Angels, Demons, Ponies, and Gods

Although it's only been a few months since Twilight's seen her older brother, it feels like they've been apart for a few years. Everything about him is familiar, his face, his demeanor, his kind attitude, yet he’s almost alien to her. Even saying something as simple as hello to him feels difficult. She starts to break out in a cold sweat, unsure of what to say or how to act before her own sibling.

"Hey, kid, you alright?" Shining asks.

Twilight looks up at her brother's face and nods in assurance while trying to keep a calm face. "Sorry. It's been so long since I've seen you. I didn't know what to say after all this time."

Shining wraps a hoof around the young unicorn and lightly ruffles her mane out of affection. It brings a warm feeling to Twilight's heart, knowing her brother's character hasn't changed over time.

"Well, how about we start with this whole wedding thing?" Shining suggests. "I never asked for your permission but I kinda already placed you as my best mare. That okay?"

Twilight's eyes widen and her jaw digs into the dirt. Her heart nearly explodes with joy as Shining's words hit her like a train. Immediately, she hugs her older brother, profusely thanking him for this gracious opportunity. Being the best mare at her own brother's wedding is far too much for her to ask for! However, one thought resurfaces, pushing the jovial feelings aside for now.

"As honoring and overwhelming as this is, I almost forgot to ask," Twilight says, "who are you getting married to? Who is this Princess Mi Amore Cadenza? Some snotty royal you managed to woo with your charm?"

Twilight covers her muzzle with her hooves as her loose lips have betrayed her yet again. She hadn't meant to call her own brother's betrothed a "snotty royal", especially since she doesn't even know who this pony is in the first place, so she can't judge. Where is Lavey to comfort her when she needs him?

However, instead of seeming offended by Twilight's words, Shining Armor begins to chuckle, much to the mare's surprise.

"Twily, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is Princess Cadance, your old foal-sitter."

This is too much for the young unicorn to process all at once. First she's the best mare at her brother's own wedding and now her brother is marrying her old foal sitter!? Her mind explodes and her heart can’t handle the overwhelming excitement at the sudden reveal. Things can't possibly get any better for her!

"Ahem! Am I interrupting something?" an all too familiar voice asks. It sounds as angelic as Celestia's voice but not in a maternal way; this voice almost sounds sisterly and amiable.

Twilight looks back to see the topic of the conversation standing in all her regal glory. It's been decades since she last saw Cadance, and she’s grown so much. Her silky, light cerise coat glimmers in the sunlight, just as Twilight remembered. Her mane, a blend of different streaks of yellow, pink, and purples, shimmer like crystals.

Though she doesn’t wear as much regal armor like Luna or Celestia, she does wear a gold tiara, a simple golden breastplate, and royal boots.

“Cadance!” Twilight chimes with ecstatic joy as she runs up to her future sister-in-law. In commemoration for their reunion, Twilight can’t help but perform the little dance she and the alicorn had made together when they were younger. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

The young unicorn had expected her old foal sitter to join in on the childish choreography but Cadance simply stares awkwardly at her, as if she has no idea what Twilight was doing.

“Um...okay?” Cadance replies crudely.

The monarch simply walks past Twilight without even batting her an eye and embraces Shining Armor in a loving hug. It’s probably just Twilight’s imagination but Cadance seems...different. Not just in an “all grown up” kind of sense but Twilight can’t seem to place her hoof on it. The way she's acting coldly towards Twilight when she's supposed to radiate with love for everyone is rather odd.

“Well, I’m gonna get back to my station,” Shining says as he smooches his betrothed which, for some reason, boils Twilight’s blood, “but Cadance will be checking in with your friends to see how things are going. I think I speak for both of us when I say we couldn't be more excited to have you here. Right, dear?”

Cadance looks to Twilight with a sinister grin that solidifies the speculations running rampant within the unicorn’s mind, as much as she wanted to deny them.

“Absolutely,” the alicorn says.

The rest of the day has had Twilight on edge over Cadance. For every one of her friends, the alicorn has seemed disinterested or downright rude and demanding to each of them. She’s starting to wonder if time has done the old Cadance in or if there’s something more sinister at play.

Soon, as the sun gives up its place in the sky to the moon, so does Celestia hand her shift over to Princess Luna to watch over the royal capital. With the night still in its infancy, Twilight’s friends decide to spend an hour or so having a few drinks outside a small shop. Unfortunately, the peaceful atmosphere is completely shattered by the paranoid, purple pony.

“Bet I can guess what you're all thinking,” Twilight says as she takes her seat amongst her friends. “Cadance is the absolute worst bride-to-be ever.”

Everyone gawks at the unicorn for her brash words, though, she has no clue why. The points are all so evident and everyone must have noticed her behavior.

