Infectious

Two guards entered Felicity's room carrying an assortment of items and following behind them was Princess Luna. Felicity and Ronnie both locked gazes with the princess as she entered. She cleared her throat and levitated a list in front of her. "Let's see here, on brown single-strap back pack..." she said as she levitated the bag off of one of her guards and dropped it on the bed. As she read on she levitated the listed items to the bed along with the bag. "a belt sheathing six throwing knives, two climbing ice picks, two handguns, one revolver, one SPAS-12 shotgun, and nine canned food products." The list vanished as she read off the final item and magically placed it on the foot of Felicity's bed. "The scholars who have interviewed you informed me that a majority of what you have are weapons, I trust you are not planning to use them."

"Not at all princess." Felicity replied. "They were only a means of self-defense and that is all they will ever be used for." Luna nodded to her, her eyes traveling over to Ronnie who unzipped the backpack. Upon opening it a small mountain of items rolled out of it, most of them being non-perishable food items. However, there was a small plastic bag that caught her attention. One that seemed to be filled with a dark liquid mixed with some sort of chunks of...something. Ronnie reached down and picked up the plastic bag, staring it down as he held it.

"What is he holding?" She whispered to Felicity. He opened the bag and the smell of blood dominated the air around them. He reached into the bag and pulled out a pink spongy looking chunk covered in red liquid before sliding it into his mouth and chewing slowly. Felicity watched as he did this and turned back to Luna.

"A snack. He hasn't eaten a whole lot since we came here, so he's probably getting hungry." Luna gave her a confused look.

"That doesn't explain what is in the bag." She inquired. Felicity let out a long sigh before replying.

"If you must know, in that specific bag is a collection of brain food."

"Brain food?"

"Brain food..." Luna's look of confusion turned into one of disgust as she caught on to what Felicity was hinting at. "Sometimes he goes days without eating because he refuses to attack anyone who doesn't deserve it. So we bag up what he doesn't eat and save it for later."

"Well, when you put it that way it's only mildly disturbing." Luna said sarcastically. Felicity just giggled at her comment.

"Thanks for getting our stuff back for us." Luna smiled and nodded. She was about to take off but there was a thought that had been festering in her mind for a while now and she figured now would be as good a time to ask as any. She waved off her guards with a hoof and as they left she closed the door to speak privately.

"Before I take off to finish my royal duties, I have one question." Felicity raised her brow at the princess curiously.

"What kind of question?"

"Well, you've stated that those like your brother feed on living flesh before and just moments ago you mentioned how he has not eaten for a time." Felicity caught on quickly, realizing the issue. Since they first arrived they had been practically mauled by ponies wanting to know about their world and they'd managed to learn a bit about Equestria in the process. One of the biggest things she had taken note on was that most species here are sentient and do not use livestock as a lot of them don't eat meat. Especially in this particular part of the country.

"Oh my god, I completely blanked on this!" She started to silently panic. "If he doesn't eat then he'll start getting aggressive and it'll only get worse and worse until he finally satisfies his cravings." Felicity sunk to the ground, fearing the worst for her brother. Luna's heart became heavy upon seeing this, she had to do something, anything to help.

"I may have an idea..."

It took no more than fifteen minutes for the carriage to land just outside of the Everfree forest. Luna, Felicity, and Ronnie stepped off and looked out into the deep dark forest.

"Um, Princess? Why are we here?" Felicity asked. From what she had heard this place was very dangerous and she be avoided at all costs.

"It is a place full of creatures like him."

"Like him?"

"Predators. There are many beasts that wander here; most are mindless, attacking anything that moves just to satisfy their own needs. Such is the way of the animal kingdom. It's eat or be eaten, a perfect place for a creature such as your brother."

"I guess that makes sense." She took a minute to absorb all of the information she just heard, despite already responding. "So, what now?" Luna looked to Ronnie, then to Felicity.

"Now, your brother goes in and hunts." Felicity looked up at Ronnie and he looked down at her, flashing her a quick smile before walking into the wooded area. Felicity stood completely still as he disappeared into the brush.

"Please be careful..." She said to herself. As Ronnie continued to walk he listened carefully to the sounds around him, trying to detect any living thing near him. He sniffed the air, the smell of tree rot and morning dew lingered all around. He sniffed again, there was something near, something living. The sound of growling came from behind him; if he were still alive his heart would have skipped a beat when he turned to face a large creature with a lion's body, large bat wings, and the tail of a scorpion.

