Azure Edge

by Leaf Blade

290. Sometimes Murder is Not the Solution (and sometimes it is)

Twilight Sparkle sat in her natural form on the high cliffs near the peak of the Crystal Mountains; sitting beside her was a tiny cream-colored dragon with a curly sky blue mane. Her name was Cozy Glow, and she was a Dragon Lord. Twilight wanted to get to know her, to learn if she could trust her or not.

To be honest, she really wanted to trust her.

“So,” Twilight cleared her throat awkwardly.

“Yeeees?” Cozy Glow responded sweetly, clasping her claws together and batting her eyes at Twilight.

“You really bailed on Discord, huh?” Twilight said, keeping her eyes straight ahead of her instead of on Cozy.

“Gawd, yes,” Cozy Glow made a retching noise, “have you met Discord? I actually think taking over the entire rest of the planet would be easier than wrenching power out of that egomaniac’s claws.”

“Ha! That’s fair!” Twilight laughed.

“I’m lucky I got out when I did!” Cozy balked, throwing her claws into the air. “Look at the rest of you nerds! You and Trixie and that Fluttershy, and everyone else? Geez, last thing I’d want is to end up as some creepy portrait on the wall of an old man’s loser cave.”

“Ew, he keeps portraits of us?” Twilight groaned. That was an intensely unpleasant thought.

“Sure does,” Cozy nodded. “Dude’s got an axe to grind with each and every one of you like woah. You’re lucky he’s too lazy and easily distracted to come after you. And well, heh, he’s afraid of Celestia too.”

“Is he?” Twilight grinned. First time she was thankful for Celestia. “That’s interesting.”

Twilight looked down at Cozy and pondered. Twilight… wasn’t super good with kids. She wasn’t sure whether she should cut Cozy slack due to her age, or come down hard on her, and it made even more knots in Twilight’s brain when she considered how she wasn’t Cozy’s parent or guardian or—

Wait.

“Cozy, where are your parents?”

“Where are yours?” Cozy responded instantly, the bitterness in her voice telling Twilight everything she needed to know.

“We should stick together,” Twilight said. “You and me, and Fluttershy and Trixie, and that girl Scootaloo. We’re all in this together.”

“You say that, but your tongue’s been on some boots lately, Twi,” Cozy cackled to herself. “How can you even stand this place?!” Cozy flailed her arms toward the city below. “Especially after learning about that prison?! How can you just sit here and not want to burn the whole thing down to the ground?!”

“I…”

Honestly, if only Cozy knew how badly Twilight wanted to do exactly that. To burn down every building here and every pony inside. But she knew that so many of these ponies were led astray by propaganda and lies, and that if given the truth and the opportunity to make better decisions, they would take them…

…right?

Honestly, Twilight didn’t know. Rarity tried to stab her to death, and while Twilight had forgiven her, she knew that Rarity required several monumentally life-changing experiences to shake her out of her bigoted mindset, and waiting for each and every individual racist to have those experiences was… not realistic.

Especially when fire was so much more efficient.

It was hard not to want to resort to fire, especially since a dead bigot caused less harm than a living one, but Twilight also couldn’t entirely bring herself to be okay with that much bloodshed, even if the victims did quote-unquote ‘deserve it’.

Twilight just kinda got lost sometimes wondering what else she could do.

“How did you know about the prison?” Twilight asked.

“Tirek told me,” Cozy replied. “Told everyone, or at least Chrysalis and Sombra too, and boy those two were pissed.”

“Yeah, they would be, wouldn’t they?” how sad was it that Twilight’s first thought was that if Sombra burned down the Empire, then Twilight wouldn’t have to feel guilty about it? “What are they going to do now?”

“Dunno,” Cozy shrugged unhelpfully. “I bailed before they came to any kind of agreement. Sombra wants to just come in and take over, Chrysalis wants to slow roll it and use subterfuge and stuff, and Tirek was just trying to make sure they didn’t kill each other.”