“Who, me?” Spike quips while playing with the Cadance cake topper.

“Spike!” Applejack snaps. “That goes on the cake.”

The little drake laughs nervously and sets the topper off to the side but continues to eye it like a hawk.

“Twilight, whatever are you talking about?” Rarity asks. “Cadance is an absolute gem!”

“Rarity, she was so demanding!” Twilight shoots back. “Didn’t you think something was weird about that?”

“It’s not too uncommon, Twilight,” Lavey speaks up while he and Spike casually play with the cake-topper. “You wouldn’t believe the hassle some demons in Hell put others through just to have the perfect wedding.”

“No offense, but wouldn’t any demon do that because they’re...demons?” Rainbow Dash asks.

Lavey stares at the pegasus with a blank look and she suddenly averts her gaze. “Now my argument is invalid,” the hybrid grumbles. “Thanks a lot, Rainbow Dash.”

Grumbling at the hell-spawn's insertion, Twilight turns over to the next victim of her tirade. “Applejack, did you know that after she told you how much she just 'love-love-loved' your hors d'eouvres, she threw them in the trash?”

“Aw, she was probably just trying to spare my feelin's,” the farm pony replies modestly.

“No, she was just being fake and totally insincere!” Twilight refutes. “How is that ‘sparing your feelings’?”

Applejack opens her mouth but doesn’t respond. She simply looks away as if thinking of a proper excuse that would seem reasonable for the paranoid mare. No matter what excuse the others spit out, they won’t be able to deter Twilight’s skepticism, and vice versa.

“She did raise her voice at one of my birds during rehearsal,” Fluttershy pipes up as she consoles a rather upset red cardinal.

“See? Rude!” Twilight puts on a smug grin, believing she’s made a valid point.

“But he was singing really off-key.” As a demonstration, the cardinal squawks a chorus of ear-splitting notes, further affirming Fluttershy’s point and shattering Twilight’s hopes.

Twilight turns to Pinkie Pie but holds her tongue as she notices her and Spike fighting over the Cadance cake topper, making it basically a fruitless endeavor to interrogate her. She then turns to Rainbow Dash, who just flexes her muscles, almost ignoring Twilight’s hysteria.

“Rainbow Dash, you're with me, right?”

“Sorry, Twi,” the athletic mare replies. “Been too busy prepping for my sonic rainboom to pay much attention to the bride's bad attitude.”

“And I’ve been enjoying a few hearty drinks with Dash so don’t expect to interrogate me for info,” Lavey adds. He opens a small portal over his hand and plops a small, blue vial into his open palm. Uncorking it, he pours out only a sliver of the contents into his original drink. “Equestrian drinks are great but nothing can compare to the good stuff in Hell.”

Twilight grumbles in frustration as the hybrid takes a swig of the adulterated beverage, completely disregarding her paranoia.

“The princess is about to get married,” Rarity says, waving off her friend’s exaggerated attitude. “I'm sure any negative behavior she might be displaying is simply the result of nerves.”

“BULLSHIT!” Twilight roars as she slams her hooves on the table in rage, knocking over everyone’s drinks. She doesn’t regret her outburst but is glad Lavey managed to cover Spike’s innocent ears. “She’s awful, rude, and doesn’t even deserve to know Shining Armor, let alone marry him!”

With tears welling up in her eyes, Twilight dashes off without saying another word to her friends. Even if her friends won’t believe her, there’s still one other pony who’s always listened to her no matter what.

She runs into a nearby building that acts as Shining and Cadance’s private quarters before the big wedding. Twilight stops just before the door in hesitation, but takes a deep breath and opens it, though, no one seems to be around. She had expected her brother to be in here so she could inform him of his betrothed's. But even so, this time she has while her brother and Cadance are out can give her the perfect time to search for some incriminating evidence.

Slowly, she enters the building and wanders around, hoping to find something out of the ordinary that could explain Cadance’s brash attitude or at least prove that she’s evil in some way. As she searches shelves, drawers, and even under the carpet, she finds nothing incriminating. Fortunately, in the midst of the silence, Twilight picks up the sound of her brother and Cadance having a conversation from a nearby room.

“You don’t mind that I replaced the bridesmaids, do you, sweetie?” Cadance asks.

Twilight should run or at least hide, but curiosity calls her over to eavesdrop. She looks over to a shred of light emanating from an ajar door where the couple reside. Curious, she peeks in to find Shining Armor and Cadance having a private conversation. Cadance seems to have that sickly sinister grin plastered onto her face—the same one Twilight's seen all day.

“Replaced? With whom?” Shining questions.

