• Published 21st Jul 2016
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Natura Semper Liberi - EverfreePony



A Guide to the Nature of Everfree. Collected works of a pony trying to bring a ray of light to the darkness of myths surrounding the local fauna and flora.

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Of Parasprites and--Not Just--Their Peculiar Liking for Rhythmic Sounds

Maybe you heard about the parasprite infestation in Ponyville and Fillydelphia some time ago. If you did, don’t expect me to go into detail on how to get rid of these. I have no idea, and to be honest, I don’t really care as ponies brought it upon themselves. Parasprites shouldn't be swarming like that under natural conditions. Of course, a sudden excess of food in the absence of predators or parasites will lead to such massive overabundance of any creature. Not to mention that magically tampering with the ‘pest’ might only worsen the situation. Anyway, normal ponies apparently don’t have to deal with that as whenever they mess up, they just quickly dispose of the mutated creatures in the Everfree. ‘Cause nothing can go wrong here, right?

Parasprites

Parasprites are not the most typical representatives of Everfree fauna as they mostly occur in rocky areas and drier marshlands. Because of this, they’re far more common on western rock farms and some parts of Zebrica, where they caused quite a few large famines in the past when the zebras failed to handle them properly.

Parasprites are actually symbionts of cragadiles or many other creatures such as hydras when cragadiles are absent. Parasprites are the only one with a sufficiently long tongue--or sufficiently shaped hypopharynx, if you prefer more arthropod-oriented terminology--and also the only known creatures willing to lick their hosts' teeth clean of any leftovers.

Their big eyes and slow fluttering moves serve as the signal for the host to open its maw for cleaning. The parasprite is then allowed to fly in and feast. However, cragadiles might sometimes shut their mouth quickly upon spotting potential prey or danger, and their jaws effectively squish or pierce their little helpers.

Parasprites are unable to react fast enough to escape, and their exoskeleton isn't durable enough to survive the pressure, though it still protects them from getting killed immediately. That’s why they have evolved a different tactic of somewhat surviving these little accidents--they simply split in two and create a clone of themselves. Or, better said, they spit out their clone and fling it to safety. I must admit, these creatures have probably the fastest asexual reproduction among multicellular organisms. Their metabolism has to be extremely fast for this to work, which probably leads to the small and scattered parasprite populations under normal conditions.

This form of reproduction can be triggered by any of these three factors:

  • the parasprite recently ingested something
  • the pressure against its exoskeleton increased
  • the ambient light dimmed suddenly

When a parasprite gets trapped in a cragadile’s maw, at least one of these factors is surely present too. If more of them add up, the reaction is even faster and the parasprite spits out its clone. Two possible scenarios might follow.

First: The parasprite was facing out of the cragadile's mouth. The clone is propelled outdoors, forming immediately and happily flying away.

Second: The parasprite was facing the inside of a cragadile's mouth. This one works only if a sufficient number of parasprites suffered the same fate. They all begin spitting out their clones, with the clones doing the same due to the conditions inside. The cragadile’s buccal cavity will fill with parasprites till the cragadile opens its mouth or till their bodies crack open its mouth, allowing a few individuals to slip out.

Clones may have different exoskeleton colour than the parent creature, the underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon remain unclear, though it is possible that it is caused by a combination of genetic and exogenous factors such as temperature or moisture during their spawn.

Parasprites reproduce sexually on rare occasions during extreme lack of food or any other generally stressful conditions. They swarm together and the mating begins. They tuck themselves tighter and tighter into the center of the swarm, in the end creating a tight ball on the ground. This stage lasts for a few hours. Immediately after the mating ends and the males die, the females dart off in search of a smaller hole in the ground in which they lay a single egg and cover it up with a stone. The females then die too.

The newly-hatched parasprite is able to muster enough strength to move the stone away. They then climb onto the stone and wait till their wings straighten and dry before they can fly away.

Given the limited amount of energy that can be stored within their bodies, it would be a suicide for them to fly around, randomly looking for some being in need of their dental care. And staying close to the cragadiles in the swamp? Given the parasprites’ slow moves and the amount of frogs living here... they'd have soon become extinct.

No, parasprites learned to react to sounds emitted by their hosts, the very same signals timberwolves deem a warning. Cragadiles commonly communicate by a complex system of jaw clapping and teeth screeching together with air whizzing between them. The rhythmic nature of these sounds draws the parasprites' attention and makes them follow it in some sort of trance. Surprisingly, they usually survive this trip, and, once close enough, they propose their services to the cragadiles as described above.

Furthermore, they react similarly to rhythmic sounds resembling cragadile communication, be it a specific combination of natural sounds (e.g. a creaking broken branch and a drumming of a woodpecker) or an orchestra's performance.

Author's Note:

Any questions or thoughts on how does this phenomenon work? I'll be more than happy if you elaborate in the comments below!
Please report typos in the form of PM.