//------------------------------//
// Wings of Light 
// Story: Dark Matter 
// by moguera 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 26: Wings of Light

Rainbow Dash and Soarin' lounged on the cloud, dozing lightly as they enjoyed the cool night air.  Neither of them wanted the evening to end.  In the morning, Soarin' would have to return to Cloudsdale and Rainbow would have to resume her training under Firefly.  They wanted to make the most of the time they did have.  Sex was obviously off the table, but snuggling was something the two of them enjoyed and was a good way to pass the time as the night ran its course.
Sadly, it wasn't to be as Rainbow felt, rather than saw a shape swooping over them and landing on the cloud beside them.  Startled by the intruder, Rainbow rolled onto her hooves, Soarin' springing up beside them as they both looked to the pony suddenly standing in front of them on the cloud.
Firefly didn't spare a glance for either of them, instead staring straight ahead at the figure of another pony rising up towards them from Ponyville.  Looking down at the pony, Rainbow gasped.  She recognized the young stallion's cream-colored coat with gray flecks decorating it, along with his grayish-blue mane, and piercing yellow, hawklike eyes.  What she did not recognize were the wings this young stallion was sporting, which did not gleam with the silvery sheen of polished mithril.  "Perlin?"
"The same," said Perlin Bluestreak as he came to hover in front of the trio of pegasi, "And, before you ask, yes, I did get new wings.  It's nice to see you again, Rainbow Dash, Soarin'."  His gaze quickly refocused on Firefly.  "It's an honor to meet you as well, miss...?"
"Firefly," said the pink mare, smiling as she met Perlin's gaze, "My student has told me a great deal about you, youngster."
"Ah, I see," said Perlin, "You seem quite strong.  Under other circumstances, I would love to take the opportunity to see just how strong, but I'm afraid I have other business at the moment."
"What other business?" demanded Rainbow, "Why are you here?"
"My employer informed me that a certain asset of his has escaped containment," explained Perlin, "That asset is apparently heading here and might be here already.  I believe you've already tangled with him before."
"Who is it?" asked Soarin'.
"His name was...Flash Spark...if I remember correctly," said Perlin.
Rainbow felt the blood drain out of her face at that name.  Her memory conjured up images of the hateful stallion, along with the twisted monstrosity he had become.  And he was somewhere near Ponyville now!  "Where is he?"
"I can't say for sure," said Perlin, "I was talking with Dawn about it.  According to him, there are only two possible ponies this fellow could be going after.  One is you.  The other is..."
"Fluttershy!" yelped Rainbow, already spinning in place to look in the direction of her friend's cottage.
For a moment, it seemed like nothing was happening.  Rainbow as about to breathe a sigh of relief, feeling that they might have more time or that Flash Spark would come after her first.  However, that relief vanished when her ears picked up a familiar-sounding buzz emanating from the direction of the cottage.  The sound pierced Rainbow's ears and she felt a headache building.  A few seconds later, the buzz rose in pitch to a shriek and flashes of yellow light lit up the sky.  From her vantage point, Rainbow could see streaks of yellow energy stabbing out into the night.
"Oh no!" she whispered.  Her muscles bunched up as her legs folded into a crouch, her wings spreading as she prepared to leap.  She kicked off the cloud, rising into the air and shooting towards the cottage...
...only to come to an abrupt halt as Firefly's hoof stamped down on the end of Rainbow's tail, pinning it fast against the cloud.  Rainbow let out a pained yelp as her forward momentum was abruptly and painfully halted and she fell back onto the cloud with a grunt.
"What the hay are you doing?" demanded Rainbow, whirling around to glare at Firefly.
"You're in no condition to be fighting right now," said Firefly, a grim expression on her face.
"I can't just stand here and watch," Rainbow snapped, glaring at her mentor, "I fought with him before.  I was still in training then."
"That was before your training was as far along as it is now," said Firefly, "Your body is in the process of reordering how it uses its magic.  In your current state, you're nowhere near your best.  He'll cut you to ribbons."
A surge of air washed over them.  Perlin had evidently lost interest in the three of them and was now heading straight for the conflict taking place in the skies above Fluttershy's house.  Rainbow watched him go, desperately wanting to follow behind him, if not overtake him to get there first.
"Are you saying we should just stand here and do nothing?" she demanded.
"No," said Firefly, giving Rainbow a grim smile, "You will stay here and do nothing.  I will will go and settle this myself."
Before Rainbow could say anything, Firefly was already gone, a pink and blue streak hurtling through the sky.
"It'll be okay," said Soarin', resting a hoof lightly on Rainbow's shoulder, "Firefly's probably one of the most experienced Knights.  She's even stronger than Spitfire is.
