"Is he dead?" Mac asked, staring wide-eyed at the lifeless corpse on the ground.

Earl was returned to his unicorn state, but had been lying on the ground for a good ten minutes. Celestia closed her eyes and bowed her head, waiting. Tears fell slowly from Twilight's face as she stared at him, limp on the cold ground. Shining made his way over to his little sister and put a hoof around her, in an attempt to console the crying unicorn. Tears were nearly falling from his face as well. After a moment, Twilight broke away from her brother and approached the grey unicorn. She fell to the ground and took her hoof in his for a moment, caressing it, hoping there was some way he could escape his fate. Just as everypony was about to bow their heads for the final time and pay their last respects, a faint light began to glow in the unicorn's chest.

Twilight immediately jumped back upon seeing it.

"What's happening to him?" She asked weakly, glancing towards the princess.

Celestia simply stayed silent, her eyes still shut tightly. The light began to grow brighter in Earl's chest. Slowly, it began to branch off through all the veins in his body. The crowd watched as the light spread, until every vein was glowing brightly through his grey coat. Everypony in the crowd stared, awestruck, as the light traveled through his every vein.

"What's happening to him?!" Twilight asked again, her tone slightly angry.

Still no response.

Seconds later, Earl sat up slowly and opened his mouth to reveal the bright light shining through it as well. A booming, ghostly, scream erupted from his throat, nearly bringing everypony in the crowd to tears. Continuing the devastating shout, Earl's eyes shot open, revealing two glowing white irises. After several moments, he fell to the floor as the glow dissipated from his veins. Followed by yet another dead silence.

Celestia finally opened her eyes and looked towards the grey unicorn. A long string of violent coughs came from the unicorn lying on the ground.

"Well.... that fucking hurt..." Earl said, trying to catch his breath.

Everypony's eyes instantly went wide, save for Celestia, who had expected that reaction. Without hesitation, Twilight sprinted towards the grey unicorn and wrapped her hooves around him. Causing him to recoil and grunt loudly as the force hit him in the chest.

"Oh!" He said, forcing a smile. "Hey Twi." He continued, running his hoof through her mane weakly.

Seconds after, the crowd cheered loudly and stomped their hooves on the ground yet again.

"Yah had us worried there for a second." Mac said, placing his hoof on Earl's shoulder, who was still sitting on the ground.

"I had myself worried..." Earl said, slurring his words slightly. "Do you know what it feels like being a Zom....-"

Before finishing his sentence, Earl collapsed in Twilight's forelegs, causing most of the crowd to gasp again.

"Please remain calm my subjects." Celestia shouted. "He is perfectly healthy, he just requires some rest."

A sigh of relief quickly ran through the audience.

"We should get him back to the library." Shining said, walking up next to Twilight.

The brother and sister both quickly glanced up to Macintosh in sync.

"Ah'm assuming you want me to carry him again?"

Earl jolted awake a few hours later, in Twilight's room. After returning to his senses, he glanced around the room, taking in where he was.

"Twilight?" He called out weakly.

Within moments, the purple unicorn walked through the door levitating a candle. After setting the candle down, she approached the bedside.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, taking his hoof in hers.

"Better than earlier," He replied. "It's not every day you get to be a freakin' zombie." He continued with a chuckle.

Twilight nodded in agreement and laughed as well.

"How'd that work out for you?" She asked.

"I wouldn't recommend it."

"Well, you won't have to deal with it anymore."

"Seriously?!"

"Yep, Princess Celestia completely cleared it from your bloodstream."

Earl smiled brightly and looked down towards his hooves.

"She also changed you back," She said, noticing his examination of the hooves. "Permanently."

The grey unicorn glanced back to Twilight and ran a hoof through his mane, trying to process his sudden realization.

"I guess I'm really one of you guys now." He said, looking into her deep, purple eyes.

"Yeah, you're one of us." She said softly.

Earl reached up from the bed and wrapped his hooves around the unicorn, hugging her for what seemed like hours. After breaking the hug, Twilight remembered one more thing.

"Oh, get up for a second." She said, excited.

Earl raised an eyebrow but crawled out of the bed nonetheless as Twilight levitated the candle over to them.

"Look." She said.

"I don't understand what I'm supposed to-" Earl said, looking back to his flank. "Holy. Shit."

The former human finally realized the source of Twilight's excitement.

Earl's mark had changed.

"How the hell did that happen?!" He asked, surprised, with a bright smile on his face.

"Well, Celestia's magic changed you into the true version of yourself. My spell just ran off of memory." She replied.

Earl nodded and glanced back to his new mark.

"This is literally the most bad ass thing I have ever seen."

The mark consisted of a crossed shotgun and black baseball bat, in front of a dark blue shield.

"So, my special talent is killing zombies?" Earl asked raising an eyebrow.

Twilight simply rolled her eyes.

"I think it would be more 'protecting everypony' than anything else." She said mater-of-factually.

Earl shrugged.

"Makes sense."

After examining his mark for several more moments, he glanced up to Twilight, who was holding a bright smile across her face. For the first time, they were finally safe. No Zeds, no infection, no worry about Earl turning into a human. Nothing. He was going to start a new life here, and he was going to make the most of it. The former human concluded that he had seen enough violence to last a lifetime, and knew it would all end here. Without another word he approached Twilight, brushed part of the purple mane out of her eye and kissed her, just as passionately as the kiss the held at Sugar Cube Corner. After the kiss, he simply held her in his forelegs for a few moments, while she happily nuzzled his chest.

"I think I'm going to get some sleep." She said after several minutes.

"Alright," He said with a smile, breaking away from her. "I'll be up in a bit... there's something I want to do first."

Twilight nodded and made her way to the bed, as Earl approached the door.

"By the way, were to you keep like, paper and pencil?" He asked.

"Uhh, I have quills?" She replied.

"That's fine."

"OK, they're on the desk, downstairs."

"Alright," Earl said, grabbing the door behind him to shut it. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Twilight replied softly, with a smile.

A few hours later, in what seemed like the dead of night, Earl had finally finished writing. He dropped the quill he had been levitating for the last few hours and examined the paper. It was exactly what he wanted to say.

"Hey." Shining called out from across the room.

The grey unicorn was instantly started and spun around quickly, his tail knocking over the ink well onto his work.

"Oh, shit. One sec." He said, spinning back around to fix his work.

A large ink stain covered one spot of the note, but Earl simply shrugged and levitated it away.

"What's up?" Earl said, turning around again.

"I'm heading back to Canterlot." Shining said.

"It's a bit late..."

"I'm just taking the last train, it's cool."

"And Twilight?"

"We said goodbye earlier."

"Alright, well," the grey unicorn replied, shrugging and extending his hoof. "It was a pleasure, thanks for everything."

Shining looked down at the hoof with a disgusted expression.

"What is this?" The white unicorn asked.

Earl raised an eyebrow.

"Fuck that, we just stopped an alien invasion." Shining said, hugging Earl.

Earl chuckled and returned it.

"Well, you take good care of Twilly, alright?" The royal guard captain said, breaking away.

Earl nodded and sarcastically saluted Shining. The white unicorn chuckled and returned it before exiting the tree house.

With a smile, Earl made his way upstairs and into Twilight's room and trotted over to the bed. He was instantly greeted by the cool sensation of the sheets and the warm aura of the mare next to him. Before closing his eyes, he shook his head and thought of his final task.

Just one more thing... He thought.