putting out smoke for another thirty seconds."  Noting Dawn's expression as the colt looked at him, Swift laughed and said, "Don't worry.  It's non-toxic.  But it is heavier than air and should keep them bogged down until the bomb runs out."
Frowning, Dawn turned his attention back to the fight taking place within the cloud, wondering how Skan and Zhan had failed to notice that the third participant in the fight had already bowed out.  Then he felt it, a faint clopping noise, like a hoof smacking the hardened dirt of the path...but coming from the empty ground between the two battling griffons.  His eyes widening with surprise, Dawn snapped his head around to look at the stallion again, realizing that the sound issuing from the ground over by the griffons was in perfect time with the tapping of the stallion's hind hoof.
Though they were swinging away with their foreclaws, the griffons each kept at least one of their hind paws planted firmly against the ground at all times as they fought.  Dawn realized that the pads of those lion paws were probably very sensitive to vibrations transmitted through the earth, the perfect tool for keeping track of a grounded opponent in blind conditions.  It was a skill that was just as impressive as the piece of percussive ventriloquism that the stallion was using to keep the two griffons believing that he was still somewhere between them.
"Why are you toying with them like this?" asked Dawn.
The stallion shrugged.  "Well...they weren't exactly being the best listeners before.  I figured this might help them get it out of their system.  Besides..."  He looked over at Dawn.  "...why aren't you stopping them?"
"They don't seem to be in any danger of hurting each other," said Dawn, "It certainly is impressive to observe.  Besides..."  He turned his blue-green eyes up to meet the stallion's squinted ones.  "...I don't know why, but you don't seem like an enemy to me."
The stallion's eyes widened, revealing irises of ice-blue.  "You're something else, kid."  His ears twitched and he looked over at the smoke cloud.  "Looks like time's up."
Though the bomb the stallion had apparently dropped ceased to continue emitting smoke, it still took nearly a minute for even Skan's powerful swipes to begin sweeping it out of the way.  Finally, he and Zhan had cleared out the smoke and the two of them came to an abrupt halt, realizing that their sparring partner was no longer between them.  It took a second longer for their eyes to zero in on Swift' s location.
"Ready to call it a day?" asked Swift, once again grinning mischievously.
Skan, huffing and panting after his efforts, glared fiercely at the stallion before launching himself in another flying lunge.  Zhan moved to follow him, but froze when she spotted Dawn sitting next to the stallion.
"Skan!  Wait!"
Dawn blinked and tensed as he realized he was in the path of Skan's charge.  Though the black griffon wasn't actively aiming for him, Dawn could easily find himself crushed beneath those plates of armor as Skan bulled past him to reach the strange stallion.  Moving to dodge, Dawn found his body responding sluggishly, the consequences of the past week of inactivity combining with his still recovering magic to keep him from escaping the situation.
Skan closed in, bringing one set of talons around in a powerful swipe that could easily kill Dawn, even if they simply grazed him.  However, as Dawn readied himself for the blow, there was a blur off to one side of him and suddenly the stallion was in front of him.
"Okay!  Enough of this," snapped the stallion, giving a sharp twist of his hips, the motion causing trailing ends of his sash to blur into motion, giving off a faint snapping noise, like a small whip.  The stallion whipped the end of his sash into the path of Skan's claws.  The cloth strip should have been shredded by Skan's talons.  But instead, his swinging forepaw was knocked away, the deflection completely taking Skan off-guard.
"I think you need to calm down before somepony gets hurt," said the stallion, no longer grinning as he regarded Skan, who was looking in shock at his forepaw.
It took a moment for Skan to notice Dawn's presence.  "What are you doing out here, Little Cub?"
"I came to see what the commotion was," said Dawn, "I don't think there's any need for you to be so aggressive while protecting us.  I'm grateful for the sentiment though."
Skan looked between Dawn and the stallion before letting out a defeated sigh.  "It seems I still have a great deal of growing to do, in spite of my age.  I have to admit that I am probably no match for an opponent who can have me jumping at shadows so easily."
