//------------------------------// // Exotic Wildlife (2) // Story: Codex Equestria: Exotic Wildlife // by Red Qilin //------------------------------// Prism Racer "Wanna race? It lives for the thrill!" Prism Racers are flying reptiles that make their homes in the sky. These are a breathtaking sight, and quite fortunately for them, as they are a variety of emotivore that feed off the emotions of exhilaration and amazement. Prism Racers are among the fastest animals on Equus, being able to rival professional sports flyers in terms of speed, which has lead to an unusual relationship between them and sports Pegasi, Griffins, and other flyers. Prism Racers frequently flock near sporting events and other games to feed off of the ambient emotions they need to feed, and sometimes show off for the crowd themselves to amp it up. It is not an usual sight to see a Prism Racer 'join' a flying race by flying alongside the racers. Racers, in return, often take this as a challenge and race the Prism Racer as if it is another competitor. There are legends that the original Sonic Rainboom told in legend may have been performed by a pegasi during a race with one of these creatures. Prism Racers are generally of a friendly, if somewhat proud temperament, and their relationship with sapient beings is generally considered a symbiotic one. However, some poachers have killed them for their beautiful scales, but this practice is both frowned upon and extremely difficult, as Prism Racers are able to outrun most airships and far from defenseless. They also typically live in family groups of two-four, and are often observed racing one another. Prism Racers are gentle giants and will allow ponies to ride on their backs. It is not unheard of for Earth Ponies or Unicorns to be permitted to ride them, as the emotions the ride typically brings feeds the Prism Racer. Biology Prism Racers are reptiles and fly using two membranous wings. Their bodies are streamlined and built for high speed flight, with a pointed head. As they also live in the cloud layer, they lack legs of any kind, similar to snakes. They are normally a metallic silver color with glistening scales, but other colors are known. Infant Prism Racers have a wing spread of about two to five feet, but adults can range from younger ones with a wing spread of about 15-20 feet, and fully grown adults average of 50 feet. The largest Prism Racer on record had a wingspread of 120 feet. Their name comes from the prismatic appearance of their wing membranes, which catch the light and create a rainbow effect. This can lead to breath taking displays during the tricks they perform to gain their food. If threatened, the Prism Racer can take advantage of these beautiful wings to emit a blinding flash of rainbow colored light. This, along with their scales, make them quite the majestic sight. Prism Racers typically get all their nourishment from exhilaration and excitement energy, but can eat an omnivorous diet if needed. These creatures have a magical field similar to a Pegasus's, and as such can roost on clouds where they're most often found. They can also use this to do minor weather manipulation, normally to make their 'performances' more exciting or to defend themselves. Prism Racers are decently intelligent, enough to learn and perform complex tricks and recognize ponies they've raced or seen before, and may engage in a race with a particularly fun racer. Habitat Prism Racers live Equus' skies, typically in clouds. As a result, they are not an uncommon sight near pegasi and griffon cities where permanent clouds are common. They rarely land on the ground, but may come down if they're drawn by a particularly exciting event. They are common in the area where the Equestrian Games and other such events are held. Danger: Prism Racers are considered non-dangerous and even friendly. While there is some danger if one is reckless racing one, this has nothing to do with the Prism Racer and more to do with the racer. Prism Racers will defend themselves if threatened, but would prefer flight to fight and their actual damaging defensive abilities are a last resort. Overall, this species is a majestic and beautiful creature that has a popular following among sports enthusiasts and thrill seekers. Great Song Bird "Hope you enjoy singing, you'll probably be doing it for awhile." The Great Song Bird is a large, beautiful white bird resembling a mixture of a song bird and a swan. They are known for both their physical beauty as well as their breathtaking singing voice. However, that singing voice is also one of their most interesting ability due to a magical property it has. Namely, anyone hearing the Song Bird's voice will be compelled to spontaneously burst into song if trying to speak. How this works is unknown, but due to how spontaneous musical numbers generally work no one has difficulty keeping the beat or number, as the bird's music is the beat. This is naturally a divisive trait, as some enjoy it and the change