friendship is heresy | Glowfic Constellation

What do you do with the trapped souls of the Queen of Infernal Cheliax and the Grand High Priestess of Asmodeus? You can’t, actually, keep them that way forever. Lastwall has spared no expense in keeping their soul gems as securely as possible, but given what Asmodeus proved willing to spend on defending Cheliax, it stands to reason that no security mortals can provide will keep his favored puppets imprisoned forever, or even for very long. Heaven could do better, of course, but they do not really want to try to match Hell intervention for intervention, not when Asmodeus is acting like this.

Besides the security question, of course, it is wronging someone greatly to keep their soul trapped forever, even when that person is Abrogail Thrune or Aspexia Rugatonn; hardly better than destroying it, even if Pharasma accounts it differently. It is better, by the values of almost all mortals, than sending them to Hell, but there are exceptions, and loyal Asmodeans are perhaps likelier than average to be exceptions.

They cannot, actually, send them to Hell, even if they would have preferred it over oblivion; if they do they will be resurrected immediately and continue to be used for Asmodeus’ purposes on Golarion. They could try to negotiate an arrangement where Asmodeus promises not to resurrect them, but that would be trusting Asmodeus, and unwise on principle.

This leaves, of course, the option of sending them to Nirvana and seeing what Nirvana can do. Iomedae doesn’t have a good estimate of how likely this is to work; in her judgement redemption, like love, is a concern overrepresented among the Good gods and emphasized out of all proportion to how much it actually improves the world. So Lastwall asks the church of Shelyn instead; Shelyn, who has for personal reasons made something of a study of the redemption of beings twisted by Evil, and whose marginal intervention is in Lastwall’s opinion far less efficiently used than Iomedae’s.

Shelyn, unaware of the risk of reducing Herself to a plot device for ridiculous glowfic premises, knows just what to do.

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magic-with-me

"I think I understand what you mean by 'plane' but I wasn't actually aware there were others. Certainly not that you could travel between them."

No Plane Shift either. Between that and the scrying it seems slightly like Someone doesn't want them to be able to leave.

"There are a few dozen known to us, depending on how you count. There's magic for getting between them—I can cast the spell but it requires an item attuned to your destination, which I don't have."

magic-with-me

"I think we should probably ask the Princess about this," says Twilight. "She'll be here tomorrow."

"Alright." Abrogail considers it a lot likelier than she did five minutes ago that the 'Princess' knows anything about the planes; unfortunately, She probably knows more about them, and her, than Abrogail would in fact prefer.

magic-with-me

Then Twilight can proceed to grill Abrogail about her world's magic for the next several hours!

aaaaaahhh she isn't even a wizard she's a sorcerer she doesn't know anything about magic she just does it

She manages to avoid setting Twilight Sparkle on fire. She needs local allies, and the damned* creature would probably just enjoy it anyway.

(*She wishes.)

Fluttershy

sharing-kindness

Mister Rooster wakes Fluttershy at the earliest crack of dawn. She stretches as she gets out of bed, brushes her mane, and then gets to work on feeding all of her animal guests their breakfast. It's a big day today! The Princess will be here!

...at some point she remembers the new pony she met yesterday. The strange foreign princess-or-whatever, who had seen an adorable harmless creature and immediately killed it. Fluttershy had protested, but then she just—stopped.

Wait, what?

sharing-kindness

Oh.

sharing-kindness

She hastily apologizes to her tiny mouse friends and immediately gallops for Ponyville.

A few minutes later Twilight's door is kicked in and five ponies barge into her bedroom to rescue her from the evil enchantress.

magic-with-me

"What the hay, girls?" says Twilight, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Rainbow Dash

a-big-adventure

"She enchanted Fluttershy to forget she's evil!" says Rainbow Dash, who's hovering over the stirring Abrogail in a vaguely threatening pose.

...she probably should have refreshed the Charm Person at some point, shouldn't she?

"I did nothing of the sort," she says. Luckily even seconds after being woken up she still has better Bluff than any mortal in Equestria has ever encountered.

magic-with-me

"Hold on, what do you mean, 'evil'?"

Fluttershy

sharing-kindness

"You murdered my poor harmless parasprite!" says Fluttershy, pushing Rainbow Dash aside to get in Abrogail's face. "There's no way I would have been friends with you after that if you hadn't enchanted me!"

Pinkie Pie

tons-of-fun

"Wait, that's what this is about? Parasprites are gross!"

FUCK. Why did it have to be that one who's willing to be sensible about this?

"She's right," she manages to make herself say. "I reacted after it had devoured an entire basket of apples in less than a round. We have similar creatures where I come from. If it had been allowed to multiply, they would have eventually consumed your entire food supply and possibly more."

i wish spike hadn't spilled glitter everywhere

magic-with-me

"She could be right," says Twilight. "I need to check my books." She heads downstairs and returns a minute later with a book.

"'Parasprites are small winged creatures known for their rapid, asexual multiplication and voracious appetites,'" she reads. "Blah blah blah...'In spite of their innocuous appearance, keeping even one is dangerous, as that number will soon grow.' Pinkie, how did you know that?"

Pinkie Pie

tons-of-fun

"Everypony knows that!"

Fluttershy

sharing-kindness

"Awww..." says Fluttershy. "It was so cute..."

Rainbow Dash

a-big-adventure

"You still mind controlled her!"

magic-with-me

"Girls. What do you mean, 'mind control'? There are spells you can cast on an object to make it seem more or less desirable, but actual mind control is serious dark magic that it should be possible to detect."

Her Bluff is so good that it makes other people invent excuses for her.

"I admit I cast a spell on the parasprite to make it seem less appealing to Fluttershy," she says with very well-feigned repentance. "I'm sorry, I should have just talked it through, but it was dangerous, as we've already discussed, and I was worried the creature itself was having unnatural effects on her. You can check me for dark magic if you like." She's suddenly really curious about what that test actually checks for. She dispels herself just in case.

magic-with-me