"I just hope she's strong enough," said Rainbow as she intently watched the skies.  Fluttershy, please be okay.



Rumble looked up from his book.  Since he'd gotten back from his date with Sweetie Belle, he'd been reading quietly on the couch, waiting for the return of the rest of his family.  However, Flitter and Storm Front were apparently still at Sweet Apple Acres and Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser were still out on their date.  With nopony to talk to, Rumble settled in for a quiet evening, grateful that Flitter had let him off from his grounding, but wishing she had allowed him to return later.
What had made him look up from his reading was the sound of the door to the cloud house opening.  Rumble couldn't quite keep a grin from his face as Thunderlane stumbled in through the door, looking dazed and giddy, a dopey grin decorating his face, and his trademark mohawk mane badly mussed.  He walked as though he chugged down half a keg of the Apple Family's hardest cider, stumbling and chuckling vacantly into the house.
Behind him came the reason for Thunderlane's alcohol-free inebriation.  Cloud Chaser, decked out in a slinky, jaw-dropping, bright-red dress, rushed in, not even bothering to land on the floor of the cloud house, she zeroed in on Rumble instantly, plucking him off the couch and into her hooves, spinning through the air of the living room as she squealed and shrieked with glee.
"He did it!  He did it!  Rumble!  He finally did it!"  Cloud Chaser continued to hug Rumble with ferocious vigor, as though he were an oversized stuffed animal, twirling and pirouetting through the air.
"I take it he popped the question then," observed Rumble, smiling even though Cloud Chaser's spinning was starting to make him feel dizzy.  About time, too.
"He did!" squealed Cloud Chaser, finally setting her brother (and future brother-in-law) back down on the couch, "Look!"
Now able to get a better look at Cloud Chaser, Rumble grinned when he saw the necklace she was wearing, a fine gold chain, from which dangled a pendant fashioned in the image of Thunderlane''s cutie mark.
"I'm happy for you," said Rumble, chuckling.  He'd known, of course, that Thunderlane had been planning on proposing.  He'd also known that Cloud Chaser had been getting impatient waiting for said proposal, not being aware that Thunderlane had been waiting until Hearts and Hooves Day like the hopelessly romantic sap he was.
"So when's the wedding?" asked Rumble, looking between Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser.
Considering the question caused Cloud Chaser to calm down a little.  "Um...we haven't talked about that yet," she said with a sheepish grin, blushing.
"She was too busy kissing me everywhere she could reach," bragged Thunderlane, having apparently regathered his wits, "She was hugging me so much I was practically carrying her home."
"Please, you know you loved it," said Cloud Chaser, her voice dropping to a sultry purr as she slunk towards Thunderlane, moving with all the grace of a prowling cat, "Like I know that you'll love what's coming later."  She stalked in front of her stallion, passing just underneath his chin so that her tail could rise up to stroke his lower jaw.  Thunderlane's wings shot out and fluttered wildly and he let out another dopey laugh as Cloud Chaser strutted away from him, swaying her haunches back and forth with each step.
"Oh boy," said Rumble, rolling his eyes.  Grown ups...
His ears twitched.  Distracted from the conversation, Rumble noticed a faint buzzing noise that seemed to be filtering in through the walls of the house.  What is that? he wondered, looking around.  The sound seemed to be coming from outside.  Whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant, giving Rumble a feeling like a fly was hovering just inside his ear and he was unable to do anything to get it dislodged.   "Do you hear that?"
Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane paused in their antics, looking at Rumble in confusion.  In the ensuing lull in the conversation, they too noticed the buzz.
"Yeah," said Thunderlane, his head rotating as he tried to fix a direction on the noise, "What the hay is that?"
"Whatever it is, I don't like it," growled Cloud Chaser, batting at her ears, "It's annoying."
Frowning, Rumble went to the door and pushed it open.  No longer muffled by the walls of the house, the infernal buzz streamed in through the open doorway and went from annoying to painful, inciting a sharp, searing pain in Rumble's ears even as his head began to ache from the noise.
"Ugh!  That's awful!" cried Cloud Chaser, desperately covering her ears with her hooves.  Beside her, Thunderlane was doing the same.
Grimacing, Rumble stepped out on the cloud house's porch and looked around.  Now he could tell which way the sound was coming from  His eyes fixed themselves in the direction of the Everfree Forest and a small cottage situated near its edge.  "Uh oh..."



"I've been waiting for this chance, you little brat," snarled Flash Spark, "I'll pay you back for what you did to my wings.  On top of that, your precious mother will get to watch."