“Your sister’s friends, of course,” the princess replies. “Why settle for less when we could have Equestria’s heroes be our bridesmaids?”

Although having her friends being the bridesmaids does seem like a honorable opportunity for them, the replacement still seems rather sudden and brash. That’s just no reason to just replace the old bridesmaids out of the blue like that. Fortunately, there’s more to their conversation.

“That does sound rather—OW!” Shining winces in pain as a vein in his temple pulsates.

“Oh, dear, another migraine?” Cadence asks with false worry. “Let me help you with that.”

Twilight watches in horror as the monarch’s horn glows a grim shade of green, one the unicorn knows doesn’t belong to her old foal sitter. She remembers a gentle blue aura enveloping Cadance’s horn, not this sickly color. As she casts a spell on Shining’s horn, his eyes glow green and seem as if he’s been possessed.

“This is not the Princess Cadance I know,” Twilight mutters.

“Twily?” Shining calls out.

Twilight decides to make a break for it before she can get caught spying on the couple, but the door opens, preventing her from escaping in secrecy. Both Shining and Cadance have suspecting looks in their eyes that bore into Twilight, prompting her to explain herself.

“I know it seems suspicious for me to be eavesdropping on you two but...Shining Armor, I have something I need to tell you.”

“What is it kid?” the stallion inquires.

Twilight opens her mouth to spill the truth but nothing comes out. She wants to inform Shining Armor of Cadance’s brash attitude towards her friends, her sinister attitude, the way she's been acting so off, but she can’t bring herself to do it. The words are lodged in her throat, begging to be let out, but the fact that Shining seems so happy with the princess keeps her from doing so.

For almost no sudden reason, however, the regal shoots Twilight a cocky grin, giving her the motivation to spill her worries.

“Shining Armor, you’re making a huge mistake!” she finally exclaims. Her brother gives her an understandably confused look, but Twilight doesn’t stop. “Please! Marrying Cadance is going to be the biggest mistake of your life! She’s not the same, loving princess we knew all those years ago!”

“Twily, what are you talking about?” the stallion questions, looking as if he’s been betrayed. “Tell me your joking. I thought you’d love having me marry your old foal sitter.”

“I would, but she’s—“

“Not good enough for your brother?” Cadance questions. The cruel monarch cuddles up next to her betrothed, while glaring venomous daggers at the distraught mare. “Shining, sweetie, do you want to make me the happiest mare in Equestria or continue listening to these absurd fallacies?”

Shining looks between his betrothed and his own sibling with confusion. The longer he takes to choose, the more Twilight’s hopes proceed to dwindle. She holds her breath for any sort of implication that her brother will choose her over Cadance, though it seems highly unlikely now.

“I don’t know where you’re getting these crazy ideas, Twilight,” Shining sternly states, “but I’m marrying Cadance. That’s final.”

The final pony who would listen to her has be pitted against her as well. Tearfully, not even waiting for her brother to console her or chastise her, Twilight dashes out of the room, her hopes completely crushed and no one to be by her side.

Lavey had seen Twilight running from Shining and Cadance’s private quarters and into the castle with tears streaming from her eyes and her face looked as if she had been utterly betrayed. He doesn't know what's been going on in that little head of hers but he wants to console her the best he can.

He heads inside the castle and up a few flights of stairs leading to the guest chambers. As expected, Lavey finds Twilight in one of the guest rooms in the castle. She’s not asleep, but bawling her eyes out. Now the hell-spawn is unsure of how to approach this situation; should he help console her or just leave her be? She’d probably want some reliable company, someone to confide in, but she’d also want to be alone.

Taking a deep breath, he decides it's best to let his docile side make the decision. He gently opens the door and enters the dark room, shutting the door behind him so as to give them more privacy. Twilight looks back at him and, although the unicorn can’t see him in the darkness, she scowls at him directly in the eyes.

“Leave me alone, Lavey,” she grumbles. She digs her head back into her pillow but doesn’t continue bawling this time. Only a few soft sniffles echo through the room. “I just want to be alone.”

“I’m sure you’ve been alone for a while now, Twilight,” the hybrid says without a second thought. Though it may sound harsh, he knows she knows it to be true. “You need the company. Please, let me sit with you.”

Without waiting for a response from the unicorn, Lavey sits on the edge of the bed, looking back at Twilight with a pained expression. It breaks his heart to see her, his first beloved friend, in such a state.

"No pony believes what I'm saying," Twilight sobs. "Princess Cadence isn't who she says she is, I'm sure of it! Besides being overly rude, she’s trying to mind control my brother!”

This piques Lavey's curiosity but not his concern, deeming it to be another excuse Twilight may be trying to use to slander the alicorn. However, despite these ludicrous ideas, he wants to help her the best he can.