“I see,” Twilight hummed, looking out over the clear skies and pondering. The likelihood of anything substantial happening wasn’t super high; Chrysalis and Sombra hated each other, and their feuding would likely stall any potential plans to a complete standstill, just like they had for the last several decades.

Still though, Twilight had a bad feeling. It would be prudent to deal with this prison situation on her own terms, before the Dragon Lords even had a chance to become involved.

Which just left one more Dragon Lord to deal with.

“So why’d you come all this way then?” Twilight asked, looking at Cozy and giving her Twilight’s undivided attention.

“Like I said, I wanna be friends with you,” Cozy beamed a shamelessly insincere smile.

“Uh-huh,” Twilight said flatly.

“What, it’s the truth,” Cozy shrugged. “Tirek and Chrysalis both have your interests at heart more than anything else, and while Sombra doesn’t want to admit it, he recognizes how much value you have as a result of having two whole Dragon Lords in your pocket, so he’s planning around you too.

“Not to mention your favor with the good ol’ Elder Dragon himself. That’s a lot of power! I want to be on the right side of it! And I know all you want is to make fwiends with everybody, so I figure if I act friendly to you and, more importantly, don’t murder anyone, I can get what I want! Simple as.”

“See, it’s the murder thing that I’m a little iffy on,” Twilight grumbled. “How can I trust you to not murder? Which is a sentence that just came out of my mouth.”

“Cuz,” Cozy pointed a claw at Twilight, “if I’m trying to cozy up to you, pun intended, I need to not murder. So me doing a murder would get me further from what I want, instead of closer. You see what I’m saying?”

“I do,” Twilight sighed; there was a certain logic to Cozy’s words that was frighteningly sensible. “I do. Alright then, I guess that’s that.”

“You want me to help you break into that prison?” Cozy asked, beaming from ear to ear.

“I don’t,” Twilight said flatly. “For a number of reasons, but honestly the chief among them is this: if things go south with the prison break, with the other Dragon Lords, with Celestia, if you really want to get in my good graces, you can protect my son.”

“Ugh, that’s boring,” Cozy pouted and crossed her arms, and Twilight looked over at her with a bemused frown and an arched eyebrow. “Uh, I mean, you can count on me!”

Cozy gave a salute and a big grin and honestly, Twilight hated to admit it but… she believed her.

Author's Note:

yo, quick change of plans! my hiatus begins NOW! whaaaaat that's wild right?? haha anyway

ok but no seriously i'm burnt out, and i realized while storyboarding the next azed arc that i'm not burnt out on azure edge like i thought i was (i'm actually rly exciting to start writing the next arc), i'm burnt out with basically having to write and edit chapters the same day they're published. that shit sucks

i had some rly cool ideas for the last couple chapters of this arc, but i'm so brain fried that i couldn't rly do 'em justice, so when i come back from my break we're gonna do a cute little denouement\transition arc for those ideas and a few more, and then we'll hit the next two arcs before this Act is over

HOO! and that's that on that, very exciting stuff. also keep in mind that my hiatus is gonna be for azure edge only, sunlight underground is gonna be updating as normal (and if u haven't read that yet, i highly recommend it cuz it is good as hell)

as for my break, i'm gonna take three weeks off to make sure i am in Top Form for when i come back, so the next azure edge update will be on October 5th
i promise it'll be worth the wait :3c

And with that, if you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know by leaving a comment! I absolutely adore reading them!
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

Comments

[ShadowLDrago]

“Gawd, yes,” Cozy Glow made a retching noise, “have you met Discord? I actually think taking over the entire rest of the planet would be easier than wrenching power out of that egomaniac’s claws.”

So he's also a nutcase here, gotcha.

“Sure does,” Cozy nodded. “Dude’s got an axe to grind with each and every one of you like woah. You’re lucky he’s too lazy and easily distracted to come after you. And well, heh, he’s afraid of Celestia too.”

REALLY? Interesting.

“Where are yours?” Cozy responded instantly, the bitterness in her voice telling Twilight everything she needed to know.

