This is not something I normally do... I hate sharing my writing with others. But, in the case of Fan-fiction, its very nature is to be shared, appreciated and read by others. So, to this end, I ask: please look over this draft of the first chapter of Unbound with the utmost care and precision. the better I can make this, the better the story will be. (And no stealing! I don't know why, but I'm always paranoid someone's going to steal my writing and pretend its theirs...) Unbound WiseWolf “A Thousand Eyes Wear Whispering Wings As Darkness Stirs Curiosity Rings.” There were always choices to be made. Never once in her life had she not been required to make one. Whether it was to help her friend Applejack understand when she needed help,or when she became obsessed with discovering the source of Pinkie's 'Pinkie Sense', Twilight had always been surrounded with choices. These differences in choice were what made each and everypony special and different; the way they dealt with problems, the way they felt about them, the way they would react when things happened in a way they had not expected. By itself, a choice would never be able to tell you everything about somepony, but it was the only way you could learn and know about who they were. It was in one of these choices Twilight reveled this night; the choice to read, to learn, to understand things that others didn't, couldn't. Or wouldn't. The dark hand of the new moon threatened to envelop the room and steal away her sight, but its reach was staved off by a lonely flicker of flame. Sitting atop a wax candle, this fire was the only light in her bedroom. By its rays, books were seen scattered across the wooden floorboards, forlorn and forgotten, the occasional word visible on an open page or book cover. Beyond the reach of the light behind the bed was Spike, sleeping soundly in his basket. Only the tip of his head scale managed to catch the light as his head bobbed lazily while he snored. It was by this light that she read, her purple eyes dancing lightly over the pages. She had been reading the book since the morning before, weighing each word as she read it, determining its worth before moving on. Each word became each page, each page became each chapter. Everything else melted away until only she and the book seemed to exist. This shrinking of the world was of some comfort to her; nothing else existed, nothing else mattered except finishing the next sentence, and unlocking the secrets woven into the letters by the author. "Ah! I think I've got it!" A series of rapid thumps marked Twilight's exuberance as she looked up from the book, her eyes glowing in excitement. "Let's see..."She cast her gaze from left to right across her desk, searching. Where could she have left it? There was a quill, her notepad, the book, and then the piece of parchment. A small crackling sound cut the air as she concentrated, levitating the sheet in front of her. It seemed an insignificant piece of paper, the small wrinkles and bends in it lending more age to the page then it actually had. But as far as it mattered to Twilight, this sheet was everything. Soon, it would be proof. Proof of her ability, proof that her learning was paying off. The purple aura around the page quivered slightly. Then, carefully, its edges began folding. Each angle she made was precise, perfect, a testimony to her dedication and meticulous nature. It took shape slowly, the square parchment transforming into something more beautiful than it could ever have hoped to manage by itself. It became a flower, a rose in fact, smaller in size than it had been before, and yet greater in what it symbolized. Twilight gasped and, trying to suppress a grin from plastering itself on her face, jumped over the bed and landed next to Spike's basket. "Spike! Spike, wake up!" Spike blearily opened his eyes and looked down, finding himself floating in midair as Twilight levitated him along side her on her trip back to the desk. He yawned loudly as she set him on his feet next to her and stretched his arms out over his head. "It can't be morning yet, can it?" He asked, looking out the window to find it still dark."Have you been up all night again?" He asked, looking at her with a resigned look etched across his face. "Well, yes. But it was worth it!" Twilight replied, her chipper mood contrasting Spike's sullenness at being woken up so early. "I've just finished reading part of this new book we got! Wu-Jen:Secrets of Eastern Magic! I just practice something out of the book, too; paper folding, or Origami as they know it out East." Spike looked down at the paper flower, picking it up to examine it closer. "Folding paper, huh?" Spike said sarcastically, "Well, that's certainly useful." "Oh, your just a little cranky," Twilight said, giggling slightly. "It's more than just paper folding. It's something else entirely, a new way to use magic that I've never witnessed before! Just attempting to channel my magic the way the unicorns in the East do was difficult. A small amount of effort for such large results!" "Uh-huh," Spike said,yawning again as he looked up at Twilight. "Any chance you might be able to explain this later? Like when the sun is up?" Twilight, however, was far to entrenched in her explanation to hear him. "...I always thought that magic only came from inside you, something that you were born with, but theway these unicorns do it is different. they tap into something they call ley lines, or power from the earth, basically. As though the entire planet is a living creature." She stopped only when she heard the soft snoring of her dragon companion. She reached out with a hoof and shook him slightly. "Come on, Spike! I'm a-almost-"a yawn punctuated her sentence- "done explaining." Spike looked up at her. "Your just as tired as I am. Can it just wait until after we get some sleep?" "Okay, your right, Spike,"Twilight conceded. "Just, let me show you what it does before we get some shut eye? please?" "Oh, alright," Spike huffed, knowing full well it was faster to