"Being rude and demanding is normal in any wedding, demonic or not," the prince responds. "It's the bride's special day and she just wants everything to be perfect, especially considering she's royalty. The whole 'mind controlling' thing...I'm not sure what to say. It could just be—"

"Don't say it's my eyes playing tricks on me!" Twilight explodes, startling the hybrid a bit. She lifts her head up from the pillow and looks at the hell-spawn with crazed eyes and tears streaming down her cheeks. "I know what I saw! Shining Armor doesn't believe me, my friends don't believe me, no pony believes me!" The enraged unicorn plants her face into her pillow and screams out her frustration.

As the room rests in silence, except for a few sniffles, a memory resurfaces in Lavey’s mind containing a bit of crucial information. To share it with Twilight would probably just fan her ego but he knows he can’t hide anything from her, otherwise, she'd hate him for the rest of her life.

"There is one small bit of information I was planning on telling you regarding Princess Cadance," Lavey says, shattering the silence.

Twilight cocks her head until only one eye is peering at the hybrid with remorse and a small sliver of hope.

"Tell me. Now," the unicorn demands.

Lavey looks at her with a blank stare and takes a deep breath before responding. "When I ran into her a few hours ago, she seemed like a decent pony. But...the thing that caught me off guard was the strong scent of anger emanating off of her."

"I knew it!" Twilight says with a prideful grin as she sits up. "She had malice in her soul; proof that she couldn't be the Princess Cadence I remember!"

"Not quite," Lavey replies, shattering Twilight's hope and determination once more. "I didn't search her soul that time; I just picked up a whiff of malice off of her. It's most likely just stress and she doesn't want anyone to mess anything up."

"Even her old bridesmaids?"

Lavey cocks a brow at the question, uncertain of what she's talking about. "What's wrong with her old bridesmaids?"

"You tell me! She replaced her old bridesmaids with my friends, not that I'm jealous of them or anything, but that just seems too sudden and out of the ordinary.”

Lavey holds his tongue, knowing fully well it’s damn near impossible to sway the hardheaded unicorn. Inconspicuously peeking into her soul, he notices a burning splotch of malice has overwhelmed her and a bit of cool envy grows ever so slowly.

“Could it be that maybe you’re a bit possessive of your brother?” he inquires.

That seems to get Twilight’s attention and cause her to shoot another scornful glare at the prince, who still doesn’t flinch.

“I’m not being possessive of Shining Armor,” she hisses through gritted teeth.

“You say that...yet your soul has a rather large concentration of envy and malice. You seem to want him all to yourself and none for Cadence. I can't see any other explanation for it.”

“I... you...” Twilight sputters and stammers nonsense until finally giving up and diving under the covers. “Just let me get some sleep.”

"Twilight, I—"

"Just let me get some sleep!" she explodes without even batting him an eye.

The hybrid sighs in defeat as he proceeds to leave the bedroom. He's tried all he could but he still can't get the stubborn unicorn to change her mind. Hopefully things will blow over by tomorrow and they can have a decent day.

“Lavey?”

The prince freezes in his tracks at the sound of Twilight’s whimpering voice and looks back at the unicorn, who sits up in the bed, blanket clutched to her bosom. Through the darkness, he can see her eyes are filled with despair and hopelessness; any flame of desperation and determination has been purged. A single tear streams down her cheek and moistens the sheets.

“I don’t want to be alone,” she sobs. “Can you please stay with me? I'm sorry for yelling at you, just—”

"It's alright," the hybrid reassures her. "Everything's alright, Twilight."

The mare moves over to give him enough space to crawl into as Lavey gives in to the unicorn's tearful request. As he climbs into the bed to join her, the mattress and bed frame creak under his weight but manage to hold for him to get comfortable. He wraps his arms and wings around the downtrodden unicorn and pulls her into his chest, allowing her to feel his warmth and relax.

“Everything will be alright, Twilight,” he whispers. “If you want, I can try a little investigating while the mock wedding goes on tomorrow.”

Twilight doesn’t say anything but releases a small puff of air through her nostrils that seems to signify her compliance with the plan.

“You somewhat believe me, right Lavey?” the mare asks.

“It’s hard to tell. I want to believe you but I don’t want to jump the gun on anything and be labeled as a jerk. Let’s just get some sleep for the time being, shall we?” He runs his hands through Twilight’s mane in an attempt to sooth her, which seems to work somewhat. “I promise, everything will turn out alright, whether she’s an imposter or not.”

Twilight doesn’t respond; she’s either fully asleep or she has nothing else to contribute to the conversation or her argument. It doesn’t matter to Lavey either way, actually. All he hopes for is that her sanity will be okay until tomorrow morning...