Blight's strange attire couldn't have been accident; it wasn't like him to restrict himself in such a way, even in light of how his new pony form flowed and slithered across the rafters towards Alpenglow. In a fraction of a second, the black, viscous shape was halfway to the stallion's neck before he even reacted.
Instinctively, Alpenglow put his sword straight out in front of him, brandishing it to the right to deflect Blight's blade. The rusty cutlass caught on Alpenglow's polished arming sword, and with a jerking twist, managed to clang against his helmet, almost knocking him off balance. Wings gusting, he leapt to a beam at his back as the cutlass swung off course after the impact. That's when Blight rushed him, teeth bared in a familiar but no less disturbing expression.
One of Blight's hooves turned inward, and Alpenglow knew he would take one more step and go into a savage leap. For all the old pony's power and intellect, perhaps he had forgotten that Princess Twilight's newest guard was still in the prime of his youth, that he had been trained by not only the royal sisters, but by some of the greatest minds and warriors of Equestria's history. At any rate, it was so easy, it was almost like he was back in school. A single, ungentle kick at just the right angle sent Blight falling helplessly onto a lower rafter. His pony form fell apart, and his vines buried themselves in the ceiling to save him.
As Alpenglow floated down, Blight laughed painfully. "You never could disappoint when it came to this sort of thing," he said, clutching his cutlass, now snapped in half. "But no matter much you'd like to, you can't beat me this way."
"I can try."
"You certainly can, but I don't think you want to."
"Just give it up, Blight."
"I can give you a life nopony else can. I understand now. It was a meaningless infatuation; you were lonely after being out of the box. But you'll never be as important to them as they are to each other. I know it isn't fair, but it's true, and you know that."
Alpenglow readied his sword for another blow. "You're starting to repeat yourself. It's getting old."
"Then what if gave you the only thing you've ever wanted since we came here?"
Blight waved his head, and a flower-tipped vine spun around Alpenglow, its open petals glowing centimeters away from his face. With a blinding flash, it filled his vision with pictures of Bridge Builder, Nautilus, Honeydew, and Vera, all still statues beneath the castle.
"I hate to do pressure you like this, Alpenglow, but you've given me no choice. I can bring them back. How does the saying go? New friends are silver, but old ones are gold. What do you say?"
"You're lying. The Princess told me what you did couldn't be fixed and I take her word over yours."
"Are you ready to completely bury that hope when I say I can fix them?"
The image projected by the flower began to change. The stone coating of the statues cracked and gave way to other pictures: the six of them, including Tawny, laughing and talking like they used to.
Alpenglow knew it was pure garbage, and he hated Blight all the more for tempting him with the fantasy he did his best to avoid, but he could even hear his heart racing, feel his face flushing with the familiar longing. Blight must have seen it too, for he slowly began to smile.
"I knew I shouldn't give up on you just yet. Consider this a gift, my way of proving that I really do care about you."
Before Alpenglow could answer or even move, a sanguine aura bled from the flower as vines took hold of his legs. He struggled for a moment, but slowly Blight and town hall disappeared as his world went white, then finally, black.
The illusion lasted only a second. Feeling for his sword, he took hold of the hilt crushed against his shoulder and pushed outward, slicing the vines around his legs. Whatever spell Blight had cast, he had beaten it, but there was scarcely time to revel in the victory as he braced himself for the next attack, an attack that never came.
Blight had left- no, that wasn't right. He had just disappeared, as if he had never existed in the first place. Alpenglow shook his head frantically. He had only been blinded for a second, so what happened? It was silent in the hall. A rock formed in the bottom of his gut, and he suddenly felt very alone as he peered past the rafters below and at the ground floor, where he half expected Twilight to be looking up at him.
She wasn't. Twilight, everypony, the box, even the vines. They were all gone.