"Apology accepted," said the stallion, adopting a jaunty grin once again.
"Would you please identify yourself now?" asked Zhan, coming up to stand beside her mate.
"The name's Swift Stride," said the stallion, his words giving Dawn a start as the colt turned to look at him in surprise.
"So you are the Knight that Arkenstone spoke of," said Dawn, "The one even he acknowledges as the strongest."
"Eh...I don't know about all this 'strongest' and 'weakest' talk," said Swift with a shrug,  "I''m really good at keeping ponies on the tips of their hooves.  I guess that's why they're always so on edge whenever I'm around."
Skan's eyes narrowed.  "If you were a Celestial Knight, why did you not identify yourself?  We could have avoided all this trouble."
"It's more fun this way," replied Swift with a chuckle.
Both Zhan and Skan glared pointedly at him.
"Sorry," said Swift, raising his hooves, "That was a lie.  I really wanted to get a feel for the kid here.  Seeing as he isn't supposed to be in any shape to fight right now, I figured that seeing how he handled a strange situation would be a good way."
It was clear that neither of the griffons truly believed that that had been Swift's intentions.  Even Dawn had his reservations about the black-garbed stallion's real reason for doing as he did.  However, it was unlikely that Swift would ever say exactly what it was he'd been up to...nor was it likely that anyone would believe him even if he did say something completely truthful...which might very well have been the point.
"In any case, I don't think there is any danger here," said Dawn, looking to Skan and Zhan, "Thank you for your concern.  But I think you need not worry about this one."
"Are you sure about that?" asked Zhan, still eyeing Swift suspiciously.
"As sure as I can be," said Dawn.
Skan and Zhan exchanged one last look before backing off.  Dawn and Swift watched them go until the two griffons had returned to their home.
"So," said Dawn, looking up at Swift, "Would you like to come inside?  I think there's enough food for one more at the table."
Swift seemed to think about it for a second before nodding.  "Sure.  That sounds fine."



Surprisingly, despite his unusual appearance and shifty nature, Swift Stride's introduction to Dawn's family seemed to go over very well.  Fluttershy and Caramel both had reservations about Dawn inviting an unfamiliar stallion in.  However, they were mollified when they learned that Swift was a Celestial Knight.  Swift, for his part, was a surprisingly engaging guest, even able to break through Fluttershy's infamous Wall of Shyness (also frequently referred to as "her mane").  During dinner, he regaled them with stories of the lands he had visited, along with the various peoples and animals he had encountered, more than a few Fluttershy would have liked to meet herself.
What interested Dawn more was that, besides all the lands he had been to and all the creatures he had seen and met, Swift had more than simple anecdotes to tell.  He spoke of animals and their habits, of lands and their cultures, of rich histories and strange customs.  It occurred to Dawn that, rather than his work as a Knight, Swift's true passion lay in learning and sharing this knowledge.  He certainly made for an engaging storyteller and, by the time Dawn was ready for bed, Swift had hooked his audience for hours.  Fluttershy and Caramel offered the use of the couch for Swift, seeing as he didn't have a place to stay for the night, an offer Swift gratefully accepted.
As he went to bed, Dawn thought back upon the evening and everything that he had heard.  He also remembered Arkenstone's wariness of Swift Stride, the mistrust that Arkenstone seemed to harbor for the black-garbed stallion.  Those thoughts had lingered on Dawn's mind throughout the evening.  It seemed to Dawn that Swift had perfectly tailored his actions and mannerisms to fit the situation, allowing him to win over even a shy pony like Fluttershy.  This wasn't the first time somepony had done that.  Red River and Storm Front had done much the same the first time they'd met Fluttershy all those months ago.
If that's the case, thought Dawn, then Swift Stride might very well be doing the same with Arkenstone and the other Knights.  For all his skill in so many areas, his greatest one seems to be controlling how ponies see him.  It isn't that he's an untrustworthy individual, but rather that he wants the other Knights to view him with suspicion...But why?
