In the previous chapter, Cozy and her gang of not reformed villains organized a plan to put on an extreme Washouts performance. Lightning Dust and her team would perform dangerous stunts for the sake of commercialism.
And so, work was underway on preparing TCGC's first ever Washouts performance. Would it turn out spectacular? Or would it indeed be a wash? Cozy was in charge of making sure that everpony was coordinated and did their jobs.
Suri Polomare made new durable and aerodynamic outfits for the Washouts. And she ran a clothing shop in the town of TCGC. Svengallop was the Washouts manager. Flim and Flam were in charge of construction of the bleachers for ponies to sit and spectate from.
Suri Polomare also set up her concession stand where she would sell her custom made Washouts merchandise.
"I have t-shirts, hoodies, dresses, undergarments, sportswear, the whole shabang!" she bolstered.
"Excellent work. We're bound to sell out!" Cozy said.
The Washouts themselves set up the dangerous set pieces, and practiced in the open space. Cozy checked in on them. There were rings of fire, giant mechanical jaws, fireworks, and more.
"I know you said your stunts were dangerous, but golly, it looks really dangerous." Cozy said.
"They are, that's the point. The real possibility of danger leaves the audience in suspense." Lightning explained.
"But, what if you guys actually get hurt?" Cozy asked.
"Pfft. That isn't going to happen." Lightning said.
"Except I did sprain my leg that one time." Rolling Thunder said.
"And my wing got got caught in a gear once during-" Short Fuse said.
"Okay! We get it!" Lightning snapped.
"Well, I don't wanna be a thorn in your side, so I'll let you do your thing." Cozy said.
"Thanks. And don't forget about your part." Lightning said."
"Golly, I can't stop thinking about it, I'm so excited." she said.
"Excuse me, I have some quick news. Your new uniforms are finished." Suri said. "Took every bit out of me to get it done."
Suri Polomare rolled out a rack holding four Washouts uniforms.
"Sick! These things are so rad." Lightning said.
The new uniforms retained a similar green and black color scheme, however, they were much more durable, and flexible.
"All those Wonderbolts will wish they were Washouts based on the outfits alone." Suri said.
"Well, I'm glad you two are getting along now." Cozy said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I still have much to inspect."
"How is the advertising going Flim and Flam?" she asked.
"Our flyers have been doing wonders!" Flim said.
"It looks like an entire town's worth of ponies will show up!" Flam said. "This is going to be huge!"
"Between ticket sales, and merch sales, we're going to make so much money!" Flim added.
"Perfection." Cozy grinned. "You two keep doing what you're doing."
After speaking with all the ponies on the field, Cozy checked on her two evil contemporaries in the castle.
"You two have been awful quiet about the whole thing." she said.
"I could care less for extreme sports." Tirek said.
"While I would agree, it couldn't hurt to at least... give it a chance." Chrysalis said.
"That's the spirit. In fact, you two really should check it out." Cozy said.
"Perhaps there's a way we could..." Chrysalis said.
The next morning, the show was under way. The stage was set up in the middle of the field, while stacks of bleachers surrounded the main stage. The seats were completely packed! Ponies had traveled from near and far to witness the first Washouts comeback show.
"Thank you all for coming to the first event of the Washouts Comeback Tour!" Flim narrated. "Witness daring feats, and dangerous stunts, as the Washouts perform a series of extreme stunts!"
"Today's show has been brought to you by Polomare Designs Inc. and Flim Flam Co. Don't forget to pick up your own Washout merchandise today."
Chrysalis, disguised as a pony, sat in the bleachers. She held a magic orb that allowed for Tirek to watch from the safety of the castle.
"I hate sponsors." Tirek said.
"It's how we're going to make lots of money to fund our efforts to find the Rainbow of Darkness." Chrysalis said.
"Cozy has yet to explain how money is going to help us find the RoD." Tirek said.
"Cozy Glow, would you mind explaining... Cozy Glow?" Chrysalis asked.
"She isn't here with me." Tirek replied.
"Where has she gone and run off to?" Chrysalis wondered.
"Shh!" shushed a pony next to her.
"The show's about to start." another pony said to Chrysalis.
Smoke shrouded the stage, and rock music played over the loudspeakers.