of pace, some simply consider it frustrating and annoying. But what is known is that the Song Bird itself seems to enjoy this and get a kick out of it, being mischievous and playful by nature. There is one sure fire way to get rid of a Great Song Bird: challenge it to a singing contest and beat it in it. The species are extremely proud and will accept any challenge, but beating one is extremely difficult due to their abilities. If defeated, the Song Bird will politely leave. Another way to temporarily short circuit its spell is to end a line on a word with no rhyming words, such as orange. This 'reboots' the spell, but may also enrage the bird if done too often, and make it start the song with an off key and annoying beat purely to vent it's frustration. Despite this, there are communities who keep Great Song Birds as town animals due to enjoying their musical abilities or using them as tourist attractions. Some have even been able to train them to begin a song at certain times of day. Biology: Great Song Birds are about three feet tall and possess a large and majestic wing spread. Mating pairs may be seen, but normally they don't for flocks. A mother Great Song Bird can lay anywhere between two to five eggs and reproduction happens in the spring. Great Song Birds have incredibly advanced vocal cords, enabling them to mimic instruments and other sounds. Some specimens have even bee trained to mimic voices. They are also very intelligent, capable of coming up with new beats and songs on their own. Their magical song is not entirely understood, but seems to interfere with the part of the brain dealing with speech to make the target sing instead of speak. It's believed this ability developed as a means to distract predators, since even animals are effected (though in their case this causes wolves to howl when they try to growl and other such effects). They may also mimic certain animal's distinctive noises to trick predators into believing that animal is around, such as a dragon or Hydra roaring or an Aniwye's hissing. They may also do this to troll others for fun. The Great Song Birds are also capable of using these advanced vocal cords to produce unpleasant sounds in self defense. For example if faced with a wolf or other predator with heightened hearing, they're capable of producing a sound not unlike a dog whistle that's extremely painful to their hearing to the point of being debilitating. They can also force their targets to sing off tune if they're feeling particularly vindictive. Naturally, they can also hit extreme high notes, which can shatter glass. They only perform these abilities in the event they're actually being harmed, however, and generally stick to their more normal abilities. Great Song Birds are omnivores and feed off bugs, berries, and other things, like any bird. Habitat: Great Song Birds prefer high places or places with good acoustics to better suit their singing ability. They may also frequent places where music is frequently played, due to liking picking up new methods of singing to add to their arsenal. Danger: Great Song Birds are considered non-dangerous. At worst they may cause temporary hearing loss with their defensive sounds. They can be annoying, but are ultimately harmless. Accuser "It literally lives on your indignation and self-righteousness." The Accuser is an emotivorous life-form with a most unusual feeding habit and general behaviour, which along with a unique biology had led to some scientist to speculate that it may had been an artificial species, created in the distant past for the purpose of sowing discord within civilizations hostile to the creators'. Few things are known for certain, however, as its rarity meant little information concerning this life form is available until fairly recently Biology The Accuser is normally invisible, but in its visible state it appears a bloated, brain with tendrils, others report it resemble a ring of flesh and bone like a bat-wing with a fanged mouth at its center with black tendrils. They are believed to range in size from a Equestrian football to a fully water melon. It has a limited levitation ability, and can only float itself off a solid flat surface as high as he average mare or stallion. It has been observed to be an asexual organism, multiplying via budding or division, a process often only induced when large amounts of rage are available in its environment to facilitate reproduction. When it connects to a host, it'll make that pony become obsessed with past slights that have long since been resolved or forgotten, the host will see themselves totally blameless in these situations, accusing friends and family of any number of things, most of them amounting of making their lives miserable just because or some other reason. The host will see themselves as the victim of "so called" friends and continue to emotionally escalate things ad infinitum until they think and are fully convinced they are the absolute holders of the moral high