give in to Twilight's persistence rather than continue to argue with her. She levitated another piece of paper over to them, placing it between herself and Spike. "Okay, so it begins like this..."Twilight began her first fold. "I simply have to... fold this corner..." Her words began to slur together. "and then I just..." She began snoring. Spike chuckled a little, before realizing that something strange was happening. the piece of paper floated down, no longer supported by Twilight. "Uh, Twilight?" The room disappeared in a flash of purple electricity. Twilight woke with a start. "Wha-?How? What happened?" She saw Spike and gasped. "Spike?" "Twilight... I'm assuming you were supposed to fold the paper, right?" Twilight could only look on, her mouth agape, at what had happened. Spike looked like a giant purple pretzel, his arms and legs tied at ridiculous angles, his head where his torso had been. Twilight dashed to her book, skimming through the pages in panic. "Oh no! no, no nonononononononononononono!Oh, Spike, are you okay? I'm so sorry!" Spike looked around at himself, his eyes wide in surprise. "Well, this is new..." He scratched himself on the back of his head. "Well, one good thing I guess. I've never been ever to reach that spot!" Twilight tossed the book aside and grunted in frustration. "There's nothing in here about how to reverse this!" She began frantically searching every book she could get her hooves on, tossing each aside in turn as she found nothing useful. "Elderhoof's Guide to Economics... no... Aloe and the Forest of Fear... that's fiction... Alchemic Solutions... no,no no! None of these have anything to do with this!" Twilight looked sorrowfully over to Spike. "Even if I do find something, maybe transmogrification, that could help, the fact that Eastern magic isn't widely known here might complicate this." "Well, I don't want to stay like this forever, you know," Spike replied. "I know," Twilight said, a small note of despair in her tone. "Hold on, let me go look downstairs. there are some books down there I've never gotten around to looking at. Maybe some of them can help." Twilight worked her way down the stairs to the main room. Despite the lack of light, Twilight easily made it to the basement door. She knew the library so well at this point, she doubted she could be lost in it, even if her ears were stuffed with cotton, her eyes blindfolded and her mouth gagged. She paused for a second when this thought occurred to her before going down into the basement. A small spark of magic later and the lights on the walls crackled away merrily, lending a hazy luminescence to the underground room. The many machines she kept down here were cold and inert, having been unused since Pinkie Pie had last been strapped into them. Twilight sighed; even if she could take Pinkie's strange sense on faith, it still didn't change the fact she wanted to know why. It was just something about herself she knew;she had to know things. That was why she read so much. Back behind the largest machine, a small bookcase was tucked away, hidden from the view of any casual observer. This bookshelf didn't contain anything crazy, forbidden or even anything of interest; it just happened to be where Twilight would put books she felt she could overlook. But, with the way things were, maybe one of them would have something she could use. A Sequence of Unfortunate Circumstance... No, that wouldn't help, it was another fiction book. Summoning, Short and Sweet. Unless she could summon a de-pretzelfying device, that wasn't going to help either. The Height of Society...Become a Better You...Insight of the Deep Mind... “None of these has anything to do with this!” Twilight shouted in frustration, Throwing the last book she had picked up at the wall to the left of the bookshelf. Instead of a thump, though, she heard something unexpected. A crack of splintering wood. There was now a large hole beside the bookshelf where the wall had collapsed due to the sheer velocity at which she had thrown the book. Or maybe it was just old. “Wait a minute...” She mused to herself, out loud. This was the basement. Underground. In a tree, for that matter. None of the walls should have been made of wood. Not the kind that would splinter like this, anyway. What else could she do? She moved forward to inspect the hole. It was as she had thought; the wall was old, and had been close to crumbling on it's own without help. Splinters of it now lay on the floor, and Twilight deftly swept up the pieces with a push of wind. No sense getting wood chips stuck in her hooves. The other strange thing about the wall was the wood itself; it was spruce plywood,completely at odds with the oak of the library. In fact, it was odd she hadn't notice this section of wall before. And yet, as she thought about it, this small bit of wall had never looked any different than the rest of it. Even stranger still, there was a space behind the plywood. The book she threw had landed in there somewhere. She summoned the light from her horn and set off breaking open the panel large enough that she could fit through. This could not be a coincidence. Something like this wasn't built by accident. Someone had been trying to hide something. Now the only question was what? Twilight was determined to find out. She manage to pry enough away to squeeze herself in. Unfortunately, the hollow area turned out to be smaller than expected, and she only fit herself in halfway. Undaunted, Twilight opened her eyes to look around. Underneath the book she had thrown sat a small, unadorned chest. It was rectangular, with rounded edges. She could see her reflection in the polished metal sheen, her own eyes staring back at her, quizzically. This is all I have written as of the moment. The end of this chapter is in sight, but I have to make sure I'm starting off with a solid foundation before I continue onward. Critique to your hearts content. My work has been lain out bare for you to pick apart and dissect, to study, mold, and help me fix.
