It has been 2 months since the day I stepped into my new home and met Zero. That day, after I got dressed, we discussed my future plans and since I didn't have any he decided to educate me on magic and Equestrian history, or at least, what he knows of it.
After the first week I fell into a routine that went something like this:
Every day I woke up at daybreak and went hunting, although it might be better to call it trap checking and setting. I had been trying to find some seeds to start a farm, but that was proving to be quite the endeavor, what with me struggling to tell apart the edible plants from the poisonous ones, even with Zero's help. The worst thing about hunting is the act of killing something. When I first caught a rabbit into a trap I was happy, but when it came to actually killing it, it took me an hour to come to terms with the fact that I will now have to take lives to prolong my own. Then after I finally managed to kill it I had to skin and clean it, oh joy.
On my first day of hunting I found out three interesting things. First, Zero Control can't leave the castle proper, meaning he can't go with me to tell me what I can and can't eat. Second, the explosion I accidentally caused annihilated the spider nest so they aren't a threat anymore. The last thing I found out was, that the forest surrounding the castle is no joke. On my first hunt I saw a manticore, it looked just like in the books on mythology, and Zero later confirmed I did, in fact, see right. After that I didn't dare go into the forest until I got hungry, which wasn't that long considering I barely ate anything in the 2 days before.
After the hunt I had breakfast, usually consisting of anything left over from the previous day. In case I accidentally ate all of the food, I dried some of the meat and stored it in the dungeons I discovered. Although I call them dungeons, the place was actually pretty clean, I couldn't even find any rats, it was just a bit dusty. It did have the iron cages and it was quite cold in it, but since I have no need for a prison at the moment I just put the dried meat into the cages.
After breakfast I had my magic control lesson, that had been mainly me, trying and failing to sense my 'inner ether', or the place where my body stores magic, also called a magic pool.
In one of these sessions I also managed to figure out how my magic sight works. Apparently I had been trying to do it wrong. Since magic for some reason doesn't flow into me naturally, it didn't come naturally, so Control had to explain it to me. I'm supposed to let magic from the outside in, not try to push it out as I have stupidly been doing, although I haven't been trying for nothing. Zero tells me, that I have the potential to use something called the Evil Eyes, since I could feel magic behind my eyes, but he didn't elaborate further. He says I first have to find my magic pool before I learn any actual magic. I foolishly thought I could find it easily using my magic eyes, so after he explained how I'm supposed to activate them, I immediately did so and just as fast lost consciousness.
When I woke up a day later, Zero explained to me, I couldn't just look at magic without letting my brain adapt, so I had to go through the long procedure of, closing my eyes and after activating magic sight, slowly opening them, having pauses before continuing my observations of magic, and boy is it weird. It's hard to explain with words how magic looks, it's like seeing sound. I guess you could say it has different frequencies and consequently colors. When I finally fully opened my eyes I was met with this plethora of different 'colors', ranging from blue to red and even black. I could still see everything around me, but I could also see this colorful mist. When I had looked at Zero, I could only see a dense cloud of gray color in his shape. I told him what I had seen, since it confirmed my theory that he was made out of magic. After I cut off the Sight I felt energized, I guessed it was all of the magic that entered my body.
About that, Zero had a theory as to why I don't just constantly receive magic from the environment. It would appear that since the body's soul changed that somehow influenced my magic pores effectively stopping magic from flowing into my body. He was still working out the details, but I thought it was a solid theory.
Continuing on, after my 'magic training', if you could call it that, I ate lunch and after that came the physical training. First I had to do a series of exercises, fallowed by a short run around the castle. I said short, but what I meant was, a long god damn run! Seriously, to run the circumference of the castle it took me an hour and 30 minutes! I knew I was short, but fuck!
Anyway, after the run I had weapons and martial arts training. Zero showed me how to move and corrected any mistakes I made. Then I had to fight against a suit of pony armor he possessed. I obviously lost. Multiple times, for every category, which were, sword, spear, bow and bare handed. I had been so happy when I first managed to land a hit, only to get hit into my belly with the blunt side of the spear, while I was celebrating and getting a lecture from Zero, about taking my eyes off my opponent.
After that painful and more often than not, humiliating display I got time to wash myself and change clothes from my training attire. Then I had to go to the library, where Zero prepared a lesson on the world of equuis, starting with history, going through it's geography and finishing at culture. He also gave me tests and quizzes to make sure I remembered everything properly. He was a strict but kind teacher, always watching if I was struggling with something so he could help me, but at the same time demanding I get at least 90 percent of the questions correct on a test.
And that is how two months passed. That day too, appeared normal.
Oh, how wrong I had been.