Chapter 3: Psyke's Story
Psyke sat by himself as he reflected on his life. The red alicorn was easily Grayback's closest ally. Psyke had been a part of Grayback's team longer than either Monochrome or Chunker. He was also starting to build a friendship with his leader. The fire obsessed pony couldn't help but think about what his foalhood had been like and how it had all led up to him becoming a criminal. Psyke closed his bold red eyes and remembered what his early life was like.
Even when he was a colt, Psyke was a very unique pony. For one thing he was born an alicorn. Precious few alicorns existed in the land of Equestria and all of them had some connection with royalty. There were the Princesses Celestia, Luna, and later on Cadence but that was pretty much it. Everypony had assumed that Psyke would one day become a ruler of the land of ponies. Within a few years however, it became quite obvious that the red alicorn had absolutely no interest in becoming a prince and many ponies feared the idea of him having a position of power.
Psyke's parents had been thrilled at the prospect of their only son being a prince. They tried to teach him about all of the finer things in life. The duo did everything they could to raise Psyke to be the perfect little gentlecolt. Unfortunately Psyke did not care for the refined, upright, and dignified behavior associated with gentlecolts. It also didn't help that he had an uncanny ability to cause fires whenever he got aggravated. The unicorn male and pegasus female were forced to leave the city of Canterlot and they set off for another town to call home.
Psyke didn't want anything to do with royalty or anything remotely similar to it. He was what many ponies referred to as a wild stallion. His fiery personality was about as tamable as his equally flaming mane. The red alicorn's parents finally gave up on their dreams of having a prince as a son and they instead focused on helping Psyke learn to control his powers. He might not be a prince but his fiery talents were dangerous if left uncontrolled. They had been forced to leave Canterlot due to Psyke's dangerous talents and they didn't want to go through that again.
Psyke had been born with a very unique gift. Fires were often seen as dangerous and uncontrollable. Within a few short years of training however, Psyke found that he could tame a fire quite easily. Some ponies thought that Psyke was some sort of god who's main power was attributed to fire. It would make sense since both Celestia and Luna could control the sun and moon respectively. Other ponies merely saw it quite fitting that such a wild and dangerous thing could only be controlled by a wild and dangerous pony.
While he never intended to hurt anypony, Psyke's emotions often created fires which turned into dangerous and often deadly infernos. It was very rare for a pony to die from one of his fires but it wasn't as rare for multiple ponies to be injured as a result of his powers. Thankfully he had quickly learned how to control his powers and decided to do good things with them in an attempt to make up for the harm he had done. After saving countless ponies from one of the biggest wildfires in the history of Equestria, Psyke earned his cutie mark which was in the shape of a flame. The red pony was excited to have found his talent but he didn't get much excitement or enjoyment from saving ponies. What he really enjoyed was using his fire to attract the attention of others. Unfortunately fire was widely considered an all around bad thing so finding ways to attract positive attention with his talents was extremely difficult.
Soon after earning his cutie mark, Psyke was enrolled at Junior Speedsters Flight School by his parents. The fiery red alicorn was nervous but excited about learning to fly at fast speeds. Maybe he could find a way to use his fire while he was at the school. He bid his parents farewell and went off to the school in the clouds. Psyke was nervous about how ponies would treat him at the school but he was also eager to do some serious flying.
Similar to Gilda, once he arrived at Junior Speedsters Flight School Psyke was outcasted by majority of the students and teachers. Unlike the brown and white griffon however, Psyke had a much angrier reaction to being shunned by his peers. Many ponies that tried to bully him quickly learned why his cutie mark was a flame. Psyke never hurt anypony with his fiery powers but that didn't make him any less scary. Soon enough most ponies learned to leave him alone. While Psyke was never bullied for the rest of his time at Junior Speedsters Flight School, he was extremely lonely. Soon enough however, Psyke met Chunker and Monochrome.