Dawn said nothing, already darting in at Flash Spark, his form a blur that seemed to flicker across the space between them.  He came right in at Flash Spark's chest, his wings blurring as he launched a succession of pounding blows that hammered at the insectile stallion's armor, knocking him back through the sky.  For all that he appeared to be stunned and disoriented by the blows, Flash Spark didn't seem to be taking any harm, but that was nothing new.  Right now, Dawn's primary concern was forcing him away from Fluttershy and Caramel, as well as Skan and Zhan.  He'd noticed that the griffoness had taken some form of injury in the fight and didn't want her accumulating any more if he could prevent it.
"Hey!" protested Flash, his voice cut off as Dawn slammed him with another thunderous attack, "Stop-...Let me-...What are you-"  Every time Flash attempted to speak, Dawn hit him with another attack, knocking him back any further.  Already, the cottage was far in the distance behind them and the two were now over a large stretch of the Everfree Forest.  The canopy below was practically a blanket of black in the dark of the night.
Flash growled angrily as Dawn pushed him further and further back, each blow taking him farther away from his intended prey.  "Knock...it...OFF!"  As he roared out that last word, the blurring of his wings stopped for an instant, the veins running through them changing orientation before they started buzzing again.  This time, as they resumed their motion, they released a powerful burst of vibrations through the air, expanding out around him in a spherical wave.  Dawn had been in the midst of yet another attack.  As the focused burst of compressed air ran into the wave of vibrations, it seemed to shudder and disintegrate.
Frowning, Dawn reversed the direction of his flight, kicking out with all four of his hooves and slipping his wings from back to front in tight arcs, causing him to skip backwards through the air so quickly that he literally seemed to vanish and reappear several meters back.  Using his wind-sense to keep track of the strange wave of vibrations that Flash had released, Dawn readied himself, just in case he needed to retreat further.  Fortunately, effect petered out before it reached him.  That's a new trick, he thought, his mind going back to Morning Star's...messenger's...warning that Flash's capabilities had been upgraded.  I wonder what else he might be capable of.
"Dammit!  It's about time," grumbled Flash, "I thought you were going to push me out of Equestria."
"The idea did come to mind," said Dawn lightly, "I figured you might be more at home somewhere like the badlands.  You'd probably find creatures more like you out there."
"Keep joking, you little freak!" snapped Flash, his wings freezing in place and changing again before resuming, the air now filled with that terrible buzzing noise that seemed to drive spikes of pain into the ears of anypony who heard it, "You don't stand a chance agains me!"
Dawn melded his magic into the air around him, using it to create a space of dead air around him, stopping the vibrations released by Flash Spark's wings from reaching his ears.  Unlike the attack he'd used just a moment earlier, these vibrations didn't seem to do anything to disrupt Dawn's magic.  As he did so, Dawn could still feel the vibrations through his wind-sense, which didn't cause him any pain, unlike what it would have done with his ears.
He also sensed the vibrations seeming to converge and intensify around Flash's wings.  His eyes spotted the flaring of yellow light at the points where they waves were converging, a prelude to that strange cutting attack that Flash was capable of.  Sure enough, twin beams of yellow energy lanced out from Flash's wings, stabbing out at Dawn like bright spears.  However, Dawn had already sensed them and twisted his body around to the side, allowing him to slip between them.  Flash compensated by swinging the beams in an arc, causing them to intersect in front of him, aiming to cut Dawn to pieces from both sides.  However, the colt dropped down before the beams could reach him.
Dawn dropped down and darted forward until he was directly underneath Flash Spark.  Rolling onto his back so that his legs and belly were facing up at his opponent, Dawn attacked.  However, instead of the concussive bursts of air he'd been using before, he instead launched twin bolts of lightning up at Flash.  The crackling bolts of electricity burst into sparks as they hit Flash's underbelly.  But when the sparks faded, there was no sign of damage to Flash's armor.
With an angry scream that was almost bestial in nature, Flash charged straight down at Dawn, his wings already preparing to launch another pair of sonic lances at Dawn, who skipped sideways just as Flash was about to reach him.  Flash changed the direction of his flight just as quickly, pursing Dawn and firing the lances as he did.  Dawn quickly dipped his flight down and slid to the right, ducking underneath the shafts of yellow and out from between them.  Behind him, he could already feel Flash closing the distance between them.
It seemed that Flash's overall speed was higher than his.  Furthermore, those insect-like wings allowed Flash to fly in virtually any direction at will, not even needing to change his orientation.  Dawn was capable of similar feats, thanks to his training in the Gale King.  However, that was only for short distances before he had to resume a normal flight.  Against virtually any other pony, the unique abilities Flash's wings granted him would have provided him with an overwhelming advantage, but they didn't actually bother Dawn at all.