It was difficult to say.  Dawn couldn't be sure that the stories that Swift had told at and after dinner that night had been true or not.  He figured, in order to get a true feel for Swift, he would have to see the stallion do what he did best.  However, Dawn worried about the kind of situation that would allow him to view Swift Stride as Arkenstone and the other Knights saw him.



Dawn's questions and curiosities would have to wait.  After all, for all that he was curious about Swift Stride, he still had to go to school.  Doing so was much easier now that he was able to fly to and from class.  More importantly, it allowed him to resume his regular morning training with Scootaloo, meeting with her at sunrise so that the two of them could run through their forms before breakfast.
When everypony arrived at the tent that served as Ponyville's temporary schoolhouse, Dawn and the others noted that Apple Bloom seemed unusually quiet and pensive.  Whatever it was seemed to keep her distracted all through class, so that she barely took any notes and instead spent a great deal of time staring off into space.  She even ended up receiving a couple of reprimands from Ms. Cheerilee.
The other surprise that day was Diamond Tiara.  Most of the students had only learned about her accident that very morning and many of them were surprised when the pale-pink filly came trotting into class right on time, even though, with the healing spell she'd received the day before, she'd had a tailor-made excuse for cutting classes for the day.  Silver Spoon was there as well, having no such excuse, and quietly stuck to Diamond's side throughout class.
During lunch and recess, Bloom explained the events of the previous day to the other Crusaders, detailing how she'd stumbled across Swift Stride snoozing in the orchard and then taken him into town.  She also told them about the accident and how Swift had actually treated Diamond Tiara with a pine nut and a lie, something that shocked everypony.  Bloom was just finishing the story when Diamond and Silver actually came up to them.
"H-hi," said Diamond awkwardly, rubbing one foreleg with the other as she averted her eyes from the five ponies in front of her, all of whom had been targets of her ire at some point or another.
"Uh...hi," said Apple Bloom, looking at Diamond in confusion.  It wasn't that she still expected barbed remarks or thinly veiled insults from Diamond anymore.  But ever since Diamond had "reformed," so to speak, she and Silver had kept their distance from most of the other students, many of whom, understandably, still carried grudges over Diamond's previous treatment of them.  This marked the first time that she had actually approached somepony directly in the months since her lessons with Rarity.
"I...I just wanted to say..."  Diamond averted her eyes further, her voice dropping down to a barely audible answer.  "...thanks..."
"Um...yer welcome,," said Bloom, putting on an awkward smile, "Ah didn't really do all that much."
Diamond sighed and forced herself to look into the eyes of her former victim.  "Yes...but...If you hadn't said something...If you'd just kept your mouth shut...Silver and I wouldn't have noticed until it was too late.  We'd have been out of your manes forever.  I thought you'd like that."
Bloom's jaw dropped and she found herself fighting for a way to respond to that absurd statement.  However, she didn't have to as Scootaloo shot to her hooves, wings flaring out and her eyes glaring straight at Diamond.
"What the hay is wrong with you?" snapped Scootaloo, "Do you actually think we'd be okay with that?  Do you really think we'd be happy if you died?"
Diamond reeled back, reacting as though Scootaloo had physically slapped her.  "You mean you wouldn't?" she asked, "After everything we put you through...wouldn't you be happy that you never had to deal with us again?"
Beside Diamond, Silver lowered her eyes, staring at the ground.  Dawn looked on, actually feeling a twinge of empathy for the two fillies.  He'd seen the cold stares directed their way, noticed their isolation and how they'd been walled off from the rest of their classmates after Diamond and Silver stopped using their respective families' wealth as a blunt instrument to get their way.  He was quite familiar with that sense of isolation.
