Blinking the blearyness from her eyes, Twilight, stretched, groaned, and, with monumental effort, lifted herself from where she'd fallen asleep the night before while reading Astral's notebook. As she'd assumed, the book so far had been an insightful glance at early Equestrian magical research. Most of the methods practiced were crude, sure, but they were obviously the genesis for the modern methods.

Checking first to ensure Astral's notebook was where she'd remembered leaving it, Twilight glanced out the window, catching sight of the first rays of the sun peeking up from behind the horizon. She hadn't always been a morning pony, but one developed such habits when Princess Celestia was their teacher. She sat there for a moment, appreciating the sun's warmth, before the sounds of vigorous sizzling reminded her stomach to be hungry.

Shuffling to the open kitchen door, Twilight spotted Spike finishing his preparations for his breakfast and Twilight's snack before her own breakfast with Princess Celestia. "Hey, Twilight. Sleep well?" Spike briefly looked up from his work when he heard her enter the room, before turning back to the stove.

"Pretty good, despite the late night. What're you making for breakfast?" Twilight glanced towards where he was standing, trying to sneak a peek at whatever it was he was making. She wasn't always a fan of whatever culinary masterpiece her favourite baby dragon cooked up, but this one did smell nice.

"Sauteed onions and cauliflower with mushroom" – he replied while flipping the pan's contents – "but not much, since you're already scheduled with the Princess. Should be done in about, eh, another two minutes?"

Twilight nodded. "Okay. Guess I'll do the morning rituals after breakfast, then." Twilight recalled Astral's notebook from the other room, and briefly leafed through its pages.

"I noticed you reading that book last night, before I went to bed. What is it?" Spike turned from his cooking, eyeing her reading. "It's not some sort of forbidden magic book, or something, right?"

Despite herself, Twilight giggled. "No, silly. As if the Princess would ever let anyone into that section, I'm pretty sure even she's not allowed in there." Truthfully, Twilight couldn't recall ever hearing about a pony being let into the Forbidden section in the Library, ever. Not even the Princess visited it, and most of the books were heavily protected with unique charms and wards created by ponies long dead.

Still looking suspicious, Spike took the food from the stove and began to dish it out. However, he reserved any of his other comments about Twilight's new book, not wanting to rev her lecture mode.

-#-#-

When Twilight was led into the private dining room in the castle, she made sure to keep the book carefully hidden. Celestia may have been observant, but Twilight was certain she could at least keep some secrets from her Princess. Not that she wanted to, but timing did matter when one revealed that they'd broken a law.

The room was very simple, it held a large window on one side which caught the setting sun and moon, a table with three chairs on each side and one at each head, four doors to adjoining rooms, and lighting fixtures, all in the castle's signature colors. Of the chairs at the table, Celestia sat at the head furthest from the door Twilight entered through.

Said Princess was already at the table, having arrived only shortly before Twilight. Hearing the door open to admit Twilight, she turned to her student with a friendly smile, but Twilight beat her to the spoken word.

"Princess, –" Twilight said while bowing "– thank you for having me for breakfast, it's been a while since we did this, hasn't it?"

"It has. I would have invited you sooner, but I didn't want to drag you all the way from Ponyville to here just to have dinner with little old me," – Celestia paused, taking a sip of her tea, – "but I wouldn't mind it if you dropped by more often.

Now, come and sit down. I don't want anypony to think I treat my student and friendly badly," said Celestia, pulling out the chair on her immediate right with her magic.

"I can try, Princess, –" said Twilight, hopping into the chair Celestia selected for her, "– but Ponyville's a day's trip away, and I'm not sure how often I could make that." She would like to take up the Princess on her offer, but both her duties as Princess of Friendship and as Ponyville's resident librarian made it hard to find free time.

"I understand, Twilight, everypony has their obligations and commitments, I wouldn't take you away from them to satisfy my own desires." Celestia's eyes settled on her right wing, an eyebrow almost imperceptibly raising, before her smile shifted to a slightly mischievous one. "Oh, but I would like to know exactly what my student is hiding from me."

Twilight started. "But- I- oh, horseapples," she thought. "N- nothing, Princess. Just a little bit of extra reading, that's all."

"Oh? So nothing related to your current studies?" Celestia asked with as much innocence as she could muster while pulling the face that she was.

Hopping from forehoof to forehoof in a vain attempt to calm her nerves, Twilight tried, in vain, to explain with coherence."Well, yes but- I mean, it's, um, magic, about ma-"

Letting her mischievous smile fade into a gentler, more familial, and almost apologetic smile, Celestia relented on Twilight. "I'm sorry, Twilight, I didn't mean to interrogate you. If you thought this book important enough to bring to my attention, then I will listen."

Twilight shakily nodded and levitated the book from beneath her wing, cringing at how thick it actually was. "No wonder she figured me out." Twilight set the book down on the table.

"So, what is this book, my most faithful student?" Celestia maintained a relatively neutral face, but Twilight could see the inquisitiveness hidden behind Celestia's mask.

With her seated, a maid brought Twilight a cup of tea. Taking a shaky sip, Twilight found her nerves slightly calmer. "W- well, it's a book on, um, magic theory."

"Really? Please, let me see it." Celestia levitated the book, glanced at it briefly, and looked back to Twilight with a smile. "It's been l some time since I've read a book on magical theory, I prefer to stay within the confines of verified science, as it is. However, if it's piqued your interest, then I'll take a glance for myself."

Before Twilight could say anything, though, Celestia's eyebrows rose into her hairline. "Twilight, this book looks old. Very old, actually. Where did you find it?" Celestia's eyes roamed over the books exterior, before she flipped it open and began reading.