After all, for all the difference in their individual abilities, Dawn had one major advantage over Flash Spark.  Flash Spark was no warrior.  He had no real experience in battle.  Aside from this one, the only real fight he'd been in was when he'd attempted to crash the wedding of Big Macintosh and Ditzy a few months back and had been headed off by the Wonderbolts and others.  That fight had largely consisted of Flash's enemies battering him whilst he tried, rather ineffectually, to kill them.  The nearly indestructible armor he sported and the deadly weapons he wielded were largely useless.  Because of his lack of knowledge and skill, he had no idea of how to employ them to their greatest effect, having instead relied on their novelty and unique nature to catch ponies off-guard.
Thus, though he had yet to inflict any actual damage on his opponent, Dawn did not feel overly troubled as he continued to dodge out of the way of Flash's barrage of sonic lances.  When Flash closed in, he tried to catch Dawn with the pincers on his muzzle or slash him with the bladed tail extending from his haunches.  However, Dawn simply read those attacks and slipped around them effortlessly, not even needing to think about it.
This might actually be a good opportunity for me, thought Dawn as he darted back away from Flash's latest attack.  Relaxing his body, Dawn took a breath and let go of his thoughts, clearing his mind and falling completely into the feeling of moving in sync with his adversary.  Through his wind-sense, he could feel the buzz of Flash Spark's wings, feel the shifting of those vibrations through the air as Flash moved to attack or fire off his sonic lances.  Just like Flash's breathing, those vibrations formed a sort of rhythm that Dawn could feel through the air as they fought.  Even though he was no longer actively thinking about the battle, Dawn easily moved, automatically eluding Flash's attacks.
But that was only the first part of Dawn's efforts.  What he really wanted to do was test the skill he'd only managed to use once before, during the final stage of his battle against Terra Heart.  His mind went blank and the fight seemed to be taking place somewhere very far away.  Reaching out into the air around him, Dawn began.  Against the constant buzz of Flash's wings, a second, lighter buzz filled the air around Dawn as it began to charge with electricity.  Putting the force of his entire body into the motion, Dawn swept his wing around, the feathers slashing through the air like blades.  The lightning he generated seemed to merge with the edge of the vacuum blade he produced, gaining both power and speed from the motion of his body.  In the midst of its blank, unthinking state, Dawn's mind conjured the image of a brilliant, white crescent sweeping through the air.
To Flash's eyes, Dawn's body seemed to limp one second, almost as though the colt had lost consciousness in midair.  Seeing an opportunity, Flash decided to go in for the kill, aiming to catch the colt with his pincers and rip Dawn's throat out.  However, the next second, Dawn suddenly whipped out his wing, twisting his entire body along his spine to put more force into the motion.  From the edge of Dawn's primaries surged a blade of white that hummed through the air, the sound of its passage seeming to cut through the buzz of Flash's wings.
Flash Spark was not a warrior.  He had no honed instincts to sense danger and, even if he had, his reflexes were not developed enough to allow him to dodge.  In his own mind, he had no reason to even worry about Dawn's latest effort.  After all, nearly every attack that had been used against him, whether pony or griffon, whether it came from a Wonderbolt or even one of the Celestial Knights, had failed to penetrate his armor.  This attack was no different.  In the end, it wouldn't even phase Flash Spark, who grinned as he continued forward to make his kill.
He couldn't have been more wrong.  Ironically, Flash's impulse to go in for the kill was what saved his own life.  As a result he'd ended up moving in at an angle that took the majority of his body out of the way of Dawn's attack.  The curved edge of the white blade sank into the armor over Flash Spark's upper-left hind leg, just below his haunch.  The humming crescent of white energy seared and sliced its way through the armor and the flesh beneath it.
Flash screamed in agony as his attack was completely forgotten.  He rolled one way, while his severed leg went tumbling off in another direction, disappearing into the canopy of the Everfree Forest below.  Streams of blood spurted from the stump where his hind leg had been.
"You brat!  You filthy mongrel brat!" shrieked Flash Spark, his writhing flipping and spinning his body as his wings kept him suspended in the air, "What did you do?"
Dawn said nothing, too dazed from his experience to respond.  The last time he had tried this technique, he had been on the edge of exhaustion and depletion and it had drained his magical reserves past their limits.  Returning from that blank, thoughtless state was like trying to claw his way back into consciousness after being drugged or knocked out.  His entire body tingled from the experience, possibly because he was new to the technique.  His flight faltered as he panted for breath, drained from the endeavor.
I think I can keep fighting, though, he thought.  He hadn't pushed himself nearly as far as he had during his battle with Terra Heart and his recovery from that fight was, more or less, complete.
Dawn was distracted from his reverie by a wet, sliding sound coming from Flash's leg.  His eyes widened as he saw the armor lining the area where the leg had been severed spread down and close over the wound, completely stopping the flow of blood.  Well...that's...different.
