The awaited sunset lit the sky with sparkling shades of orange and yellow, akin to the rise of a new flame. Twilight was waiting for the princess to come and was reading a book on psychology for the upcoming trial. This also gave the unicorn time to look around and take in what was a surprisingly modest room for such an esteemed and important pony: An over-sized bed rested under a ceiling where an eight-armed sun had been sculpted and painted. The same decoration had been only painted onto the floor as a sculpture would’ve rendered furniture placement impossible. To the left of the glass balcony doors was a large, semi-circular desk upon which rested much paperwork that had yet to be completed. No one liked paperwork after all, but further to the left of the desk was a large, hollow indentation in the wall where a large assortment of shelves were assembled into a semi-circle and piled into three levels.
Twilight’s studies were interrupted by rabble coming from behind the entrance and identified the voices as being those of the alicorn sisters.
“-old her about him!” Luna shouted angrily while pushing the door open. “How many times have we tried before?”
“Luna,” Celestia started.
“Three hundred and twenty-seven times, sister. THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN! How do you think this time will fare any better?” Luna was sporting an angered expression and was completely unaware of Twilight’s presence.
“Hello, Twilight,” Celestia calmly said.
Luna turned around and recomposed herself. “H-hello, Twilight Sparkle. I didn’t know you were here. Apologies for the volume of my voice.”
“It’s okay, princess. I know that this is very important and difficult to talk about.”
Celestia shook her head in disappointment at Luna’s behavior and hopped onto the bed next to her student and nuzzled herself comfortably into the blankets. Luna, meanwhile, was pouting and remained where she was, refusing to look at her sister, making Twilight feel very awkward and uncomfortable.
“So...Who is that pony that was down there?” Twilight asked. “The ‘Psycho’.”
"Well, as I believe I mentioned before, he was our foal-sitter,” Celestia explained.
“And he’s older than us,” Luna chuckled. “Yet he still acts like he’s far younger...” Luna’s joyful expression became a sorrowful frown. “Or far crazier.”
“He calls himself ‘Psycho the Psychopath’,” Celestia continued.
“What? Why?!”
“Because his real name IS ‘Psycho’,” Celestia added.
Twilight stared at the princess, cross-eyed “What.”
Celestia shrugged and nodded in agreement with Twilight. “It’s strange but that’s his real name, but he was very kind to us, much like Cadance was kind to you at the time. In fact, those who ruled over the ponies at the time: the Council, said we needed somepony to watch over us, but they never actually found…anypony who WANTED to.”
“We were…” Luna trailed off.
“Energetic, is a way to put?” Celestia smile sheepishly.
“Energetic?” Twilight repeated.
“Yes. In fact, ironically, despite his name, Psycho was known to be one of the best foal-sitters at the time, especially with the extremely energetic foals that nopony else could take care of.”
“He didn’t even need to use force,” Luna added.
“There were other ponies that were preferred candidates that had a similar, if not better, reputation than he did.”
“So why did the council call him?” Twilight asked.
“Because he was the closest foal-sitter in the area.”
Luna coughed nervously. “They didn’t want to call him because he was also known to be a bit...rambunctious with the foals when he thought they were properly educated.”
“How so?”
“He liked to reward good behavior with fun activities. He doesn’t do it for the first few weeks that he’s with you, but afterwards?” Celestia mimed exhaling and shook her hoof up and down.
“He taught us how to prank ponies,” Luna interjected. “In fact, our pranks were so well done that we ended up destroying large parts of the castle.”
Twilight frowned. “That doesn’t sound like a “prank’ to me.”
“Well that council thought the same as you," Luna lamented.
Celestia started to ponder. “When one of the maids took us to meet him at the gates of the castle, I thought that he was quite the well-groomed stallion despite his reputation that I know of now,” Celestia reminisced. She looked at her sister with a devious grin. “But he was pretty tall for us at the time, especially you, sister,” she teased.
Luna stuck her tongue out in response. “Aside from my sister’s appalling sense of humor, there was the matter of how he looks.”
“He didn’t always look like that?” Twilight asked. “I knew it. That kind of appearance is far too unusual for a pony, let alone any creature in general.”
“Indeed, but the colors are mostly there. His coat and eyes were both pink, and his blue mane and tail were usually perfectly well kempt. Interestingly enough, his cutie mark hasn’t changed.”
“We had trouble with him at first,” Celestia said. “It didn’t help that he looked very scary to us that same day of our first encounter.”
“But as with any foal-sitter, he was very strict but caring,” Twilight added.
Luna chuckled after Twilight’s speech.
“What’s wrong, Princess?” Twilight asked.
“It is nothing, Twilight Sparkle. I am just reminiscing.”
“About what?” Celestia asked.
“Remember the cake mixer?”
“Oh...OH! Oh ho. I do remember that indeed.”
Twilight was completely confused. “Cake mixer?”
“Yes,” Celestia answered. “There was a huge meeting with the griffons back when we were still foals.” She laughed a single time and continued her tale. “Psycho had planted a few devices in the chamber, hidden away from prying eyes.”
“When everypony was in place, he had Celestia and I push the button,” Luna added. “Everypony in there was swirled into a vortex of cake batter and they were all confused. Because the councilors were part of the mess, the griffons didn’t have any problems aside from feeling gravely insulted by the incident.”
“...Wow. Even Pinkie Pie would never attempt something like that,” Twilight said in awe. “I’m sure she would’ve loved to meet him.”
The princesses laughed and looked at each other, then reality set back in they both looked away from each and frowned.