ground, before moving onto the next slight. All the while, the Accuser feeds upon the excess negative emotion generated by the host for their own metabolic needs. Despite this, physically cutting the tentacles causes no ill effect to the host (who might still take a brief amount of time to accept their rage was not their own). And the Accuser will shrink away and flee at the first sign of being discovered, and if cornered will plea and beg for its life in the most debasing and mewling manner possible, possibly to invoke pity or disgust from the creatures threatening it to remove incentives for further actions as a defense mechanism. Their shriek of terror upon being found out is said to be like be a high pitched little filly crossed with nails on a chalkboard. Habitat It is not yet fully known where the preferred habitats of the Accusers are, although the Accusers had usually been observed to gravitate towards communities of sapients with high levels of tension and strife, not unlike other emotivorous creatures or entities that feed upon anger, hatred, conflict and other negative emotions, like Sirens and Windigoes. Danger Due to their general rarity, the Accuser is a low danger life-form, and often little more than a nuisance in the occasional infestation. A most recent case was an Accuser attaching itself to Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash, the Loyal Wonderbolt, who in Friendship Castle, spent half an hour rambling about the various "wrongs" her friends had done to her, until her friends, having moved past tears of shame to simply bored to tears, realized that something was wrong and severed the tentacle stimulated Rainbow Dash's irrational behavior. Said Accuser, upon Princess Twilight Sparkle's magic dispelling its invisibility, screeched in fear, and tried to flee through a wall, only to knock itself unconscious. It has been placed in a sound proof bubble since it's high-pitched screams of pleading and fear were said to be "making my ears bleed", according to Spike. Frazzits "I think we're all mixed up..." Frazzits are protoplasmic lifeforms with a very unusual effect on the world around them. Both this effect and the havoc they can cause if removed from their natural habitat has resulted in very little information being directly obtained on them, at least until very recently. Thanks to reformation of Discord, however, more information has obtained on them. These creatures are known to be chaotic and mischievous by their very nature, to the point that if removed from their natural habitat they seem to gravitate towards orderly systems to mess with, similar to certain types of Gremlin. If found outside of their habitat, it is suggested they be contained in a specially warded container and returned. Biology Frazzits are colorful, raindrop shaped creatures, each only a few inches tall. Despite lacking limbs of any kind, they can bounce around with extreme agility and are quite difficult to catch without a plan as a result. They are covered completely with fur to the point skin can not be seen. True to their designation as protoplasmic creatures, their make up is rather similar to a highly evolved microorganism, though far more complex. Their most interesting trait, however, is they seem to naturally generate a powerful field of chaos magic around them at all times, a field that grows stronger with the amount of Frazzits present in a given area. This field is overall harmless in and of itself, but has a profound and interesting effect on any being that comes in contact with them. Any group of beings that find themselves in contact with a swarm of Frazzits will have their personalities scrambled. If it's an even number, they will be exchanged in pairs of two, but if it's an odd number, the personalities will be scrambled more randomly. This does not effect body, memory, or even cutie mark, only personality traits. This can be more troublesome than it sounds, as often ponies know how to deal with their own faults but do not know how to deal with the faults of others, as a result the new personalities may be considerably more exaggerated than they were in the original pony. This effect needs a proper counter spell to be performed or, preferably, the Frazzits to be contained in a specially warded prison that must then be turned upright, which will not only contain the Frazzit's and their power, but break the spell. Making them even more troublesome is the fact Frazzits multiply similar to Parasprites if effected directly by magic, making directly grabbing them in unicorn telekinesis impossible, and killing them is extremely difficult due to their chaos field. Certain charms and spells can also protect against their abilities. Frazzits also possess an instinctive ability to detect order in their surroundings and will be instinctively drawn towards orderly systems to scramble up with their chaos field. It is believed they feed off the resulting chaos to nourish themselves, which may explain why they only do