Flash's cries of pain dwindled and he seemed regain some semblance of self-control.  His pincers opened and closed in agitated motions as his compound eyes once again focused on Dawn.  His teeth were grit in anger.  "You're going to pay for that," he said, his voice emerging as a maddened hiss.
Dawn frowned, wondering just how to deal with this situation.  While he didn't want to kill Flash Spark, however disgusting a creature the stallion might have been, he also saw no other real options at the moment.  Even before he had been twisted into this...monstrosity, Flash Spark hadn't been a pleasant stallion.  But now, it seemed as though the only thing he cared about was inflicting as much pain as possible on the ponies he believed had wronged him.  On top of that, the Dark Matter that made up his armor, wings, and who knew what else of his body was unpredictable.  There was no telling what other surprises it might have.  Even if he subdued Flash Spark now, Dawn was fairly certain that no form of captivity he and his friends currently had at their disposal was sufficient to handle him.
It would seem there's no other way to handle this, thought Dawn grimly.
He backwinged, edging away from Flash, trying to gain distance so that he could try his technique again.  However, Flash simply charged forward.  Even as he lunged in, his pincers aiming for Dawn's head, his wings made the air scream as yellow light flashed in front of both of them.  He fired the sonic lances down at an angle, trying to catch Dawn as he ducked beneath the snapping pincers.  Twisting, Dawn managed to slip between the shafts of light and sound as they slashed at the canopy below.  Flash reared up, swinging his bladed tail and its barbed stinger under his belly.  Kicking off the air, Dawn was able to turn his twisting roll into a cartwheeling motion that carried him out of the way of the fearsome weapon.
Flash was already turning in place and moving to pursue, once again lunging in with his pincers.  Gaining distance would only make it easier for Flash to target Dawn with his sonic lances again, so Dawn remained close, his form seeming to double, even triple as Flash's pincers clicked in a continuous effort to spear the colt between them.
Once again, Dawn tried to clear his mind and relax his body, to achieve that thoughtless state once again.  However, the increased ferocity of Flash's attack was a continuous distraction, one that kept him from achieving the necessary state of mind.  To make matters worse, that infernal buzzing ground into Dawn's ears.  This close to its source, Dawn's control over the air around him wasn't enough to keep the vibration at bay and it was a constant source of pain.
As it was, Dawn barely noticed the critical instant when the buzzing of Flash's wings ceased for less than a second, only to quickly resume again.  However, he felt the results immediately as a powerful surge of vibrating air rushed away from Flash and washed over Dawn.  At this range, there was no way that Dawn could escape from it.  The air beneath his wings seemed to go dead and his lift disappeared.  Dawn's eyes widened as he began to fall towards the canopy below.
There wasn't a serious risk of him falling to his death, not from this high up.  The interruption of his magic had been brief and Dawn could already start to feel his control of the air coming back to him.  The real problem came from the fact that Flash wasn't going to sit idly by and let Dawn get away from him.  Even as Flash's head darted forward, its pincers closing in on Dawn's head, his hindquarters swung downwards and forwards, whipping that tail and its stinger in an arc that sent it stabbing towards Dawn's stomach.  In his current state, there was no way that the colt would be able to avoid the blows.
A sound like a thunderclap roared across the sky, drowning out the buzz of Flash Spark's wings.  A shaft of white, edged with blue, slammed into Flash's flank, knocking him tail over teakettle with an pained cry.  It was accompanied by a cracking noise as the force behind the blow apparently broke through the Dark Matter that served as Flash's armor.
Confused, Dawn looked around, only to be taken by surprise as a pair of warm forelegs encircled him in a protective embrace as a pony pulled his back up against her chest.  Despite the fact that this pony had apparently snuck up on him through his wind-sense, Dawn felt no sense of threat that the unexpected contact would have normally brought.  Instead, it made him relax, almost as though his mother was holding him.  At the edges of his vision, he caught a glimpse of pink wings.  "Firefly?"
Tilting his head up, he saw her face as she smiled down at him.  "You did well," she  said, "All things considered, I don't think it was wise using that skill in real battle yet.  You haven't completely grasped Nothingness yet, at least, not enough to use it at will.  Practice some more before you try that again."  She transferred her glance up to Flash, who was reorienting himself and growling as he turned to face Firefly.
A second pair of pegasus wings beat the air and Dawn sensed the approach of another pegasus, smaller than Firefly, but larger than him.  "Perlin?"
"I wouldn't expect anything less," said the young stallion with a smirk as he came to hover next to Firefly, "You beat me by a pretty wide margin."  He transferred his gaze from Firefly to Dawn.  "That was quite the trick you pulled.  So that was what you've been working up to."
"So it was," said Dawn with a nod.