The trio of fliers quickly became a group of, for lack of a better term, friends. They never had conversations or any sort of friendly interactions with each other but they did hang out quite often. It wasn't easy for them to figure out just what their relationship was so they decided to call themselves friends even though there was nothing friendly about what they did when they were together.
Psyke was very eager to get a bit of revenge on the ponies who had ostracized him and made him a lonely outcast. Monochrome and Chunker felt the same way as he did since they had been bullied for their brains and lack thereof respectively. Whenever a plan was concocted Monochrome would act as the brains, Chunker would do all of the heavy lifting, and Psyke would bring a creative aspect to their actions. Monochrome was also clever enough to make sure that the trio never left any evidence that they were responsible for their actions.
Despite getting some much wanted revenge on his former bullies, Psyke wasn't enjoying himself as much as he had hoped he would. This wasn't what he had wanted when he had first arrived at the school. He had wanted to have fun and maybe make some friends. He didn't want to become a bully that used his talents to make other ponies scared or miserable. However it was far too late for him to change. He, Monochrome, and Chunker had agreed to stick together and Psyke was scared of what could happen to him if he abandoned them. Monochrome's intelligence and Chunker's strength were extremely intimidating to the alicorn. He might have had full control over fire but he vowed to never use those powers against another pony except as a last resort. Psyke was terrified of hurting or possibly killing a pony with his fiery magic.
Once the Mid Term exams were upon the students, Psyke found himself partnered with Chunker. While she wasn't the brightest pony around, Chunker was an average flier. Much to his surprise, Psyke found that he had a lot of creativity when it came to stunts. Using his ideas he was able to easily pass the exam and make it into advanced flying classes with ease. Aside from Rainbow Dash and Gilda, Psyke had the best individual score of the entire school. He didn't get a perfect one hundred but he did get a very impressive ninety-eight while his partner Chunker got a very respectable eighty-five. Their scores weren't perfect by any means, but they were enough to secure their spot in the advanced classes.
Unfortunately a few months after the Mid Terms, Psyke's powers caused an accident. It was just one of those days where anything that could have gone wrong did. First he stubbed his hoof on the corner of the wall followed by getting his tail slammed by a door. Before he'd even had breakfast, Psyke was already in a pretty annoyed mood. His teacher didn't exactly help matters since she seemed to have a grudge against the alicorn for some unexplained reason. Even Gilda couldn't deny that Psyke was being treated rather unfairly. The teacher was just a horrible sort of pony and she finally managed to push the red pony over the edge. His anger boiled over and soon enough a fire started. Thankfully the students and teachers had all been able to evacuate the scene but Psyke was terrified by the experience. He had managed to put the fire out easily but he knew that he couldn't stay at the school any longer. He quickly informed the principal that he was leaving and then he left Junior Speedsters Flight School behind.
For the next year or so, Psyke did whatever he could to make some money while trying to avoid causing anymore fires. He might have had control over fires but the same couldn't be said for his emotions. From the incident, he had realized that if his emotions ever got out of control then his fiery powers would follow suit. Psyke did everything that he could to avoid causing any trouble for anypony. He wished that he could find a way to use his powers without hurting others. Other ponies avoided being around him and they only spoke to him when necessary. Even then they kept their comments as brief as possible to avoid angering the alicorn. Psyke was infuriated by this. Sure he was a potentially dangerous pony but that didn't mean that he didn't have feelings. Would it kill these ponies to at least be polite to him once in a while?
After having been out of Flight School for a bit under one and a half years, Psyke was found by a griffon who was known as Giovan but he had preferred to be called Gio. The griffon was everything that Psyke had dreamed of being. Giovan was handsome, suave, adored by mares, and he'd had total control over his emotions. Giovan offered Psyke a job but Psyke refused. He didn't want to cause trouble and so Giovan left him. Roughly two years later Giovan came back but this time he was different. His handsome looks had been replaced by a terrifying appearance with a matching attitude to boot. With his change in looks came a change in his name. He called himself Grayback now and this time he offered Psyke a spot on his team of thieves. By this time Psyke was totally fed up with ponies treating him as a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off and he accepted. If these ponies were afraid of him then he might as well give them a reason to be afraid.
