//------------------------------// // IV - Awakened - Ponygood11 // Story: [Untitled.Uncertainty] // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// It hungered. It did not know of much else—the journey down from space and the extra-dimensional planes had jarred its senses and its memory somewhat. It had to thrash wildly, blindly, as it tried to remember. But it was unable to remember. Something had happened, or was happening, which continued to disorient it. Anger seeped out of its very being, and it lashed out in the only way it knew how. The surface of the meteorite cracked; dividing to reveal the inner gems. A formless, black sludge oozed out of it, pooling around the bottom of the space-rock. Parts of it began to seep into the ground around it, unitentionally, as it reoriented itself to its surroundings. It could sense the environment better now. The restrictive embrace of its shell was abandoned, allowing it to feel the world as it actually was. All the particles of slag, stone, and dirt beneath it could be felt, and the minor wind currents carried various particulates into the sludge. It could remember once more. It remembered the separation it had felt so recently—the fracturing of what it once was into what it was now. It remembered a faint echo of its former self, which willingly segregated itself to attack three separate locations simultaneously. It recalled the more concrete feeling of wholeness that was broken as its shell split apart, scattered across this miserable ball of material. Beyond all else, however, it had the desire to feed, to consume, and to grow - which it knew it shouldn’t have had, but hadn’t the mental capacity to question. It moved, sluggishly, out of its nest. It left behind a trail of bubbling ooze that churned and boiled as the material of the earth was slowly consumed and converted into more sludge. It lacked the capabilities present in its counterparts, but it would soon make up for them in size and strength. It extended upwards, breaking down the raw material of its shell for personal use. It spread down, anchoring itself as a permanent fixture of the world. It spread outwards, expanding its area of influence slowly but steadily. It felt vibrations against its surface. Deliberate, structured vibrations coming from some point around it. It could not see what was happening, so it could only guess the nature of these vibrations. Or it could adapt. Grow stronger. Survive, thrive, and dominate those weaker than it. Its growth slowed considerably as it tried think, to determine what it could do. The vibrations were coming from above it, so it had to reach higher, didn’t it? That train of thought ran successfully, and its growth slowed almost to a halt as it pooled its material for one purpose. A spiky tendril of sludge extended upwards, shooting straight up at a respectable pace, albeit wobbling awkwardly. The vibrations grew more intense for a moment, and shifted elsewhere, making its upwards-shooting piece of itself useless for the moment. In response, it tried to curve itself toward the source of the vibrations, which succeeded only in making the vibrations move again, now not anywhere above its combined mass. Its tendril continued to extend in the new direction, now having to fight the force that pulled it to the ground. More of the sludge was sent into the tendril, attempting to reinforce it, but the damage had already been done—the tendril fell to the ground limply, breaking apart against the sudden contact with the earth. The vibrations left soon after. The sludge thing quickly forgot about them, now realizing that it had all this space to continue expanding. And so it did, not remembering the brief encounter it had with the source of the vibrations. ~~~ “Should we tell someone about this?” Two griffons were soaring lazily through the air, great desert plains passing beneath them. The sun was setting right about now, casting long shadows from behind the buildings dotting the landscape. “Psh. Naw, let it be,” the other griffon said, a confident, snarky air around her. “It’s not harming anyone!” “Are you sure?” The first one asked. “It tried to grab us!” “Dude, did you see how slow that blobby was? It couldn’t grab a tail feather blowin’ right to it!” Her friend was obviously not impressed by her reassurances, but she reluctantly accepted them anyway. “Okay… if you’re sure.” “Hey, come on. Trust me, we’re better than a pair of sitting ducks, aren’t we?” They flew in silence for a little while, before the second griffon grinned at the first and broke the silence with, “hey, I’ll race ya home!” The first griffon’s demeanor changed instantly, and she matched her friend’s grin with a cocky grin of her own. “You’re on!” They shot off into the distance, leaving the so-called ‘blobby’ behind, not noticing the equine figure beneath them as they neared their settlement. ~~~ A stallion galloped through the wilderness with reckless abandon, heading in the direction of the meteorite. A few griffons noticed him and his concealed nature, but they didn’t try to stop him. He ignored the thistles and brambles everywhere, ignoring the slight scratches he got as he brushed past some sharp bushes. He reached the site of the meteorite unmolested by griffon pursuers, skidding to a halt outside its range. He fumbled for the blue gem around his neck, unclasping it hastily and muttering incomprehensibly to himself as he did so. He wrapped its chain around one of his hooves, holding it out to the thick, black mass in front of him. “Uh… b-b-begone, evil! Crap, why isn’t this working?” The black mass responded to him. Violently. It recognized the feeling of the amulet even without seeing, and it hated it immediately. It rushed as quickly as it could towards him, limiting its spreading in only one direction: right for him. “Aaagh! What was the activation word for this again? Fight! Defend! Tacos! Hello!?” The black mass was forced to adapt far quicker than it was comfortable with. But this was acceptable; it would not let itself kneel to these flimsy attempts at its removal. It pooled its mass once more, raising two thicker tendrils at once. The stallion continued to fruitlessly activate the amulet as the tendrils bent into each other, forming an arch of dripping black material. It flopped onto the ground even with its thickness and started stretching itself away from the stallion. At this point, he pretty much gave up trying to do something with the amulet and turned away from the sludge, shouting, “I don’t wanna die!” He was nearly too late in that regard. The tendrils finished pulling themselves back and relinquished its grip on the main mass of material. The tendrils snapped back to a comfortable length, and the central part of them disconnected violently from the rest, launching itself in the direction of the stallion’s frantic retreat. It missed him by several feet, although it caused him to flinch dramatically, and he tumbled through several bushes. His cloak was torn in several places, revealing a light blue coat beneath the black of the cloak, and the amulet around his hoof was torn away from him. It was successful in making the amulet’s wielder retreat, although it was unsure if its attack was successful. It could still feel the essence of the amulet nearby, which meant it was either lost or being stupidly ‘hidden’. Either plan worked for the entity, and it refocused its spread to go in every direction. ~~~ Soul. Body. Mind. Space. Time. Dimension. Separation. Consumation. Reunion.