Perlin's lips curled back in a grin.  "Well then, in the interest of keeping things even, why don't I give you a preview of what my new wings are capable of..."  He bobbed his head politely towards Firefly, "With your permission, of course, milady."
"Be my guest," said Firefly, "I'm quite curious about your wings myself.  They were metal, the last I heard."
Perlin nodded as Flash Spark shouted indignantly, "Are you three going to waste my time on chitchat or are you going to let me kill you already?"
"Sorry," said Perlin with a chuckle, drifting forward so that he hovered between the other two pegasi and Flash Spark, "I will be your opponent for the time being."
"You?" snarled Flash Spark, his sneer more audible than it was visible, "You owe your wings to the same one who gave me this," he gestured to himself and the insectile armor he wore, "Why are you helping them?"
"I don't recall why the fact that both of us received our gifts from the same giver would have us on the same side," said Perlin, "Especially since he actually asked me to cut your little jaunt short.  He's apparently upset that you went abroad without permission."
An angry growl gurgled its way out of Flash Spark's throat.  "I don't need his precious permission to do as I please.  He told me that this was my power to use as I see fit.  I am not his slave."
The corners of Perlin's mouth curled up in a tiny, amused smile.  "If it suits you to believe that, then, by all means, do continue.  I have my orders though.  He is my employer after all."
Flash Spark let out a wordless shriek of rage and surged forward.  Perlin rushed in to meet him.  Flash's wings froze for less than a second once again, then resumed beating.  This time, once again producing that painful buzz that prompted Dawn to lay his ears flat against his skull.  Pushing gently against Firefly, he prompted her to let go so that he could snap out his wings and create a bubble of air that cut down on the buzzing's interference.
Perlin was undeterred by the noise.  Instead, he hurtled forward, his eyes intent on his target.  The buzzing rose to a shrill pitch and light flashed out from Flash Spark's wings.  Twin shafts of yellow light stabbed out at the young stallion.  Dawn tensed.  If Perlin dodged or if those beams cut right through him, Dawn and Firefly would have to get out of the way, as they were also in the line of fire.
Perlin went into a roll, not to slip out of the beams' line of fire, but instead to swat at them with his wings.  The shrieking lances of yellow light glanced off his wings at sharp angles.  One went arcing harmlessly into the sky, intercepting a drifting cloud and splitting it in two.  The other one seared down into the forest below.  A few seconds later, a groaning crash echoed through the night as several trees were felled by a blade far sharper than that of any axe.
Perlin completed his roll as he continued to charge at Flash Spark, who was surging forward to meet him.  Abruptly, Perlin twisted his body to one side so that he could swing one wing in a long sideways slash, aiming straight for Flash Spark's neck.  Flash Spark darted straight upwards without changing his body's orientation, easily shooting out of the line of Perlin's swing.  As he did so, Flash dropped his haunches down so that he could swing that bladed tail and its stinger straight at Perlin's head.  The arc of the swing brought the stinger swinging down before its course curved up, which would have put it through Perlin's chin, had the young stallion not calmly lifted his head out of the line of the strike, flipping onto his back in midair.
Pulling his extended wing back, Perlin swept both wings upwards in a slashing motion that would have cut into Flash Spark from below, like a pair of giant shears.  Screeching, Flash Spark shot up even higher, the loud, keening noise of his wings heralding another pair of sonic lances that darted down at Perlin, who angled his wings so that they once again bounced off harmlessly.
Dawn frowned as he watched Perlin continue his flip until he was upright once more then sweep his wings downwards to shoot up in pursuit of Flash Spark.  There didn't seem to be anything all that special about Perlin's wings.  So far, his use of them seemed similar to how he used his previous pair of mithril wings.  Granted, his current pair were capable of deflecting Flash Spark's sonic lances, which would have probably carved through Perlin's mithril wings just as easily as Dawn's vacuum blades had.  But, for how pleased Perlin seemed to be with those wings, the only thing truly distinct about them was that they normally felt like regular pegasus wings.  Was that what was truly most important to him when he received these new wings? Dawn wondered.
Whenever Perlin swung those wings like weapons, the feathers went rigid and their profile changed, becoming sharp...incredibly sharp, sharper than his mithril ones had ever been.  Dawn could feel that much through his wind-sense.  Flash Spark was currently doing his utmost to avoid those swings, something he hadn't done against any other opponent so far.  That was to be expected, as even a pony as arrogant as Flash wouldn't foolishly assume that armor made from Morning Star's Dark Matter would be capable of standing up against a blade that was also made of Dark Matter.  Is that all there is to it...or is there something more?