The empathy was supplemented by guilt.  Dawn had experience with isolation, with cold, judging stares.  He'd been where those fillies were now.  In fact, he'd been in much worse straights than them.  And yet, he had done nothing, even though it would have been the right thing to do.  He had been content to keep to his friends and his affairs.  Every time he'd seen Diamond and Silver skirt around another group of foals or quietly move to a different part of the schoolyard after a group of foals settled near them and then glared at the pair until they moved, he'd looked the other way.
Unlike his situation, which was the consequence of his eyes, Dawn reasoned that Diamond and Silver had brought much of this onto themselves and were merely reaping the consequences of the abuse they'd heaped upon others.  However, that excuse turned sour the moment he even considered it.  Yes they had behaved horribly.  Yes, Diamond Tiara had said absolutely atrocious things to him the day he'd snapped at her and set the whole affair into motion.  But that didn't change the fact that the two of them were earnestly trying to change their ways.  The right thing to do was embrace that and reach out to them.  Leaving them to stew in isolation would only set them back onto the path they were trying to escape, maybe even more firmly than before.
Before Dawn could say or do anything or Scootaloo could respond to Diamond's question, Sweetie Belle surged up and threw her hooves around Diamond's neck, pulling Diamond into a hug as she let out a gasp of surprise, her carefully repaired tiara threatening to tumble off her head.  "Don't say that," said Sweetie, tears leaking out of her eyes, "We've fought before and I've really disliked you for what you did..."  She pulled away and looked Diamond in the eyes.  "...but I've never hated you.  I don't think any of us have."
Behind Sweetie, Bloom, Scootaloo, and Rumble nodded their agreement.  Dawn, on the other hoof, got up and walked over to Diamond as Sweetie let her go.  Diamond's eyes met Dawn's and she flinched and backed away.  Whether it was because of the memory of his harsh words to her before or if she was still disturbed by the sight of his eyes, Dawn couldn't say.
Dawn's lips curled up in a smile and he reached out with a wing to brush one of Diamond's tears away.  She flinched at the contact and stared at Dawn in surprise.  "You...do you forgive me?"
"I do," said Dawn.
"Even after all the things I said?" asked Diamond, her eyes watering up even more.
"Yes," said Dawn, "I've mistakes of my own, some even worse than yours."
"Like you wouldn't believe," muttered Scootaloo under her breath, prompting Bloom to hush her with a light jab to the shoulder.
Now Rumble stepped forward and smiled at the two fillies.  "I think we can all forgive you.  If we just kept ignoring you, we'd be bullies ourselves."  He spoke a little bit more loudly than usual, stopping well short of shouting, but loudly enough that it was quite easy for several groups of foals nearby to "overhear" his words.  Several of them averted their eyes, expressions of guilt flashing across their faces.
Bloom couldn't quite keep her grin from her face as Diamond and Silver gaped at Rumble.  "There ya have it," she said, coming forward to stand between Rumble and Sweetie, rearing up so that she could wrap an arm around each of them and pull them up against her sides.  "Ah don't know where a got that goshdarned idea that anypony would like ya dead, but it's a load 'o hooey and ya know it."
"Thanks," said Silver, her voice barely more than a whisper, the ghost of a smile hovering over her lips.
"Um..."  Rumble glanced around Bloom at Sweetie Belle, who met his gaze and nodded.  "Would you like to hang out with us for now?"
Diamond and Silver shared a surprised glance.  While it certainly seemed that the olive branch had been both extended and accepted, neither of them had expected an invitation to join the Crusaders.  When they turned back, they saw that all five Crusaders were watching them expectantly.
Finally, it was Diamond who answered.  "S-sure."



The rest of recess passed without incident.  Diamond and Silver were both nervous about their new situation and weren't quite sure what to do with friends, now that they actually had some.  It was a little awkward for the Crusaders as well, given the previous topic of their conversation.   Neither Diamond nor Silver knew that the Celestial Knights were real or that two of them were now hanging about town.  That left Dawn and the others in something of a quandary as they searched for an appropriate conversation topic.
