Author's Note

This chapter is a test.

So do you like the new Punctuation
do you want the chapters to be like this or this one is no different from the last chapter?

The zalgo effects mean that Mike is talking in the growling voice, not demonic something like my guy

lainverse

said in one of the comments

Preparations

I entered the sweets shop, but the lights were off, yet I could feel the ponies hiding in the shadows.

"Why are they hiding?" I wondered.

Like they were reading my thoughts, the lights turned on, and everyone jumped.

"SURPRIIISE" all of them yelled.

"Oh, so that's why all of you were hiding," I said.

There was an awkward silence for a minute.

"So why are you just standing here. LETS PARTYYYY" I yelled and heard a loud boom, and there was confetti everywhere.

I ate a lot of cupcakes and drank some punch, but I miss alcohol.

Applejack brought a good amount of cider with her. so I wanted to drink some only to be disappointed with how light it was.

Applejack came to me.

"So how do ye like mah cider partner?" she asked.

"Ehh, could use a more robust cider. This drink is too light for me." I said.

"This is the hardest cider ever made by mah family, and you call it light? I call you're bluffing." Applejack said.

"I can drink a whole barrel of this and it won't make me slightly dizzy," I said.

"Is that a challenge?" Applejack asked.

...

I had a drinking contest with Applejack, and as I said, a whole barrel couldn't make me even dizzy. This stuff is weak as fuck, but Applejack had a different opinion. She was fucked up, man. This mare doesn't know when to give up.

Zeocora stayed at Fluttershy's home, so I checked on her the last time I saw her. She wasn't in her best state.

Fluttershy's home was cozy, but Fluttershy herself and her animals were scared shitless of me until I saw a dog in her cottage, and I gave it a treat and started petting it. When I did that, the whole mood of the place changed. The animals stopped shaking. Fluttershy stopped emitting fear.

...

It's been three days since the chimera attack, and Fluttershy told me that they were increasing in the amount every day. The princess sent many guards to deal with the problem, but none came back once they entered the forest.

"This is dangerous. What if the chimeras start coming to ponyville? I have to deal with this myself.

I went to the bank and got more bits in my bag, and went to a barber. The mare running the place had an advanced set of tools, so I told her only to cut my hair's sides and leave the top untouched. I trimmed my beard myself because I couldn't trust a hoof with a blade.

I went to Rarity to take some measurements to make myself some nice clothes. I told her to keep them simple, no need to be fancy.

...

Today was the last straw. I saw a stallion lose his shit when his daughter, who was one of the guards, never came back from the forest.

I went to a calming lake to meditate, and Zecora came.

"This is not how to meditate Mike." She said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Meditation is something you do to relax, not focus on something while meditating." She said.

"You seem to know a lot about meditation. I could use an outstanding amount of help. Would you teach me?" I asked.

"What's your point in learning meditation, Mike?" Zecora asked.

"If I can learn meditation, I could get rid of the Chimeras," I said.

Zecora looked grim and looked at me with empty hate-filled eyes.
"Get into a relaxing position." She ordered.

I got into the normal cross-legged position.

"Take a deep breath and clear your mind from every thought. Don't focus on your objective. Let it come to you." She said.

I took a deep breath and wiped my mind clean.

I felt a tingling sensation around my body.

...

Zeocar's POV:

It's been an hour since mike started to meditate, and I was honestly surprised about how fast he grasped it. Maybe he tried to meditate a lot before.

There was something strange about him.

There were red streaks of energy coming out of his body. It wasn't magic. When a magical creature meditates, the magic seems to be constricted.

Mike's energy was free. It flowed around him freely, the increase in intensity, in speed, sometimes they don't change at all. It was strange.

"What if..."

I leaned on the energy and touched it with my hoof.

I felt unwelcomed like the energy has a conscious it didn't want me I was an intruder to it.

"What is he exactly?" I asked myself.

• ⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Mike's POV.

I don't know how long it has been since I started, but I didn't notice the time passing. I saw my mana lines when I started. This time is like my whole body is filled with mana.

I opened my eyes and stopped meditating.

I got up and dusted my pants, and my ass was numb for sitting too long.

I checked my stats and saw that my mana was at one thousand.

"What?" I looked at the sky and saw it was night.

"How didn't I notice that?" I wondered.

I drank some of the lake water, not caring if it was dirty because I can purify it.

I wasn't hungry, that's for sure, so I laid down, but the box had other plans.

YOU HAVE A PURCHASABLE PERK IN YOUR SKILLS TAB.

"What is it this time?" I wondered and opened the skills store and saw the perk.

Special perk: Mana cost-effectiveness.

You have reached the max limit of the amount of mana you can acquire. You have to get to level 30 to level up your mana.

This perk makes every skill you learned cost 60% less.

I purchased the perk.

"So I can't meditate anymore until I reach level 30?" I wondered.

"Man I need to focus on my abilities more."

I got into the sleeping world.

...

...

I woke up in the morning and did my usual routine.

I went back to ponyville and saw the ponies gathered in one place, and there she was, princess anxious, standing on a platform.

I walked through the crowd and stood somewhere so I could hear what she says.

"My little ponies, I have failed to protect you from creatures that I thought were extinct. The creatures are dangerous and fast. No matter how many guards I send to deal with them, they never come back.
And today, one of them attacked one of the new residents of ponyville." She said

I felt my heart sink when she said the last phrase.

I left the crowd and walked to the hospital.

Twilight's POV:

I can't believe it my friends and I stood there crying over the news we just heard.

We couldn't protect her. We failed her as friends.

Mike walked in on us and saw us crying over a covered body. He counted us, and his eyes widened. He quickly ran to the body and removed the cover.

There she was.

Zecora.

Her eyes were lifeless. Her lower body was missing her coat was darker. She smelled of death.

Mike turned to us and.

"I̴̘͍͎̾͘͝ ẅ̵̞͙͙́̈́̓i̸̢͕̝̓͌͑l̸̡͙̠͆̈́͝l̵͎̫̪͌͐̓ k̵̡̪̟͋̚͝i̸̟͉͓͛̓̓l̴̟̙̝͑̐͠l̴͓̪̟̈́͠ t̴͎͉̒͌͐h̴͕̠̫̾͋̀e̴̺̻͐̚̕m̸̢̡̪̾̈́͠ " He said.