Then, Perlin lunged in yet again, swinging his wings in broad arcs.  Yet again, Flash darted back, trying to keep well out of their reach as he tried to slice Perlin to pieces with his sonic lances.  However, Perlin swung his wings again, even though he was well away from Flash Spark.  Through his wind-sense, Dawn felt something...change.  He was reminded of the first time he had fought Perlin and had encountered the young stallion's wired feathers.  The profile of Perlin's wing had changed.  However, something else happened as well.  What it was exactly, Dawn couldn't say for certain.  It was almost as though some sort of seam had appeared in the air along the line of Perlin's slash.
Flash Spark screamed.  Dawn's wind-sense picked up another "seam" in the air, right over Flash Spark's back.  He felt something briefly arc out from it and bite down into Flash Spark's back along his spine, slicing through his armor with ease.  Whatever it was retracted back into the seam as quickly as it came and Perlin's wing returned to normal.
"What was that?" asked Dawn, gaping, "It was almost as though he sent his feather by cutting through space itself."
"I think that may be exactly what it was," said Firefly calmly, her eyes following the exchange intently, "We both know that Dark Matter's greatest strength is that it doesn't conform to the regular laws of physics and magic as we know them.  Rather, it obeys its own and produces phenomena by mixing with the physical and magical laws of our world.  That trick must be a product of such a phenomena."
Dawn suppressed a shiver.  The sensation was alien, grating against his senses as something that should not be there.  It reminded him of his first meeting with Wight Shade and the strange feeling he had gotten from the stallion.  He realized that it probably should have been expected, since he had been meeting with the Dark Matter's creator, though he hadn't known it at the time.
There was something else he noted.  In the process of launching that remote attack, Perlin had actually detached the feather from his wing.  In that, it was similar to the wired feathers he had wielded with his previous set of wings.  Though Dawn couldn't sense any kind of wire that would be used to control it.  But, then again, he'd never sensed the wires that tethered the mithril feathers to their wings either.  Perlin's pair of mithril wings had been armed with ten such weapons.  I wonder how many he can detach and attack with now.
As if in response to his unvocalized question, Perlin swung his wing once again.  Dawn's eyes widened as he both felt and saw all of Perlin's feathers detaching, from the primaries, secondaries, all the way up to the coverts.  The strange seams in the air created by those feathers as they vanished surrounded the wing.  But between them, Dawn could feel the wing itself, just the raw limb without any feathers over it whatsoever.
Flash Spark twisted and dodged, desperate to escape from the attack.  But there was nowhere for him to go as the feathers emerged from the space around him, cutting off all paths of escape and carving into him from all directions.  His wings froze in place yet again and Dawn both felt and saw their configuration change.  This time, when they resumed beating yet again, a powerful shockwave rushed out in a sphere around Flash, a vibrating wave of force that just barely managed to turn Perlin's feathers aside.  The feathers retracted through the seams in the air once again, reattaching themselves to Perlin's wing on the other side.
"That was a pretty little trick," snarled Flash, "But it won't work on me again."
"I somehow doubt that," replied Perlin with a laugh, "It was the kind of trick that could be beaten by someone who's only seen it once, then it wouldn't be worth learning, would it?"  He shrugged.  "Although...I'm still getting the hang of these wings, so that's not all I'll be able to do."
"Which means that, for now, this is the extent of what you can do," said Firefly as she glided forward past Dawn to hover near Perlin, "It's getting late, so I'll help you finish this."
"Returning the courtesy, are we?" asked Perlin, glancing sidelong at Firefly, "I got an eyeful of your special skill earlier.  Are you sure you want to show it to me again?"
"Why not?" mused Firefly idly, "Just as you said, a skill that could be beaten just because your opponent figures out how it works wouldn't be worth learning."
From his position, Dawn could tell that Flash Spark was seething, mostly because Firefly and Perlin were both talking as though he wasn't even there.  Charging forward, he lunged straight towards Firefly, who turned her gaze back to him.  She gave the insectile stallion a chilly smile.
To Dawn's eyes, everything seemed to move in slow motion.  Acting as though she had all the time in the world, Firefly took a deep breath, retracting her wings in and holding them in a relaxed position, not completely folded against her sides, but not stretching out either.  As Flash Spark blurred towards her, Firefly released her breath and snapped her wings back out to their full span.
There was a sound like a clap of thunder and Firefly's wings blazed with pure light that washed over everypony around her with a force that was almost tangible.  Its intensity momentarily blinded Dawn, given that his eyes had been adapting to the growing darkness of the evening.  As his eyes fought to clear themselves, his wind-sense allowed him to remain aware of the situation.  Dawn felt the light stream through the air and merge with it.  Before Flash Spark could even realize what was happening, a burst of energy, that strange combination of light and air, possibly infused with nothing less than the purest pegasus magic, rushed out like a lance and slammed right into the middle of his head.  A loud crack filled the air as fractures appeared on the armor right between Flash's eyes and he was knocked back, reeling and screaming in pain.