Short Fuse fired himself out of a canon, and landed on the main stage. Lightning Dust and Rolling Thunder emerged from an artificial thunder cloud. The three posed on the main stage, as thunderous applause surrounded them. Lighting Dust cocked her head, and the other two went to work. Rolling Thunder flew circles around a thunder cloud, causing it to build static electricity, until *BOOM*
"What's this? Number 2 is brewing a storm!" Flam said.
A bolt of lightning stuck and lit a fire cracker. The fuse went out, and them boom! Lightning Dust flew through the jaws of death right before they clamped shut. She flew laps around a field of active chainsaws, showing no fear.
"And number 3 goes for the dive! She zigs and zags around the jaws of death!" Flam narrated.
*cheer*
The crowd was mostly filled with unfamiliar ponies from far in wide. However, there were some familiar faces in the crowd, including a group of creatures Cozy was all too familiar with.
"I can't believe the Washouts are back." said Sandbar.
"This brings back memories. It's just like their old performances." Ocellus said.
"And now that we're older, we can leave town for faraway events on our own without nearly causing wars." Smolder said.
"I don't know about you, I'm entertained." Sandbar said.
"Yona inclined to side with Sandbar." Yona said.
"Oh my gosh! She's going in for the dive!!!" Silver Stream exclaimed.
"Please don't shout in my ears..." Ocellus said.
For the penultimate stunt, the three held hooves, and flew at breakneck speeds. They flew in and kicked open a giant party ball of confetti. *pop* It blew open and sent confetti to the audience.
*cheer* The crowd was more than pleased.
Lightning took center stage, and removed her helmet to speak to the audience.
"Thank you all for coming to our big comeback show. Now before we wrap things up, we have one final act. Please welcome our fourth member! Hit the lights!"
"A fourth member!" Silverstream jumped out of her seat. "They're not a trio anymore! Now more like a... a quadrio!"
"I don't think that's a real word, Silverfish." Smolder said.
A trail of spotlights lit up the hill nearby, and lead to the fourth member standing at the top. It was a short pegasus with a blue tail, waving at the crowd below. I think you know who it was.
"Cozy Glow!?" Tirek and Chrysalis shouted simultaneously. Indeed, on top of the large ramp, was Cozy Glow in Washouts uniform.
"For the finale, the Masked Mystery Mare will ride down the ramp in her rocket powered scooter, at record breaking speeds! She'll fly up the ramp, and fly into the sky, and shoot down in a spectacular performance." Lightning narrated.
She waved to the crowd, then got into position. She stood on the rocket scooter, ready to go down.
"Hmm. Why does this setup seem familiar?" Cozy wondered. "Oh, I remember. This is the same stunt Scootaloo said she chickened out of because it probably would have killed her."
Cozy looked down and saw how high up she was, then looked behind her to see just how unstable and badly made the rocket scooter looked.
"Hmm. Well, unlike Scoots, I can actually fly, so maybe it's not too late to head down and try to do something els- *BOOM* "AAAAHHHHH!"
The rockets ignited, and she went down the ramp at nearly a hundred miles per hour!
"Here she comes! About to perform the jump!" Lightning narrated.
"I can't look!" Ocellus covered her eyes.
"I can." Smolder said.
"She's gonna die!" Tirek exclaimed. "Do something!"
"I can't. She's going too fast! It's too dangerous to try to intervene!" Chrysalis said.
Cozy flew down the ramp, and miraculously, she made it to the bottom of the ramp without crashing. And then she made it to the jump. The scooter flew up at a 90 degree angle strait into the air. Cozy opened her eyes, and saw she wasn't dead. She was flying up into the air.
"I'm... I'm doing it." Cozy thought, amazed. "Alright, time for the grand finale."
She closed her eyes, let go of the scooter, and fell backwards. The scooter kept flying up until it exploded in the air.
*BOOM* The fireworks tied to the scooter exploded and made a spectacle.
*gasp* The audience was in shock.
"Oh no..." Chrysalis said.
"Wait, here she comes!" Flim narrated.
Cozy fell from grace.
Everpony could see her her plummeting. Cozy extended her wings, and went to work. With all her extra momentum, she laid waste to the obstacle course. She did a loop, flew circles around the jaws of death, and the flamethrowers. Finally, she came to a stop by with a hard skid onto the ground.
Fireworks shot out around her.
*CHEER*
"She did it! She totally did it!" Tirek cheered. "But she is in so much trouble!"
"That was crazy stupid, but she pulled it off, wow." Chrysalis said.
