Six months have passed since the Corruption began. Celestia left the Crystal Empire and is nowhere to be seen. For the past few months, casualties have been rising on a colossal scale. Everypony was starting to lose hope. Luna sent Twilight and Pinkie to find her sister. However, Twilight told Pinkie to stay behind in case if there was an attack. Pinkie did as she was told and waited. With that, Twilight proceeded to move onwards.

“So this must be where it’s been feasting for the past few months…” Twilight looked around the Everfree Forest with her scythe near her. “A place that is rarely used by others… I’ve had no reason to search here since there hadn’t been any reports of casualties nor any missing parties.” As she kept walking, she felt a strange source of magic nearby. It felt faint at first. But then it started to become familiar. “A field… It seems this was the cause of why this part of the area was undetectable…” She casted a spell on the force field, causing the barrier to dissolve. “Even though it was hard to find, it was shocking how easy it was to remove… Perhaps it was weaken? No matter. Time to find it and end this once and for all… However…” She moved forward to follow the source. It felt familiar to her. Like she had felt this magic before. She had seen it before. “I can’t shake this feeling… This presence… Why is it so familiar…?”

She kept looking around for the source. Paving around for the next fifteen minutes. It strained to no end but she knew had to keep her mind on two things: Finding the monster and… finding the princess. It was Twilight’s top priority.

“I don’t know if it’s destiny or cruel irony… that after all these months… I would find you in a place that reeks of death… yet, life is present in your wake,” She said with morbidness in her voice.

Celestia was shocked that she was found. Much less by her own pupil. She scowled at her the moment Twilight found her. As Twilight came closer, the grass around her withered away.

“...I thought I smelled death lurking around,” Cestia said coldly.

Twilight however didn’t seemed fazed by her lack of care. It was something she threw out a long time ago. Her own empathy for others.

“I’m here looking for the monster and yet, I somehow find you here. The entire empire has been looking for you for the past six months.” She said with an emotionless grin. Celestia didn’t respond and started to glow her horn. Getting ready to fire at Twilight. “What’s wrong? Are you not use to seeing your student being the Grim Reaper? Am I-”

Before she could finish her comment, a beam of light was sent towards him. She barely manage to avoid it but it left a mark on her face. “It seems your not happy to see me.” She looked behind her and the light that was sent hit the tree and was restored to its original state. “I guess you managed to recover since the last time…”

“Leave… Or I will not be so merciful with my attacks…” Celestia said with anger in her voice. “I will not go back to a place that reeks of death!”

“Interesting… Considering the fact that you have fought countless wars. Now that I’ve found you, everything will fall into place…” She pulled out her scythe and pointed it to her.” “and I will not take no for an answer.”

Celestia was surprised by Twilight’s lack of care. Along with her own lack of self-respect. Still, she was determined to stay. Twilight sighed and seemed disappointed by her answer.

“Ever since Spike disappeared and this monster appeared, you’ve been acting strange. Keeping secrets, always leaving, and never seeing your friends. I didn’t question it at first since you’ve never gave me a reason to. However, once you ran away, I could no longer ignore your agenda. Ponies started disappearing left and right, the whole empire started falling apart and with Luna and Rainbow Dash doing damage control, I had to take on the task of going as the undertaker. Since everypony was to scared to act, I took the role of the Grim Reaper. You’re just played hooky,” she said with a scowl on her voice.

Celestia was taken aback by her statements. All it did was enrage her more. She started to attack. Upon firing a beam, Twilight activated a barrier. The shot deflected and hit a tree branch.

Several minutes had passed and they both grew tired. But they still kept their demeanors.They both seemed to have calmed down and Celestia spoke.

“You shouldn’t have come here, Twi- Grim Reaper… Don’t you know that death is forbidden in this area?” She asked.

Twilight made a slight chuckle when she said that. “That would imply that everypony loved death to begin with. Everypony hates the thought of dying or someone close to them dying so it why does it matter now?” she asked.

Celestia was surprised about how calm her former student was about her role. She could never have felt this disgusted before. Much less, at her former student.

“In any case, now that you’ve calmed down, I can explain why I’m here.” Twilight sat down and teleported her scythe away. “I’m not here because I was looking for you… Well, not directly anyways. I was looking for the monster that had been reported nearby the Everfree Forest and there’s something else…”

Celestia had a concerned but confused look on her face. Like Twilight was hiding something. “What is it?” she asked.

“The monster has the ability to corrupt other lifeforms and use them as an army. That much is certain… Currently, we’ve only got one of them imprisoned. Unfortunately, it’s too wild to get any useful info out of it and with no other leads, I’ve had no choice but to take action and find you so that it doesn’t happen any further. But there is one more thing I need to say…” She closed her eyes and asked, “You hadn’t seen any of them out here, have you…? Like, any sort of black liquid?”

Celestia was shocked to hear Twilight mention that. After all this time, she had not seen any of it. Not even in her own forest.

“What?! A form of black liquid?! Did you sneak any with you?!” Celestia asked angrily.

“I haven’t done anything… not yet anyway. That’s reminds me… Since you can cure just about anything, would you come back to the empire and heal the creature? It could save us the trouble of having to take drastic measures to obtain information,” Twilight said, filled with malice.

She could not believe what she was hearing. To see the monster that Twilight has become. Celestia felt insulted and used like she was a bloodhound.

“Why would I help you!? You’ve used the dead for your own selfish needs! You don’t deser-”

“And you call me unreasonable…” Twilight answered calmly.

Celestia went silent upon hearing Twilight say that. Like she had just become deaf.

“I guess it’s pointless to ask you about the creature's whereabouts. If it were here, it would have to be…” Twilight got up and dusted herself off. “I guess bringing you back by force won’t work so I’ll report back to the empire and tell them about what I found… Not counting your whereabouts of course,” she said.

As Twilight was about to leave, Celestia raised her magic levels. “You will get only one warning… If you ever come back without Spike or if I find out that you murdered anypony dear to me… you will be shown no quarter. Understand?” she asked as her eyes glowed.

Twilight looked back at her, then she smirked. As if Celestia was telling a bad joke.

“I hate to spoil your mood any further but if memory serves, I no longer answer to you. Besides, where’s there’s life, there’s death and if I find out you’ve been helping the creature in any way, shape or form... you will not find any mercy from me…”

“How dare-”

Before she could finish her response, Twilight had teleported away. Celestia was unsurprised to see things haven’t changed. At least not ever since she left the Crystal Empire. Not since the day they ended their friendship.