this if outside of their natural habitat. Despite this, they are not solely pests. Some counselors have found ways of using them to give ponies 'a mile in each other's shoes' to great effect, but such things need to be done under very closely monitored circumstances and with the utmost care. Habitat Frazzits' natural habitat is in the Everfree Forest, where it is believed they feed off of ambient chaos magic and the natural chaos of it. Outside of it, they only dwell in captivity. Danger Frazzits are low to moderate danger, depending on the situation. If found in their natural habitat, they can be avoided and generally are much more passive. Outside, however, they tend to become quite the nuisance. While their chaos field's effect is not dangerous in and of itself, it could potentially put victims in a dangerous situation depending on the personalities involved in the scramble. All in all, Frazzits should be handled with the utmost care, and preferably kept under close watch if removed from their natural habitat. Glory Hound "Pride comes before the fall." Glory Hounds are average sized canines that are found in many places. While looking unassuming, these creatures are to be weary of, or at least avoided, at least in their wild state. Glory Hounds are Emotivores that specifically feed off the emotion of pride, and are quite capable of sensing good targets to feed on. They're wanderers that travel far and wide seeking prey and once they've found it they will feed until they're driven away or gotten their fill. The creatures have a cunning and sneaky temperament, being exceptionally intelligent creatures. Capable of deceit and cunning, they can sense what their chosen target is feeling and 'whisper' things in their head to convince them to give into their pride and get a swelled head. They do not care about their target's well being, only feeding, and may drive them to perform acts they will certainly regret later on if they listen to the creature's encouragement, so they can feed off of their pride and vanity. Some may attempt to become pets to feed off the host like a parasite. As such, several have been known to be drawn to Canterlot due to its unfortunately high number of prideful nobles who are easy prey for them. However, there are exceptions to this. There's been success in demonstrating the Glory Hounds such that they give words of encouragement and support to ponies rather than drive them into a prideful frenzy, and these have seen use as medical dogs and have been helpful with ponies with depression. It is mainly a matter of training the creature learn this makes it easier to get a constant stream of food than quick bursts and need to flee. Glory Hounds will flee if their host realizes their pride and humble themselves, as their food source will quickly cut out and leave them with no reason to remain. They may become aggressive if one tries to forcibly separate them from their host. Biology Glory Hounds resemble everyday hound dogs externally, and can be difficult to tell apart at first glance. They also possess telepathic abilities, which is both how they sense what to prey on in their hosts and 'whisper' in their ears. They also possess rather advanced minds for animals. A Glory Hound will grow more and more beautiful the more it feeds off the pride of its host until they're absolutely radiant and very attractive. However, this is ultimately a facade. Beneath their glamour, the true form of a Glory Hound is a large black dog with lion-like eyes and large, sharp teeth, as well as eagle wings and a peacock tail. This form is revealed in the event the creature's food supply is cut off or if it is exceptionally angered to the point of attacking. This form is commonly described as terrifying. This is even true of the true form of domesticated Glory Hounds, though their more friendly temperament can make them appear far less frightening. Glory Hounds are very physically strong, strength which increases or decreases depending on how well fed they are. A full power Glory Hound can overpower a full grown stallion, while a weakened one can easily be overpowered. Their wings allow for flight, though nowhere near as agilely as a Pegasus or Griffin. Like all canines, Glory Hounds have an acute sense of smell and hearing. this can be used against them as they're no less vulnerable to intense smells and sounds or dog whistles than an a normal canine. Another interesting weakness is a Glory Hound will shrink if humiliated, to the point of reverting to being a pup. An easy way to tell a normal dog from a Glory Hound is to in some way make a portion of its fur dirty. A glory hound will near compulsively clean itself and while doing so be too distracted to maintain its disguise and let it falter slightly. Most often, the illusion will fail around the eyes to reveal their true lion-like appearance. Habitat Glory Hounds are nomadic creatures that travel frequently unless they find a more permanent host. As they feed off of sapient