Perhaps unfortunately, the topic instead turned to the most awkward thing a group of five fillies and only two colts could possibly hope to discuss, the upcoming Hearts and Hooves Day, along with who would be doing what with who.  In previous years, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had had no shortage of suitors (insomuch as other foals could count as actual suitors), both male and female.  However, their experiences were soured by the knowledge that their classmates often approached them, not because they found Diamond and Silver attractive, but because they were more interested in the fillies' wealthy families.  They both speculated that there would be a moratorium on anypony approaching them this year, though Bloom, Sweetie, and Scootaloo thought otherwise.  Dawn and Rumble wisely kept their mouths shut, as good colts should when the fillies in their lives were in the process of the infamous practice of "girl talk."
Still, it had been an enjoyable way to spend the remainder of their time until classes resumed for the day and both Diamond and Silver seemed much relieved by the change in their situation.  As they filed into the tent for their next set of lessons, Dawn felt something tug on his tail.  Turning around, he noticed Sweetie using her magic to pluck a piece of white fluff from his tail.
"Uh...you missed something," she said with a slight giggle.  Seeing the odd looks the others were giving her, she rubbed the back of her head.  "Sorry...I blame Rarity."
Dawn held up his hoof to take the bit of fluff and examined it, surprised to find that the foreign material had been bound up in his tail for the better part of the day.  I need to brush my tail more carefully.  Examining it more closely, he realized he knew where it came from.  "Angel Bunny...I thought he'd been sleeping on my tail last night."
"You still had a couple of feathers in your mane when you came to practice this morning," Scootaloo noted, "Have Fluttershy's animals been giving you trouble?"
"Not really," said Dawn, "They've been spending more time in my room lately.  It used to be that hardly any of them came in at all.  But now it seems as though they've been staying in there more frequently.  They used to always stay in Mom's room."
He missed the looks that passed between the fillies and Rumble.  It was Rumble who asked.  "When did this start happening?"
Dawn blinked and rolled his eyes upwards, trying to think about when the animals had started spending more nights in his room.  "I think it was a little after Terra Heart came."
From the looks on the rest of his friends' faces, it was clear that none of them were surprised.  Dawn looked from one to the other, trying to figure out where their questions were leading.  "Is something wrong?"
It was Scootaloo who answered.  Shaking her head with a sigh, she said, "It's nothing bad.  You're just clueless."
Dawn wanted to ask more, but Cheerilee's call for the students to get in their seats stopped him.  The topic would have to be tabled for another time.



"Incredible!" gasped Twilight, "How did you manage even do a proper study of poison joke pollen, much less figure out how to reduce its potency?"
"I got help from a couple of zebra alchemists," explained Swift as he watched Twilight examine the sample of blue powder he'd given her through a microscope, "It's actually a pretty common pest plant in their lands.  I think that friend of yours in the Everfree might have actually transplanted it accidentally when she came here."
"Poison joke as an invasive species..."  Twilight rubbed her chin.  "I'd never thought of it that way.  I just thought it was another weird magic plant from the Everfree."
"Equestrian ponies don't realize it," said Swift, carefully removing the slide from beneath the microscope, "but outside of Equestria, places like the Everfree are fairly common and large.  The idea of manually controlling the weather and seasons is rare.  Only Guoxia and a couple of other pony-settled regions have anything like it and not with the same level of sophistication that we Equestrians have."
Twilight nodded.  She'd read about such things in her studies under Princess Celestia, given that Celestia had diplomatic negotiations with numerous nations.  It had actually been something of a surprise to her that the ponies of Ponyville viewed the Everfree Forest with a level of fear that bordered on outright superstition.  It was one of the reasons Zecora had been viewed with such suspicion, given that the zebra chose to make her home in what ponies viewed as a terribly unnatural place, even though, to the rest of the world at large, the Everfree probably seemed perfectly natural...if dangerous.