Finally, Dawn's vision cleared and he beheld Firefly's technique in all of its glory.  Given what he'd seen before he'd been briefly blinded, he'd been expecting her wings to be glowing, shining even.  However, what he saw defied all expectation.  Firefly's wings were not just emitting light, they had become light.  No longer did limbs of flesh, blood, and bone, extend out from Firefly's shoulders, but wings of pure energy, pure magic stretched outward, extending farther and wider than her regular wings ever had.  They were less like limbs and more like symbols that had been painted in the sky around Firefly with gleaming brush strokes.
A long, broad line defined the leading edge of each wing, bending approximately where the joints on a regular pegasus wing would have been.  Trailing out behind each one were feathers, secondaries and primaries, arrayed at their full spread.  Though they spread as though they were real feathers, there was space between each one in such a way that no feather was touching another, nor were any of them actually touching the wing.  All were formed from brilliant white light, edged with blue highlights.
"What...what is this?" asked Dawn, gaping unashamedly at the spectacle.
Firefly glanced over her shoulder at him and gave the ebony colt a sad smile.  "I'll explain once we finish up here," she said softly, an apologetic tone in her voice.
Turning back to Flash Spark, Firefly gave him a vicious smirk.  "Now then, it's time to put you down, bucko."
The cracks formed by Firefly's previous blow and the cuts he'd received from Perlin were already mending themselves.  There was no way to tell if the flesh beneath that armor was being repaired as well, but it was obvious that Flash was nowhere near done.  Letting out an animalistic scream, he surged forward, launching another pair of sonic lances at Firefly.
Her wings didn't seem to move more than a fraction, but the result was Firefly becoming a blazing streak as she shot out of the path of Flash's attack, taking a bending, twisting path that seemed to come at him from one angle before diverting to attack from another, then another, then another...a seemingly endless succession of feints in the space of a second.  Flash, unable to follow her, completely lost track of Firefly before she charged in at him from behind and to the right.  As she came in, the feathers on Firefly's right wing merged together into a large shaft of energy that thrust at Flash's unguarded haunch, landing with a sickening crack as his armor and the bones under said armor broke.
The force of the blow sent Flash spinning helplessly through the air.  Before he could recover, Firefly was on him once again.  This time, she attacked by turning her feathers into a hail of blazing arrows that pounded Flash mercilessly.  Broken into chips, his armor was flaking off, revealing the flesh beneath it.
Firefly's eyes widened as more of Flash's flesh under his armor became visible.  She'd expected to see his coat, or possibly skin.  Instead, she found herself looking at raw muscle and tendon.  Flash's armor was not merely on top of his skin, it had become his skin.  It had apparently bonded with him on a biological level.  Furthermore, as more of her attacks landed, she saw cracks spreading through the muscles as well, as though they were made of something similar to the armor itself.
It would seem that he has become a creature of Dark Matter, both inside and out, mused Firefly.  Grimly, she decided to continue the assault.  She'd come to the same conclusion that Dawn had earlier.  There was no hope in taking Flash Spark alive.  They didn't have the means to contain him and the unknown capabilities his modifications presented.  Furthermore, he was dead set on continuing to threaten Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and those close to them.  Killing him was the only viable solution.
Pulling back her wings, Firefly spread them out to their full span.  Their light spread across the sky, blotting out the stars above.  She swept both of them at Flash Spark, feathers and the wings themselves merging into a single bolt of light that charged straight for Flash's now-unprotected body.
No longer content with waiting, Perlin took action as well, charging forward and swinging his wings, detaching his feathers and sending them through space to cut off any path of escape that Flash might have.
Through the air, Dawn felt an additional eddy forming in the center of Flash's forehead, caused by something that wasn't there previously thrusting up and out of his skull.  Remembering the last time that had happened, Dawn felt his breath catch in his throat.  No!
Perlin and Firefly's attacks collided with a roar and an explosive shockwave rippling through the air that nearly sent Dawn tumbling.  As it was, he had to quickly kick out his wings to remain properly oriented as the trees below cracked and groaned, their leaves hissing angrily as the wind knocked them off of branches and sent them spinning through the air.  Directly beneath the center of the explosion, a few trees were blasted into splinters all the way down to the level of the ground itself.
The light of Firefly's attack retracted and reformed into glowing wings once again.  With a flick, those wings burst into motes of light, leaving Firefly's original flesh and blood wings once again.  Perlin's feathers had already returned to his wing.  He frowned contemplatively as he stared at the space where Flash had been.  "I thought there would have been more resistance.  Did we blast him to atoms or something?"
"No," said Dawn as he came forward, "He's gone.  He got away."