The entire audience erupted with positive energy and cheers. Everyone rushed over to Polomare's concession stand, and immediately bought up the entire stock of Washouts merchandise, leaving her with piles of bits!
Cozy was about to remove her helmet, but the students (decked out in Washouts merchandise) came up to her, so she rushed to put it back on.
"Wow, you were incredible!" Sandbar complimented.
"Easily the highlight of the show!" Smolder said.
Cozy rubbed her head to be humble. She obviously couldn't give away her identity to them.
"Masked flyer went flying down that ramp! And then swoosh went flying in the air, and then flew down and nailed the obstacle course!" Yona said.
"Will you please sign my sea shell?!" Silverstream asked.
Silverstream handed Cozy her sea shell, and a pen. Cozy Glow wrote 'Go B*ck Yourselves!' on the sea shell, and gave it back.
"Wow! So your name is 'Go B*ck Yourselves!' Thank you GBY!" Silerstream said.
"That's obviously not their name." Smolder said. "It's what's known as an anonymous pseudonym."
"But what's it supposed to mean?" Sandbar asked.
"Yona have no idea." Yona said.
"Should we be offended?" Ocellus asked.
"Nah, this anonymous pseudonym is way cooler than a normal signature anyway." Silverstream.
"We better get going, we don't want to be gone from Ponyville for too long" Sandbar said.
Cozy waved bye to them as they left. (Hopefully on their way back to Ponyville, and far away from the village). Once they were gone, she finally removed her helmet.
*phew* "I thought I was a goner!" Cozy was sweating like crazy.
"Who were they? Old enemies?" Lightning Dust asked.
"Pretty much..." Cozy said. "Although, I could have sworn there used to be six of them, but I only counted five..."
"That was an amazing show!" Suri Polomare said. "The stunts were terrific! And we completely sold out of merchandise!"
"I know, and you couldn't have done it without my leadership skills." Cozy said.
"Not to mention, you did spectacular! You stole the show." Rolling Thunder said.
"Your performance blew my mind! I thought you were a goner, but you really salvaged it." Short Fuse said.
"Gee, I'm so flattered." Cozy blushed. "No one's ever really complimented me before..."
"Cozy Glow!" exclaimed two angry baddies.
"There you two are. What did you think of my performance?" Cozy asked.
"What you did was incredibly dangerous!" Chrysalis said.
"You could have seriously hurt yourself!" Tirek scolded.
"Golly, I never knew you two were so worried about me." Cozy teased.
"It's not like that. You haven't told us how exactly you plan to find the Rainbow of Darkness." Tirek said.
"In other words, you guys need me." Cozy grinned.
"Tonight's show was a humongous success!" Flim exclaimed.
"We earned bits by the thousands!" Flam said.
Flim and Flam plopped down giant sacks of money in front of them.
Cozy Glow stared into the sack of money.
"This is just enough money to fund our efforts to find the Rainbow of Darkness!" she exclaimed.
"Yes! Finally!" Tirek grinned and put his hands together.
*ahem* "Excuse me?" Suri asked.
"What now?" Cozy asked.
"Aren't you going to pay us?" Lightning asked.
"We did break our backs to make this event happen." Suri added.
"Oh right..." Cozy said.
"You're not seriously going to listen to them are you?" Tirek asked.
"Now Tirek, to be fair, they did help out. Let's just see how much the split leaves us with. Svengallop! Fetch me my abacus!"
Svengallop appeared and brought Cozy a table, with an abacus to count up and divide the money. Cozy put on her glasses and did the counting. "16, 17, 18, which leaves..."
"How much left?" Chrysalis asked.
"Alright, here's everypony's pay." Cozy passed out stacks of bits to the ponies who helped plan today's performance.
"Now then, that leaves us with... 19, 20, 21... Eh, no matter. This is still plenty. Albeit, with some minor compromises..." Cozy said. "Svengallop, remember those parts I highlighted in the issue 14 of science weekly?"
"The laser calibration, the long range antenna, and the seismograph?" he asked.
"Those, plus more. I'm going to need lots of parts to make this whole operation work." she replied.
"As you command your greatness. I shall make an order immediately." Svegallop said, as he galloped off.
"I still don't follow." Chrysalis said.
"Oh, I should explain myself. Let's just say, I have a little science project planned. And I think you're going to be pleased with the results." Cozy said, with an evil grin.
To be continued in Chapter 6...