"I- In the Royal Library, Princess. I noticed it sitting in the shelves, and decided it probably shouldn't have been there so I stacked it with the other books I decided would be work looking in, but-" finally noticing the quiet, Twilight looked up at her teacher, not at all expecting the look she saw on her teacher's face.

Celestia's ears were drooping and her mouth had turned into a sad frown. Her eyes had become slightly misty and distant, like someone remembering a dead friend or family member; a stark contrast to her previous expression.

"She probably is remembering Astral," Twilight realized, her own ears flattening. "Princess, did- did you know Astral?"

Celestia's eyes closed and she let out a small sigh, before shutting the notebook and laying it back on the table. "Yes, I did. She and I were close." Celestia's eyes opened again, but they were glazed in memory and fixed on the sun outside the window. Twilight cringed internally. When she'd taken the book, she hadn't considered that particular possibility.

Instead of replying immediately, Twilight gave the Princess a few moments to work through the emotions she'd inadvertently dredged up. "I'm sorry, Princess, I didn't mean to bring up something painful."

Celestia's eyes swiveled back to Twilight, having lost their glaze, and gave her a small, reassuring smile. "It's not your fault, Twilight, you couldn't have known. The book wasn't labelled, and most mention of her has been lost to time anyways."

Twilight accepted the pardon with a nod, but her nagging sense of morbid curiosity wouldn't go away. Before she could stop herself, Twilight found herself blurting out something really stupid. "Princess, how did she die?"

Celestia's eyes widened slightly, then grew sad, like they had been a few minutes earlier, though her smile didn't leave her face this time. "I don't know, Twilight. She disappeared one night, promising to return in two weeks time. She never did come back, and I never found her."

Despite her own shock at her callous words, Twilight noticed that Celestia didn't seem to mind talking about Astral. In fact, Twilight got the feeling she wanted to talk about her. "You, erm, don't mind if I ask you about her, do you?"

Celestia looked, again, surprised. "I don't see why not. Nopony save you has asked me that, and you happen to be one of the few I trust to tell about her."

Twilight nodded. "Okay, Princess. If I ask anything you don't want to tell me about, just let me know." Twilight thought for a moment, then said: "Tell me how she acted, how was her personality?"

"Astral was actually very much like you were. She was a studious pony, and my personal student," Celestia began. "I'm sure you've seen in her notebook, she was extremely meticulous in her experiments; she did not like leaving things to chance. Everything was calculated carefully, including her relationships."

Twilight furrowed her brow. "Calculated? So she chose friends superficially?"

"To a degree, yes," replied Celestia, "I'd often seen her pick and choose friends based on what they had to offer her, and indeed many of them didn't stick around long. However, there were a precious few, myself included, who she came to consider as "true" friends. Ponies she trusted, ponies she cared for. How she chose, I didn't know and didn't ask.

"Before you say anything about her ethic, Twilight, I was much the same," said Celestia with a hint of remorse, "I won't try to justify why I acted the way I did, but I have no doubt she picked that behavior up off of me."

Twilight had been watching Celestia's face while she talked, and came to a conclusion within herself. "It's obvious she cared about Astral like she cares about me. What would it do to her if I suddenly disappeared?" Twilight thought carefully for a moment, weighing her options. "I guess the best option is to hear it straight from the horse's mouth," Twilight decided, feeling guilty because of her next words.

"Princess," Twilight began hesitantly, "what would you do if what happened to her happened to me?"

Celestia's face flashed through many emotions at once. First, shock, then anger, then fear, then back to calm, but edges of fear and anger remained. "Please, Twilight, don't- don't ask me that, ever again. And for the love of the Maker, do not do what she did. If you ever need to go somewhere obscure or dangerous, please, tell me first."

To anypony else, Celestia would have simply been reprimanding a pony who'd gone to far in personal matters, nothing more, but to Twilight, she'd seen much more. The faint creases at Celestia's eyes, the slight furrowing in her brow, the almost imperceptible tremble in her voice. Celestia was afraid.

It was at that moment that Twilight made her decision. What had happened to Astral had affected Celestia quite deeply. Deeply enough that even after seven hundred years Celestia still felt responsible, if her pleas for Twilight to tell her of any "dangerous or obscure" outings were an indication.

As Celestia's friend, who was she to simply sit idly by while her friend was weighed down by guilt? There was a chance she could fix it, a chance she could take, and what kind of friend would she be if she didn't take that chance?

"Princess," Twilight began, determination welling in her chest, "I think we're going to go find Astral."

Author's Note

Last Extra Reading chapter, and some insight on Astral's character.

In this story's canon Twi has read up on psychology at some point, likely trying to find out why her friends (and herself) can be so insane sometimes. This is why she reads Celestia like a book at the end here. It also helps that she spent a lot of time around Celestia.

Yes, this is a raw subject for Celestia still. She never quite got over the feeling of having let down Astral, a personal friend (and one of the few ponies Astral trusted) and confidant.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about my characterizations of each of the original characters I've written so far. I feel like I'm staying within the confines of their already determined personalities, but I also know that writing without a beta can skew one's perception of their writing. At the same time I'm also wondering if the writing feels wooden, but I can't say. I figure it's fairly emotive and flexible, so to speak, but again, I don't exactly have a beta. If anyone has any input on that, either PM me or comment. It's early enough in the story to rewrite their characterizations without it being a massive pain or transition for future readers, and if it's a problem now I'd like to address it.

I've got the main outline for the first half of the story done now, and let me tell you, with 3 potential Hunters it's a bit of a doozy. We're going to be diverging from Bloodborne canon progression quite a bit, and we'll also be skipping a few bosses I've deemed "unnecessary", like Father Gascoigne who mostly seems to be a roadblock on the Hunter's way to Vicar Amelia, since most of his lore winds up being "bigger picture" exposition or related to his family or Henryk.