beings, cities are not an uncommon place to find them, particularly ones with high numbers of nobles. Danger: Glory Hounds are a moderate danger. They can become dangerous if provoked, but their prime danger is what they can convince their host to do. Injuries due to recklessness brought on by the pride these creatures induce are a frequent outcome, as are the host straining relationships due to becoming more and more full of themselves. Domesticated ones, however, are considered low danger or friendly. If properly trained, they can even be a life savior to someone with depressed or suicidal thoughts. Kite Eating Tree "AAUGH! Stupid Kite Eating Tree!" --- Starlight Glimmer, after losing a kite to one. Kite Eating Trees are flora native to Equestria that are a bane to kite flyers everywhere. They appear to be simply common trees found anywhere in the world, but can be told apart by a mouth that forms in the leaves. They rarely act under normal circumstances, merely rooted firmly in place standing motionless. However, when a kite flies by, they instantly lash out, grabbing it and dragging it in where they chew it up and devour it. Sometimes they will even grab them right from a person's hand with their branches. Exactly how they obtain sustenance from kites is unknown, but it is known they are considered a nuisance by kite flyers, though do have a good use when it comes to disposing of broken or old kites in a way that is safe for the environment. It is believed they may also eat things like plastic bags and wayward papers caught in the breeze. It is believed they may have evolved in response to ponies developing certain technologies. Starlight Glimmer, Princess Twilight Sparkle's graduated student, has recently gotten into a bit of a 'feud' with one in Ponyville, being a kite lover herself. Biology: Kite Eating Trees don't drastically differ from other animated trees, being capable of moving their branches at will. The main difference is their branches can act like a mouth to chew up their prey. Somehow they're able to metabolize plastic, paper, and wood that typically compose kites and convert it into energy. It is believed this extends to other wayward materials made of these substances, but seem to only externally show themselves eating when eating kites. They do appear to have intelligence, and sometimes decide to target a specific person to mess with or actively reject pieces of kites they don't like. They reproduce by spreading seeds, just like any tree. Habitat: As they feed off of pony made materials, Kite Eating Trees primarily live in parks and in places ponies are likely to dwell. Danger: At the end of the day, Kite Eating Trees are more of a nuisance than a threat. They don't harm biological creatures and even let animals nest inside of them. To kite flyers they are extremely annoying and robbed them of many, many kites, but there's no documented cases of them actually harming a pony or other creatures. The closest to such an incidence had been recently, when in an attempt to impress Starlight Glimmer, the show-mare, gifted unicorn, and hero of Equestria, Trixie Lulamoon, the 'Great and Powerful' mounted herself on a custom made neighponese Shinobi kite... which the local kite eating tree prompt proceeded to devour. After several seconds of screaming of terror and cries for help (mixed with crunching and slurping sounds by the tree), Trixie was spat out by the Kite eating tree that apparently found her unpalatable. Trixie was relatively unharmed with several bruises and pulled mane and tail, but miraculously no broken bones or puncture wounds. Trixie, hopefully merely temporarily traumatized by the incident, was insulted when it was explained to her that the kite eating tree found her 'bad-tasting'. However, the Kite Eating Trees do have uses in disposing of materials in a green way that otherwise would simply go to a landfill. Making them annoying, but somewhat useful. Despite all the set-backs and interference in the design and construction process, Fluttershy is thrilled to see her Ponyville Animal Sanctuary established. Together with her friends, she had taken the time to tour the place and bask in her achievement. But even as they enjoy the company of the many animals that now made the sanctuary their home, one question remained unanswered. “Fluttershy, I’m surprised that you actually have enough money left to rebuild the whole sanctuary from scratch.” Twilight noted with a hint of confusion, “You only taken one loan from the Royal Bank, and we only gave so much besides helping you to build it. How did you find the bits to pull it off?” “Well… I may had forgotten to mention that you weren’t the only ones who provided the funding.” Fluttershy admitted with a blush, “I wrote to a lot of people I know, and many of them were more than happy to provide generous donations to making this possible.” They arrived at a board at one corner of the sanctuary, listing out all the people who had donated money to the Ponyville