Ah. Gotcha.

“You say that, but your tongue’s been on some boots lately, Twi,” Cozy cackled to herself. “How can you even stand this place?!” Cozy flailed her arms toward the city below. “Especially after learning about that prison?! How can you just sit here and not want to burn the whole thing down to the ground?!”

She wants to. TRUST me.

It was hard not to want to resort to fire, especially since a dead bigot caused less harm than a living one, but Twilight also couldn’t entirely bring herself to be okay with that much bloodshed, even if the victims did quote-unquote ‘deserve it’.

Fire, the great equalizer.

“Tirek told me,” Cozy replied. “Told everyone, or at least Chrysalis and Sombra too, and boy those two were pissed.”

Oh I'll fuckin' bet.´

“Not to mention your favor with the good ol’ Elder Dragon himself. That’s a lot of power! I want to be on the right side of it! And I know all you want is to make fwiends with everybody, so I figure if I act friendly to you and, more importantly, don’t murder anyone, I can get what I want! Simple as.”

Indeed. And yet your scheming nature in the show makes me cautious. Then again, canon Celestia isn't a bigot, so, we'll see.

“Cuz,” Cozy pointed a claw at Twilight, “if I’m trying to cozy up to you, pun intended, I need to not murder. So me doing a murder would get me further from what I want, instead of closer. You see what I’m saying?”

Pragmatism.

Cozy gave a salute and a big grin and honestly, Twilight hated to admit it but… she believed her.

i promise it'll be worth the wait :3c

See above with the blond kid.

[Knight N Gale]

Oh my Celestia! Is there any other story on here with more chapters!?

[AppleTank]

Be gay, do crimes

>Cozy Glow
i don't know how I feel about this

[Furious Thestral]

Wait... how come Twilight is not food with kids?

[Leaf Blade]

10434681
she's just self-deprecating is all

[Kaleido]

ah
now that's a chapter title!

“Yeeees?” Cozy Glow responded sweetly, clasping her claws together and batting her eyes at Twilight.

oh no
she's terrifyingly cloying even through text

“Sure does,” Cozy nodded. “Dude’s got an axe to grind with each and every one of you like woah. You’re lucky he’s too lazy and easily distracted to come after you. And well, heh, he’s afraid of Celestia too.”

oh that's not great
they're in discord's sights, oof

“You say that, but your tongue’s been on some boots lately, Twi,” Cozy cackled to herself. “How can you even stand this place?!” Cozy flailed her arms toward the city below. “Especially after learning about that prison?! How can you just sit here and not want to burn the whole thing down to the ground?!”

wait
calling twi a bootlicker?
hmmmmmm
something tells me she has some skewed priorities

Honestly, Twilight didn’t know. Rarity tried to stab her to death, and while Twilight had forgiven her, she knew that Rarity required several monumentally life-changing experiences to shake her out of her bigoted mindset, and waiting for each and every individual racist to have those experiences was… not realistic.

egads yes, that's complicated and takes much too long

“Tirek told me,” Cozy replied. “Told everyone, or at least Chrysalis and Sombra too, and boy those two were pissed .”

oh hi chrysalis

“Dunno,” Cozy shrugged unhelpfully. “I bailed before they came to any kind of agreement. Sombra wants to just come in and take over, Chrysalis wants to slow roll it and use subterfuge and stuff, and Tirek was just trying to make sure they didn’t kill each other .”

yeah, sounds about right

“See, it’s the murder thing that I’m a little iffy on,” Twilight grumbled. “How can I trust you to not murder? Which is a sentence that just came out of my mouth.”

see, this is why dealing with cozy glow is tricky
she's a chaotic murder child, and that's about the extent of it

“Ugh, that’s boring,” Cozy pouted and crossed her arms, and Twilight looked over at her with a bemused frown and an arched eyebrow. “Uh, I mean, you can count on me!”

heh

write and edit chapters the same day they're published

oh geez

three weeks off

neat
good break