“Of course, that was when he was kicked out of the castle grounds…” Luna spoke with a saddened tone.
“And when everything went downhill,” Celestia sighed.
“How so?”
“Well...He...came back,” Celestia said.
“I don’t understand how that could be a bad thing. I mean, he still lived in Canterlot,” Twilight said.
“Twilight, this isn’t the same thing,” Celestia explained. “There are some details to our tale that we haven’t shared with you and would prefer it that way.”
“Needless to say, he had changed, both in appearance in personality.“ Luna remained silent for a moment. “Rather, his personality was amplified to an extreme.”
“How do you know it wasn’t just somepony masquerading as him?” the lavender unicorn asked.
“Because nopony dared to call me ‘Woona’ nor my sister ‘Tia-Tia’ without fearing the wrath of the council. Plus, no one was as creative as he was when it came to pranking.”
“His ‘pranks’ started to get out of ‘hoof’,” Celestia said. “Canterlot saw itself getting destroyed by them on the day of his return. After some effort and combined efforts of the entirety of the Council’s Militia, Psycho was subdued and locked into the lowest cell of this castle.”
“But something was wrong,” Luna started. “They imprisoned him there, hoping that time would take care of him, but it never did anything. Generation after generation of ponies would watch him and keep him from doing anything, but he never perished. He remained locked up and forever smiling.”
“Over the years we tried to help him, get him back to normal,” Celestia explained. “But...even with the help of some of the best wizards at the time or even alchemists later on, we just couldn’t find a solution.”
“Even…” Twilight gulped loudly. “Even Starswirl the Bearded failed?!”
The two nodded and Twilight gasped in absolute horror, then she started to think.
“Was it Discord? He did mess with our minds when he was freed,” Twilight wondered.
“We did think of hat too,” Celestia said. “but none of us were threats at the time and Discord had yet to reach Equestria, or at least the tiny patch that it was on the quilt of the lands.”
“Very poetic,” Luna complimented.
“Thank you.”
“Mmmmmaybe he was affected by chaos magic?” Twilight insisted.
“The powers obtained after his transformation were far too controlled and centralized to be chaos, and it was too random and illogical to be order. We honestly have no idea what it was,” Luna said. “He might have encountered something ‘between’ them, but we’ve yet to find proof.”
“Rumors had grown at the time that a wizard named ‘Carnifex’ had been researching magic of chaos and order but also something else, but we never found anything pertaining to his existence or his research,” Celestia stomped the ground. “If he was indeed researching what had affected Psycho before he became what he is today, then that would certainly aid us in the future, but I have yet to find anything remotely related to him.”
“If anything, it’s more like he doesn’t exist,” Luna explained. “Rumors are ‘rumors’ for a reason, dear sister.”
“Be that as it may,” Celestia rubbed her chin, ”We can’t rule out the possibility, but I’d rather something like that remain secret until it becomes an extreme necessity to acquire.”
Twilight tapped the ground a few times then looked at her teacher. “I’ll do what I can when I come back tomorrow. So I need to return to the train station and--”
Luna stopped the unicorn with her magic and brought Twilight back to the two. “There is no need for that. We can teleport you back home.”
Twilight blinked. “Really? You can do that?”
“Of course!” Celestia shouted cheerfully. “Just send me a letter tomorrow when you’re ready and I’ll teleport you here.”
“Oh. Well, thank you princesses. I wasn’t expecting something like that.”
Celestia shook her head. “It’s no matter, Twilight Sparkle. See you tomorrow.” Celestia waved her student goodbye, student who disappeared in a flash of light.
Twilight found herself back in her library, and the little dragon that helped her around fell off a ladder in surprise. Luckily, Twilight’s reflexes were developed enough that she managed to catch Spike before he hit the floor.
“T-Twilight? How did you do that?” he asked. “And thanks for catching me.”
Twilight set Spike back onto the ground and hugged him. “The princess teleported me here.”
“They can do that?”
“Yup.”
"Oh…I guess that makes sense.” There was an awkward silence afterwards that just wouldn’t subside. “So..” he started. “What was that thing they called you for?”
“I’m sorry, Spike, but that’s a secret they want me to keep, so I can’t talk about it.” She yawned loudly. “Plus, I’m kinda tired right now, so I’m going to bed. Good night, Spike.”
“Good night, Twilight,” he answered.
Meanwhile in a remote area of a Dissirva; A large city situated in the mountains to the north of Equestria and at the Griffin borders, a small, magenta colored pegasus mare was becoming flustered during a talk on a unique device that permitted long-range communication. Her mane and tail were jagged and pointed straight to the back for the tail and the front for the mane. The outer-rims were blood-red and the middle was a deep purple color.
“Yes. The attacks have started, as he said. Yes. If he is managing this now after so long, then he will soon free himself. No,” she answered angrily. “He’s been on the mark up until now so we don’t need to work about the veracity of his claims.”
She picked up some papers in a suitcase at her hooves and observed the contents. Some pictures depicted scenes where strange events occurred while some of the sheets explained what witnesses testified. Strangely enough, a few of them appeared to be victims of pranks, but cross-referencing the images with their associated testimonies revealed that nothing linked the events to the one she was looking for.
“Yes. I’m going to Ponyville to set up an inconspicuous base of operations as close to Canterlot as I can.” She wiped her forehead. “I just hope I’m not affected by him as well.”
She turned off the circular device and shoved it into the suitcase along with the notes and walked towards the city’s train station, ready to execute whatever plans she was hired to perform.