"M-mman-ticore..." He said to himself. His time of studying mythical creatures in his world would not go to waste! He knew that taking this creature on would be a bad idea, but he could tell by its stance that it was looking for a fight. The manticore started walking, marching circles around him. Ronnie soon repeated, accepting the challenge. He could have sworn the manticore smiled at him just before lunging at him. Ronnie quickly dodged the attack and leaped onto its back, grabbing onto its wings to hold himself in place. The beast attempted to strike him with its claws, but to no avail. It then stood up on its hind legs and started falling backwards. Ronnie leaped off of its back and let it collapse to the ground. The fall knocked the wind out of the manticore, giving Ronnie the opportunity to strike. He grabbed one of its arms and focused all of his strength into pulling the arm so it was completely straightened out before kicking the joint. A loud crack echoed through the forest as the bone snapped from the intense impact, leaving the manticore's arm bent in the opposite direction. Followed by the sound of breaking bone was a pain filled but mighty roar. He was about to attack again when he noticed an over grown scorpion tail rapidly entering his vision and sending him flying into a tree. The beast rolled over and stood up, staring at its now broken limb before shooting an angry glare at Ronnie, or at least where Ronnie was. When it looked to the spot where it had sent him flying all it could find were splinters from the tree where his body had crashed. It started frantically turning its head in every direction, but found no sign of its target. Immediately if felt something slam into the back of its head.

As Ronnie stalked his prey from the tree he quietly pulled out a small hatched he had tucked in his boot. He shifted around on the branches until he was directly above the abomination and dropped, landing and its head and driving the blade of his hatchet into its skull shortly after. Another roar was unleashed, louder than the last as the maticore shook around in pain, causing Ronnie to topple over and fall to the ground. He quickly got back to his feet and backed away from the raging monster. It spotted Ronnie standing not ten feet from it and attempted to to run at him, but stumbled with every step it took until its body started to shut down, making it fall over. It could do nothing but lay there and watch as the one who had clearly beaten it approached. Ronnie stared down at the manticore with his lifeless eyes, ignoring its gaze and pulling the hatchet out of its head. He tucked the hatchet back into his boot and knelled down beside the creature. It continued to just look up at him, clearly in an unbearable amount of pain.

"Y-you fought well, m-my fr-friend. But it's t-time for you to g-go." Ronnie stood up and walked over to the manticore's side, flipping it over to reveal its underside before slicing its chest open with his fingernails. He peeled the beasts thick flesh out of his way and slammed his fist into its rib cage, breaking straight through the bone and allowing him access to the heart. Once he had it in his grip he squeezed it until he felt it pop in his palm. Looking up he could see the lifeless expression on the manticore's face, letting him know that he had truly won. Now, it was time for him to do what he came here to do. He felt around the inside of his kill's corpse, pulling out several different organs and stuffing them straight into his mouth.

Felicity was waiting impatiently for her brother to come back, he had been gone for almost two hours and she was starting to get worried. She looked over at Luna with a nervous expression still glued to her face.

"Do you think he's okay?" She asked, hoping to get a comforting answer. Luna didn't want to give a definite answer as she knew very well just how unpredictable life can be.

"You're brother is very unique in his body, mind, and spirit. The longer I am near him the more I can feel what his eyes are telling me and what they've told me so far is that he is a fighter. He is strong in both body and mind in ways that should not be possible and he has the spirit of a powerful predator, an apex predator. He will do what ever it takes to survive...so that he may continue to protect you." Felicity looked back to the forest and she could feel in her heart that he was in there and that he was okay. Not five minutes later a blood soaked infected human slowly mad his way out of the forest with a large number of filled plastic bags in one of his arms. Felicity put on a bright smile and ran over to Ronnie, hugging him tightly and making him drop some of his bagged goods. Luna, despite being disgusted with the sight, was glad he came out alright and unharmed. If it wasn't for the bagged flesh and blood covering the both of them, this reunion would probably have been much cuter. She put on a light smile as she watched their embrace. When they were done Felicity picked up the fallen bags and made her way back to the carriage with her brother.

"Are we all set to go?" Luna asked. The two nodded and they started their expedition back to the castle to clean up and get some rest.