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CHEA

Chea drove her knife deep into the dark wood of the tree. She was sat on a small mound of mossy earth which dirtied her dark fur. Her eyes were red and puffy, swollen from hardly blinking. The fur on her cheeks was sticky and damp from her past crying fit. Again and again she positioned her dagger and with a sickening blow planted it into the old oak. The point of impact was splayed out and leaking sap, like blood. The Everfree forest was beautifully secluded, the perfect place for Chea to spend most of her day. Time to think and contemplate.

Chea planted her knife into the tree and loosened her grip on the hilt, allowing her hoof to droop down by her side. She lifted her chin and placed her hooves over her eyes. What was she doing here? Full of angst and anger. What at, exactly? Her parents? Hard to be angry at someone you never knew. The current state of Equestria? It was of no concern of Chea's. The nights were longer, that was a blessing. And during the long days she would return to the everfree forest to escape to blinding sunshine and the hospitality of those she knew.

Her dagger stowed away safely, Chea set off into the forest. She heard a fierce, high pitched roar from quite some distance away. That was fine. Chea had a way with animals which not many other ponies shared. She felt she could communicate with them, on a much more primitive level. They understood her and she understood them, through body language and expression of character. They showed trust in her, whether they be great or small. A trust very much misplaced. Chea wallked alongside a stream, flowing quiety in the same direction she was walking. She peered into the water, and saw flashes of brightly coloured fish shoot by, paying her no attention. She dipped her hoof into the water's edge. It was cold but soothing, she felt the quick nimble fish zip past her hoof, some nipping at it in their confusion. Chea stared down at her reflection in the water. A tall, skinny pegasus, a coat as black as night with a snow white mane. Her large expressive pink eyes simply radiated out of her skull, putting forth an offputting and hypnotic stare.

There was some truth to it when people described her eyes as hypnotic. She found with the right level of intensity and vigour, a simple stare could drive somepony or something to carry out bizarre and uncontrolled acts of compulsion. Normally it was utterly harmless. She remembered a time where she accidently sent Albany into a trance and she ended up painting the apples in her orchard blue and carved a star into each one. An inconvenience, yes, but Chea with the help of Twilight soon managed to bring her back down to earth. An even more unbelieveable result of her hyposis talents was when she accidently sent Cake Jr, the previous owner of Sugarcube Corner, into a long winded trance. During this time, he wrote a novel named Several Trots Out Of Equestria, and adventure epic which went on to sell thousands and thousands of copies. So you see, Chea wasn't all that bad. Unless she din't like you.

Chea had quite the temper and was quick to become aggressive and violent, swinging in and out of periods of sorrow and periods of mania. There was a medical term for it which Miss. Sparkle had told her once, but Chea could never remember it, she didn't like to listen to others when they were trying to interpret and determine her actions and behaviours. She was very particular on what she liked to hear about herself. She certainly wasn't in denial of her character, she just prefered to not worry about it. Maybe that was the same thing.

During these periods of Mania, she would be very quick to anger. An old classmate of hers from her time as a student got in contact with her two Summers ago, which nowadays would be closer to 4 years ago. She was an upstanding, classy, fancy schmancy Canterlot lady with a rich husband and not a care in the world. Chea didn't know what that mule was expecting when they met, but it certainly wasn't Chea. The pony proceeded to insult her, call her common, dirty... even peasant at one point. She criticised her looks, her friends, her food... Even Chea's cutie mark, a large eye with rays of light pertruding from the pupils. Chea struggled to contain herself. She gave her the stare.

Now granted, the poor mare was simply speaking out of habit. She was a pony of culture and refined tastes. The fact that she had even showed up to pay Chea a visit was enough to suggest that she was a fairly kind hearted pony.

Next Chea heard from her was when news reached Ponyville of a Canterlot lady found half-dead in the middle of the Badlands, a desolate and lifeless place where water and food is scarce. Her fur was tattered and her hoofs were ground down at least an inch from what they usually were. She must have walked over 160 miles to get to where she did, no food or water. The same clothes she wore the afternoon when Chea gave her the stare. Chea never heard from her again. A successful reunion, Chea always thought.

But that was what she always thought. It was always so pathetic and pointless, so lifeless and meaningless. Everything.

*****

Chea emerged from the forest more worse for wear. Her coat was ruffled and matted, her mane littered with small twigs and sticky plants. She felt something crawl between her wing joints and she gave an exaggerated shiver as she felt it crawl over her more sensitive areas, followed by the distinct buzzing of something flying off. She looked back to the small critter. A dunefly. Quite rare in these parts of the world. They appear only where temperatures are comfortable enough for them to survive. It didn't surprise Chea with the constantly changing climate that the appearance and dissapearance of certain animals was inevitable. Duneflies weren't exactly the most pleasant of creatures. They were normally gentle but contained an extremely volatile poison. Ponies say if you squash one, the poison could crawl up your hoof, seep through your fur, into your skin, into your blood and then into your heart, resulting in a slow and agonising death. A post mortem act of revenge, in many ways. Others say that if you kill one, another dunfly will exact it's revenge as you slept. It didn't have very sharp teeth so it would work away at your neck for hours as you sleep, until eventually breaking the skin and injecting the poison into your system. An infamous critter, needless to say. But these were just rumours. As reliable as the myth that if you squash a money spider you will lose all your money.

Chea picked some of the foliage off her coat and began the journey home. She could see her grandmother's cottage from here. Her dear grandmother. She had passed away about a year ago, which was utterly devastating on Chea. Chea never knew her parents. She was left at an orphanage long before she could form memories so her only known carer was the one she refered to as grandmother. She was an extremely sweet soul. Caring and kind, very quiet and soft spoken, with the most relaxing and optimistic eyes. Not at all like Chea. Chea had never known her grandmother to be agressive or violent, she never raised her voice for as long as Chea had lived with her.

Fluttershy.

Even thinking her name made Chea's lip quiver in the early stages of a pathetic sob.

She missed her dreadfully.

She was all she had.

The only one she loved or could ever love.

Gone.

With all the animals.