Twilight poked her head out of the kitchen and glanced around the room. Everypony was standing still, but the princess hadn't entered Sugar Cube Corner yet. She motioned back to Earl and the two left the kitchen to join the crowd outside.

"Make way, make way!" One of the royal guards shouted.

Almost instantly two guards entered the front door of the building, followed by the towering white alicorn behind them, her mane magically flowing as usual. Everypony in the room instantly bowed before the princess, including Earl. He had learned his lesson last time.

"Good evening my subjects." She said in her regal, yet motherly tone.

Upon hearing her words, the ponies returned to their hooves and eagerly awaited her next words.

"Tonight we are here to honor a hero. Somepony who came about in the face of danger and helped us quell an alien invasion!" The princess said.

Well when you put it like that, I just sound like a freakin' god. Earl thought with a smirk.

After the announcment, everypony turned towards Earl, cheered loudly, and stomped their hooves to the ground. He replied with a modest nod and a quick wave.

"Please come forth." The princess said.

Earl swallowed nervously and approached the white alicorn.

Please, nothing fuck this up...

Upon approaching her, she reached one of her hooves and rested it on his shoulder.

"Earl," She said. "I cannot thank you enough for your actions of bravery, along with your two companions; my royal guard captain, Shining Armor."

A large applause followed after his name, to which he replied with the same reaction as Earl.

"and Big Macintosh of Sweet Apple Acres!"

Another applause, this time directed towards the large red earth pony. Celestia looked back towards Earl.

"I would like to officially recognize and welcome you as a citizen of Equestria!" She said.

This was it, Earl was home. Officially made a citizen of the magical and cartoonish land that he had seen a thousand times before. Something still felt wrong to him, however. He turned to the crowd and raised a hoof in the air with a forced smile, followed by yet another round of applause.

It was then, Twilight noticed something and her heart nearly fell through her body. Earl's eyes were now bloodshot and fading in color. His face was showing signs of fatigue and his movements were slower and more awkward. She quickly came to the realization;

they had forgotten the spell.

Almost immediately after the thought entered her mind, Earl stumbled for a moment before coming crashing to the ground. His arrival to the hard wood floor was met with a barrage of loud gasps from the crowd.

No... not now, please not now... He thought.

An uncontrollable scream erupted from the grey unicorn's mouth as an excruciating pain entered his stomach, and worked it's way through his limbs. Nopony had heard such a scream of pure pain before. It shook them to the core as the ghastly sound continued. Earl was cringing at the massive hurt growing inside of his stomach, he took one hoof to cover his stomach to dull the pain, but to no avail. The pain continued burning his insides like a forest fire. His right foreleg uncontrollably flopped out onto the floor and began to twitch profusely. Everypony watched in terror as the limb extended to a reasonably longer length, followed by five thin fingers that extended one by one. Seconds after the foreleg had been transformed, the left one followed a similar pattern. Next to go, was his horn. The transforming creature's scream only intensified as the magical horn dug itself back into his skull, sending further shockwaves of pain throughout his body.

"Everypony stand back!" One of the guards shouted, confused by the situation.

The townsfolk did as told as Earl's back legs began to sprout out as well, growing similar digits as the ones on his hands. His coat began disappearing , leaving nothing but a bare, fleshy, skin behind. When the transformation had been completed, Earl was laying on the floor, breathing heavily and back to his human form.

The princess could only watch, dumbfounded as the unicorn before her was suddenly turned into a human. The room fell silent, save for Earl's heavy breathing. Twilight had nearly broken into tears.

She's going to take him away... she's going to banish him somewhere, and put him in a dungeon in the place she banished him to... She thought.

Earl unknowingly stood up, but something was off about him. All of the ponies could recognize him, due to the distinct facial features he also held when in his pony form, but his eyes were stone white. Twilight glanced up and sheer terror entered her heart. She remembered those dead, lifeless eyes.

"Earl? What is going on here?!" Celestia asked, her tone more commanding.

A ghastly moan erupted from Earl's throat, a moan that further shook the already mortified ponies in the room. Soon, the realization hit Mac and Shining like a bag of bricks. Earl was a Zed.

"Everypony stay calm, we can handle this." Shining said, trying to stay calm himself.

Earl's corpse simply stood there, the loud moan still crawling out of his throat. It was as if something was keeping him from making meals out of everypony in the room.

"Shining!" Mac said, pulling the captain aside. "How in the hell are we gonna to handle this?! That's Earl, ah mean, I think it's Earl."

"It is Earl, but he's one of them now. Remember what he taught us?" Shining replied hastily.

"Ah know, but maybe we should try something else, Ah'll be right back, you just try to reason with him."

"Seriously?!"

Before Shining could further scold Mac's plan, the red earth pony took off towards the kitchen.

Princess Celestia was about to speak, but Shining had beat her to it.

"Princess, please, I know how this may look, but I beg you. Just give me one second, I can try to reason with him." Shining said sympathetically.

The princess didn't like the situation, but trusted Shining as much as any other pony. With a simple nod from the princess, Shining cautiously approached Earl.

"Earl, can you hear me?" Shining asked.

The shambling corpse only twitched and looked around the room.

"Earl, please. I know you're in there!" Shining said, his tone growing angrier.

Earl's eyes came to rest on Shining once more, but his expression was quickly changing.

"Dude, Come on. Don't do anything you'll regret." Shining said, noticing the hungry look in the creature's eyes.

Without further warning, Earl's corpse advanced forward at an alarming pace. Shining shook his head and readied his horn to kill the former unicorn. Shining closed his eyes tightly, knowing he would regret this moment for the rest of his life.

Clank!

Shining opened his eyes as Earl fell to the floor, unconscious, but still breathing. The royal guard captain glanced towards Mac, who was holding a large frying pan between his teeth, which he quickly spit to the floor.

Celestia glanced towards the corpse, realizing now what it was. She thought back to their meeting, and remembered her faithful student, who had introduced her to him.

"Twilight Sparkle?!" She called out amongst the crowd.

The purple mare nearly fainted as her name was called. She kept her head low and advanced through the wall of ponies in front of her, all of them shocked and appalled by the recent events. Two of Celestia's guards pulled the unconscious corpse outside of The Corner for further investigation, while Twilight stood shamefully before the princess.

"I want an explanation. Now." The princess said, angrily.