About a month after working with Grayback, Psyke was joined by his old 'friends' Chunker and Monochrome. Both of them had assumed that Psyke was kicked out of Junior Speedsters Flight School and he did nothing to change their minds. The trio worked for Grayback and they pulled off some very impressive heists. Grayback might have been very terrifying but he was what they needed: a leader. Psyke, Monochrome, and Chunker's acts of bullying at Flight School had been effective but disorganized. Their teamwork was minimal and it showed when Grayback put them through some tests. However he was able to turn them into a team that worked in perfect harmony both as thieves and as fighters. Their crimes were pulled off with expert ease and they made quite the respectable income even if their jobs weren't exactly respectable.
During the raid on Ponyville, Psyke used his magic to leave behind the group's symbol at every location they hit. He wasn't enjoying himself as a thief but it was the best life he was able to have. Unlike before, Psyke was able to use his powers without fear of losing control. Grayback had been surprisingly understanding and helpful about the situation. He trained Psyke to keep his emotions under wraps and Psyke was able to follow through on his lessons at all times. This was the first time that Psyke had ever really felt happy. Sure he was lonely as a thief but at least now he could finally be free from his fear of hurting other ponies.
After escaping from Canterlot Prison, Psyke still worked for Grayback. While Chunker and Monochrome were loyal to the griffon, Psyke felt nothing but respect for him. Grayback had helped him escape from his greatest fear and for that, Psyke felt like he owed his life to the griffon. He never spoke about his feelings but he knew that he'd put his own life on the line to save Grayback. The griffon had saved him from his nightmare and Psyke was in his debt for that.
When the foursome created the plan involving the treasure filled cave, Psyke was eager to help Grayback. He might not have cared about revenge but he wasn't going to let Grayback down if he could avoid it. Their plan was a failure but thankfully Grayback wasn't disappointed. He stated that he had merely underestimated the group and that next time they would surely be victorious. However their next meeting with Gilda and her friends was far different due to the fact that they had formed an alliance with their enemies. Once the war had ended Psyke had found himself confused by some newfound feelings for a certain mare.
Despite the fact that she was technically his enemy even though they had never fought, Psyke couldn't help but think that the pony named Pinkie Pie was really cute. Psyke had seen a couple of mares that he'd found cute but none of them compared to the party obsessed pink earth pony. Without even being conscious of what he was doing, Psyke had gone on a date with Pinkie Pie and confessed his love for her the next day. He left Ponyville but his mind would often wander towards daydreams of himself being with Pinkie Pie. The pink pony was the only one who wasn't scared of Psyke and didn't have a grudge against him. She had been extremely nice and she had become Psyke's first true friend. The fiery red alicorn quickly realized that he had wanted to be more than just friends with Pinkie Pie and much to his surprise she returned his feelings.
While Pinkie Pie was his first true friend, Psyke had started to form a bond with Grayback. Having found love with a marefriend of his own, Grayback regained his old handsomeness and his personality had softened. He didn't change his name because he felt that Giovan was a dumb name and Grayback was about as good as anything that he could come up with. Grayback and Psyke often talked with each other and they had some good times together. The two had found some common ground when they had received the love of a mare and they only got along better after that.
Finally Psyke's flashback ended and his mind was filled with thoughts of Pinkie Pie. He had recently returned from a trip to Ponyville where he had spent some quality time with his marefriend. Though the unexpected arrival of Gilda had nearly blown Psyke's cover and the duo agreed that they should meet somewhere else where they were less likely to be disturbed. The fiery red alicorn smiled at the thought of Pinkie Pie and he wondered how Grayback was doing.