Unbound

Unbound

By Sojourner

“A Thousand Eyes

Wear Whispering Wings

As Darkness Stirs

Curiosity Rings.”

There were always choices to be made. 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. It was these differences in choice that made each and everypony unique; 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  tell you everything about somepony, but it was the only way you could learn about who they were.

It was in one of these choices Twilight reveled this night: the choice to read, to learn, and 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 could be seen scattered across the wooden floorboards, forlorn and forgotten, the occasional word visible on an open page or book cover.  It was by this light that Twilight read, her purple eyes dancing lightly over the pages. Behind the bed where the flickering candlelight did not reach, Spike slept, snuggled in his basket. Only the tip of his head scale managed to catch the light as his head bobbed up and down in tandem with his breath.

Twilight had been reading the book since the morning prior, weighing each word as it was read, determining its worth before moving on. The words flowed into pages, then into chapters.  Everything else melted away until only she and book existed. This shrinking of the world was of some comfort to her; 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. There was a quill, her notepad, the book, and then a piece of parchment. The air was cut by a crackling sound as she concentrated, levitating the piece of paper in front of her.

It seemed nothing more than an insignificant piece of paper. Its wrinkles and bends lent more age to it then it actually had, but as far as it mattered to Twilight, this sheet was everything. Soon, it would be proof of her ability, proof that her learning was paying off. The purple aura surrounding the page quivered. Then, the page 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, finding himself floating alongside Twilight on her trip back to the desk. He yawned loudly as she set him on his feet, and he 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 looked at Twilight 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've been practicing 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, you're just a little cranky," Twilight said, giggling slightly. "It's more than just paper folding. It's something else entirely, a different way of using magic I've never seen before! Just attempting to channel my magic the way the unicorns in the East do was difficult."

"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, barely heard his words as she began her lecture.

"I always thought that magic only came from inside you, that it was something you were born with. But, the way these unicorns do it is different. They tap into something they call ley lines, or power from the earth, basically. Its almost as if the entire planet is a living creature that lends them its energy." 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.

"You're 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, suppressing another yawn.

"Okay, so it begins like this..." Twilight began her first fold. "I start with this corner, and then I... I..." 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, 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 a panic.

"Oh no! no, no no no no! Oh, Spike, are you okay? I'm so sorry!"

Spike looked around at himself, his eyes wise 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 able to reach that spot!"

Twilight tossed the book aside and grunted in frustration. "There's nothing in here about how to reverse this!" Frantically, she searched 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... gah! None of these have anything useful!"

Twilight looked sorrowfully over to Spike. "Even if I do find something that could help, I don't know very much about Eastern magic. That 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 try something."

Twilight's horn sputtered to life, a soft cone of light emanating from it. She took the cone and hovered it over Spike, concentrating hard on the information her spell was feeding her.

"Well, the magic has dissipated. That means it's not what's holding you in the shape your in. You're actually, well, tied up that way," Twilight giggled.

"Har de har har," Spike replied, the sarcastic tone in his voice obvious enough that even Twilight would notice it.

"Maybe I can just untie you. Hold on."

The cone of magic disappeared, instead reforming around spike. She gently tugged on different parts of Spike, trying to find where the knot he was in was loosest.

"Th-that tickles!" Spike said, laughing. As Twilight's tugs became more forceful, Spike began grunting in pain. One particularly hard jerk caused him to squeal. "Hey! Watch it!" Spike admonished.

"Sorry Spike," Twilight returned, "but I just-" she pulled, "can't-" she strained, "seem-to-get-you-loose!" Another yelp of pain from Spike made Twilight quit at her attempts to untighten him. "You are well tied together," she said, panting.

"So, you can tie a knot, but you can't undo one, huh?" Spike said reproachfully.

Twilight glared at him for a moment, before allowing her expression to soften. He deserved to be angry at the moment, and she couldn't blame him for his words.  She sighed.

