Sunset Shimmer shuddered when she took in the eerily familiar surroundings of the archives. As far as she could tell, nothing had changed since the day she'd made her bad decision, probably the worst in her whole life.
Granted, the room was better lit up by mage lights from Starlight Glimmer instead of just a single candle, but even the light couldn't chase away the feeling of being watched. The three unicorns had come straight down here after receiving the task from Princess Luna and Sunset had led her friends immediately into the forbidden section. It was most likely to find answers here and, if she was honest to herself, she wasn't sure if she still had the courage later on.
Sunset easily found the book she read on the night she ran through the mirror and Starlight sunk into it right away. That left Trixie and herself to find other books that might be helpful. Sunset had found a few promising titles and was skinning through the old tomes she spread out on the table, while Trixie was still browsing through one of the larger shelves on the other side of the room.
Starlight had settled on the floor and read the book with a fascination that disturbed Sunset in a way. Not that she didn't trust her new friend, it was more the way she was sitting there and sometimes even mouthing the words of a spell, the amber unicorn couldn't help but wonder if that was how she looked like all those years ago.
Starlight looked up from the book and gave an almost longing sigh
"I know this is forbidden knowledge and there's probably a good reason for it, but I wish I could try out some of those spells. They sound simply incredible."
Sunset bit her lip so she would not immediately shout at her new friend as a huge wave of worry crashed down on her. While she was trying to find words to explain herself when a sombre voice reached them from the other side of the room
"If the spell sounds too good to be true, then that's because it really is. Trust Trixie on that one."
Trixie still had her back turned towards her friends so they could only see her shoulders tense up. It was the tone of her voice that sent shivers down their spines.
While Sunset was again unsure how to react, Starlight got up and joined her friend, touching her hoof with her own.
Trixie turned her head to Starlight and managed a smile but Sunset recognized that kind of smile. It was the same she'd given her friends lots of time to have them not worry even though her guilt was burning her up from within. Starlight leaned closer and touched Trixie's horn with her own. Sunset found herself smiling at this little sign of affection between unicorns, one of the many gestures she'd never seen anything comparable in the human world.
Trixie relaxed visibly, then smirked and some of her usual fire returned to her eyes
"Trixie could have saved herself a lot of trouble of those old books would write appropriate warnings to those spells and artifacts. What were those ponies thinking? No wonder their work is locked away down here where nopony can see them."
Starlight and Sunset both smiled but they knew what Trixie was hiding behind her gin. Starlight went back to her book, without her initial excitement though. Trixie gathered a few large tomes in her magic and brought them over to the table next to Sunset. Their gazes met and Sunset offered a sympathetic smile to Trixie. They stared at each other for a minute, then Trixie nodded and opened her first book. Sunset sighed and went back to her studies.
The three unicorns worked silently for a couple of hours and managed to find a good amount of useful books they'd decided to take a closer look at.
At some point, Twilight joined them in the archives. After a hug for Starlight and Sunset and an awkward smile to Trixie, she told them about the ley lines and what she'd found out so far, like she did with the princesses before.
Starlight and Twilight immediately started throwing ideas and theories back and forth. Sunset could see they were used to do magical research together. She tried to keep up but as hard as it was to admit, not having magic for so long had left Sunset's magical know-how more than a little rusty, not to mention there were results of magical theory research she simply hadn't heard of yet.
Trixie on the other hand trailed off nearly right after the beginning and started to skim through books again. It seemed like she couldn't focus too well though with Starlight's and Twilight's loud discussion going on, so she ended up teleporting a inkwell through the room.
Sunset watched with a smile as the inkwell disappeared and reappeared in shelves, on books and back on the table. Trixie seemed to get better at the spell and when she managed to have the inkwell appear on Twilight's head, perfectly balanced and without the alicorn even noticing, both mares couldn't help but share a giggle.
Twilight looked up slightly annoyed and the inkwell quickly reappeared on the desk. Twilight turned to Trixie, but to her surprise the unicorn offered her a passage in her book that described exactly what Twilight had just been explaining. The alicorn blushed a little but Trixie just winked with a harmless smirk, causing the others to giggle softly again.
After Twilight had filled a few scrolls with notes, Starlight dropped her head on the table and groaned
"I don't think I can come up with anything useful anymore today. How about we call it a day and get back on it tomorrow?"
Twilight nodded and stood up to stretch her back and her wings
"It's really been a long day. Let's see if we can get some dinner."
Sunset looked around the room and shuddered
"Do you think we could take the books out with us? This place gives me the creeps."
Twilight opened her mouth to protest but stopped when she saw the nervous expression on Sunset's face mimicked by Starlight and Trixie as well. With a sigh and a nod, she gathered the books in her magic and with a bright purple flash, they vanished.
"I've sent them into Princess Celestia's personal study for now. Those books are too dangerous to be lying around for everypony to see, but they should be safe there."
Sunset gave her a grateful smile and together they left the archives.