Animal Sanctuary project. Amidst the section reserved for donating the most bits, one name stood out, “This one… he was that deer philanthropist you met at the opening of the White Tails Woods Sanctuary, right?” Fluttershy nodded. “Yes. We met a few times after that, and we talked about so many things. Despite our differences in things concerning animals, we actually got along very well. He alone provided over half a million bits! I have got to remember to write a letter and thank him for his kindness… = = = “You’re very welcomed, lady Fluttershy.” Chuckling softly, the now undisguised royal changeling resealed the letter from Fluttershy and placed it among other files in the secured storage where he hid all his terrible secrets. Brachion, a son of Emperor Blackthorn, a Changeling King of the Summer Court, the unquestioned ruler of Hive Erlking, and once but nevermore a prince of the Alveslog Forest Deer, couldn’t help but find this mare remarkable, despite her flaws and imperfections. Any other time, he would had held her in contempt for her apparent weaknesses, but the shy and introvert mortal had, in the few meetings he has with her, impressed him with her steadfast views on nature and life. He had embraced the darkness of nature as the law of the world, and adapted to it; but this pegasi, even though she accepts the state of nature, had not only refused to break like most would had in the face of such horror, she had all but implicitly implied that she was readily determined rise above and ‘change’ it for the better, in any way she can, no matter what it takes. Building her own animal sanctuary near Ponyville is but a beginning of her dream. Well, let her try; he sincerely wishes her luck in bringing about that impossible ideal, despite personally finding it disagreeable himself. She shined with an inner fire that he was surprised to find in her heart when it comes to what she cared about – and she cared so much, without reservation for all living things. That, he supposed, is why that ‘Tree of Harmony’ had chosen her to be a wielder of its power. Was she right, perhaps, in declaring that true strength to face this cruel and unforgiving world doesn’t always come from being the most ruthless, vicious and cunning creature, standing on top of the food chain as the alpha predator? No matter. He, like the rest of his family, are immortal – he will have all the time in the world to figure it out. Now, though, there are more important business at hoof. He went to his personal lab, deep inside the inner sanctums of his hive fortress, and found his latest test subject strapped to the operating table. “You had been a very naughty changeling, haven’t you?” He began, his voice dripping with cruel mockery, “Trying to frame your ruler for a terrible crime to undermine his authority? He delivered you and the rest of your hive from the Curse that afflicts all changelings, and this is how you repay him? Truly, you ungrateful little parasite are unworthy of the strength and purity He granted you.” If the purified Changeling had anything to say, he couldn’t say it – one of the first things Brachion’s subjects did during preparations had been sewing his maw shut. Not that he had much to say about his attempted atrocity; he had secretly remained loyal to the usurped Chrysalis, even after Thorax’s ascension had purified him and his fellows. The secret Chrysalis-loyalist had smugly and deviously hope he could strike a blow for his Queen and earn her favour by framing the ‘usurper’ Thorax, with a diabolical plan that involve murdering unpurified changeling nymphs while in the guise of Thorax. And he almost pulled it off too, in spite of the changelings from those other Spring Court hives helping Thorax running security; what he did not expect was getting caught and secreted away by hidden agents that the Summer Court had placed among the purified populace, specifically to hunt down hidden loyalists like him. Now, his arrogant self had been reduced to a terrified wreck, trembling in his restraints, both at the prospect of his coming punishment and being in the presence of a being – one of many, too – that he and his fellows in the hive had thought to be little more than myth. “Regardless, you failed, and between that and your blind devotion to that failure of a Queen, you had only shown yourself a weakling and a traitor, worthy of the Winter Court – and in the interest of the Courts to ensure the Sanctified One and his hive prospers, weaknesses like you will be excised, as they should be.” Brachion lifted a surgical knife, used for vivisections, that gleamed in the light of the surgical lamps hanging above, “But at least, in death, you shall be of some worth: my father and I are interested in how the Curse can be purified, and we thank you for volunteering yourself to facilitate that interest.” He turned to his subject, and a chilling, merciless smile forming on his face in almost giddy anticipation, “Now, let’s see what you are made of…”