"I'm sorry Spike. Hold on, let me go look downstairs. there are some books down there I've never gotten around to looking at. Maybe one 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 and her eyes blindfolded. a flick of her horn opened the door, and she carefully made her way down into the basement.

Another small spark of magic later and the lights on the walls crackled away merrily, lending a hazy luminescence to the subterranean room. The machines she kept down here were cold and inert, unused since Pinkie Pie had last been strapped into them. Twilight sighed again; 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. And not just know things, but understand them. That was why she read so much, now that she really thought about it.

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, whether they were subjects she had no interest in or that were so boringly written they even put her to sleep. 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, throwing the last book she had picked up at the wall. Instead of a thump, though, she heard something unexpected. A crack of splintering wood.

Glancing around the bookshelf, she saw a large hole where the wall, having been assaulted by her projectile, had collapsed.

“Wait a minute...” She mused. 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.

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, ensuring none of the woodchips would end up lodged in her hooves.  The wood itself was spruce plywood, completely at odds with the oak of the library. It was unusual that she hadn't notice this section of wall before. although, this small bit of wall had never looked any different than the rest of the room.

  The book she threw had landed in a nook behind the plywood. She summoned light from her horn and set off breaking open the panel large enough that she could fit through.

Twilight was determined to find out what was up with this little bit of space. 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 wiggled herself through the hole, and opened her eyes to look around.

Underneath the book she had thrown sat a small, unadorned chest. It was rectangular, its edges rounded. She could see her reflection in its polished metal sheen, her own eyes staring back at her quizzically. A small silver lock was all that held the small chest shut. The lock was elaborately shaped. Despite it size, the detail was unusually precise, Its design reminiscent of a heart. A small diamond shaped keyhole was the only indent on its surface. Surrounding this heart was a dizzying array of tree branches, each on almost a perfect replica of what they emulated. These branches wrapped around the entirety of the lock, entwining on the back in an asymmetric pattern.

Twilight was intrigued. Carefully, she crawled forward as far as she could, and  attempted to bring the box closer with her telekinesis. The box was surrounded by the aura for only a moment before she felt her magic weaken, and slide off it.

The box had resisted her magic.

Whatever this box was,  something of significance must have been inside. She managed, barely, to wrap her hooves around it and pull it toward her.

A sudden click caused her to jump. The padlock had come undone. It fell from the box, giving a loud clank as it landed roughly on the floor.

Slightly disturbed by the boxes behavior, Twilight's curiosity overpowered her fear. She needed to know what was in this box, to understand why it was acting in such a strange manner.

The hinges made no sound as the lid hit the floor.

The leather-bound tome she found within was held shut by a gold clasp. On it's cover was the same design the lock had carried, that of intertwining tree branches. Silver laced the spine of the book, spiraling over the edge where it entangled with golden branches on the cover. A circular portrait was centered over the branches, a symmetric bronze flower seemingly blooming out of the front. If she hadn't known better, she would have sworn it was swaying in a breeze.

She pulled the book from the confines of the chest and carefully opened it. The book made no sound as it opened.

The works of magic that are wrought

From the East hold power not

Despite the sense of strength you feel

A stronger power breaks the seal

A dash of salts, a circle of stone,

A drop of blood, and a tap of bone,

The spell once woven will wither away,

Never to see another day.

Something clicked back into place in Twilight's mind. She had to fix what she had done to her poor dragon assistant. Despite the book having no name on its cover, this was the first reference she had managed to find about undoing the effects of magic from the Eastern realms. She decided to take it back upstairs and continue to read through it. Perhaps something written in it would be able to help her determine a way to free Spike from the prison of his own limbs.

A choice of wit is what you make,

The reigns of life are yours to take.

Whether right, whether wrong, the end is hidden in the maze,

True black, true white, guarded from sight in a ghostly haze.

Twilight shook her head and looked at the page again. It read exactly the same as earlier.

I could have sworn...

Holding it aloft with her magic, she hurried back up the stairs.