When Swift had first arrived at the library, it had been with the intent of speaking more about what Twilight had learned from Morning Star's archives.  However, the conversation had eventually diverged as Twilight began to express curiosity in Swift's encyclopedic knowledge of various substances.  Now, with the two of them standing behind a microscope, talking about one of Swift's many compounds, Twilight realized that he was, in fact, a fellow scholar.  She felt a certain sense of kinship with him.
At first, Arkenstone had been nervous about leaving Twilight on her own with a stallion he regarded with a great deal of caution.  But, at Twilight's urging, he had gone to see to the reconstruction of his teahouse, leaving Twilight and Swift to their own devices.
"We got a bit sidetracked," said Twilight as she and the black-garbed stallion made their way upstairs, "But...do you remember what I asked you before?"
"Sure," said Swift.  He'd been describing the design of the component mechanism of the array he'd watched being built outside of Trottingham, the one that Morning Star had been overseeing personally.
"Do you think that one was especially important for some reason?" asked Twilight.
"Not necessarily," said Swift, "A certain degree of symmetry is required for a design like that to work.  Given the overall design of the array, I share the Princess' suspicions that the central component of the array will be in Canterlot.  That being the case, the central piece is probably the key and the ones around the outside are of equal importance to one another."
"But why was he overseeing that one personally?" mused Twilight.
"Possibly because he needed to stay somewhere," said Swift with a shrug, "It gave him a fixed base of operations, was far enough out of the way that it wouldn't be found by anything less than a dedicated search, but close enough to a town that he could get any supplies he personally needed.  Popping from one to the other would have left him exposed and might have even drawn the Princess' attention to him before he was ready."
"I guess that makes sense," said Twilight.
"What about you?" asked Swift, "Do any of the component pieces I described match anything you've read about?"
"I don't think so," said Twilight, "Without having any idea of the effects they might have, I couldn't begin to tell you what materials they were composed of.  Even the ones that you described as blowing up when they came into contact with each other don't give me much to go off of.  Lots of materials are volatile or react violently with other substances.
"The problem is, if Morning Star wrote about this particular experiment, it didn't make it into his archive.  I thought Celestia might have destroyed that information in particular, but she told me she never actually found it."
"That's convenient," muttered Swift, "The one piece of information about Morning Star's plans that we actually need and it just happens to be the one thing that never got preserved."
"It is," said Twilight, "Though I can certainly understand it.  Morning Star probably anticipated that Princess Celestia would object and decided not to leave anything that could be used to disrupt his work."
"You think it actually can be?" asked Swift, "I tried a lot of things while I was at the temple, planting bombs, rigging stuff to collapse.  The only thing that worked was using broken components of Morning Star's own machine to blow it up.  After he got the array up and running, not even Celestia's power could leave a scratch on it.  It's like they're not even a part of this world anymore."
"Maybe they aren't," mused Twilight, her eyes lighting up.
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe they aren't part of this world," explained Twilight, "That was the point after all.  He created materials that operated according to their own laws of physics by creating entire worlds' worth of physics to govern those materials.  If that's the case then..."
Swift's eyebrow went up.  His ear twitched as a nearby fly buzzed past it.  "What are you getting at?"
"I'm thinking," said Twilight, "That this might actually be the way to counter Dark Matter.  Even if it seems like something not part of this world, it can still interfere with the matter of this world.  By working out how the material of his array interferes with the world, we trace the rules of that interference and use them as a means to actually interfere with it."
"Could you actually calculate that out somehow?" asked Swift incredulously.
"With enough information about the materials and Dark Matter in general, I think I can," said Twilight, "This might be the answer."  She trotted eagerly over to the pile of scrolls awaiting her review.  "I can't wait!  This is huge!"
Swift's ear twitched as the fly buzzed past it again.  "Yeah...it sure is..."
He closed in behind Twilight.  When he stood less than a meter behind her, he lifted up a foreleg.  From beneath his sleeve, he extended a thin, slender blade, which he then began to aim at the mare in front of him.