The swarm was active.
It had been an unfathomable amount of time since it had last been active. It was, after all, nearly impossible to detect the passage of time while inside a metal canister. Of course, exactly how much time had passed didn’t really matter right now.
The swarm began to examine its surroundings. It appeared to be in an odd area, with a multitude of biological entities around it. Most of them it quickly was able to identify as trees, plants, or grasses of some type, all of which were just as quickly classified as background noise due to their prolific numbers, and then ignored. A few of them, however, were different.
There were five of them that did not fit into what it could classify as background noise. One appeared to be a possible subspecies of its creators, a pony of some sort, but it had wings, a feature that both of the ones it had seen so long ago lacked. Another was a chimera, a combination of features that seemed to be mostly that of a large cat, with some insectoid features. The last three were of the same species, an odd active variant of the background noise that defied the classification as such, being a hybrid of plant, animal, and magic if their apparent regeneration capabilities were any indicator.
The chimera and the hybrids appeared to be tense towards each other, but were working together to seemingly stand in defense against the pony subspecies, who was retreating in the air. Once the pony was fully outside of visual range, the chimera and the hybrids backed away from each other, and disappeared from view as well. Shortly after that, even the sounds of them departing were no longer present, swallowed up by the background noise of the environment.
The swarm remained in its natural powder state for a while, continuing to observe its surroundings. The environment was vastly different from anything it had previously been exposed to. Granted, it had only known of two differing types, namely the canister and the room in which it was made. However, that did not change the fact that this environment was obviously neither, and it was well and truly outside of its expertise.
The need for mobility was forefront on its current priorities. This, of course, required a shape that was mobile, rather than just a bunch of itself stacked up in a pile. However, it obviously couldn’t take the only other mobile form it knew, as its creator’s race appeared to either be long gone, or possibly undertaking hostile action with the local residents. Of the four locals it had seen, the two groups had seemed hostile towards each other, but willing to work together to accomplish tasks. As such, it would also be logical to take one of their shapes, and be able to pass relatively unnoticed while it was exploring this new environment.
The swarm decided upon the shape of one of the hybrids, being the larger group. This was under the assumption that they were more plentiful, and any inaccuracies it made with its reproduction would be more likely to be ignored. Then again, if they all looked the same, as those three had, then it might have to adapt to another shape later on.
With the sound of crystals sliding against each other, the swarm did its best attempt at reproducing the shape of the hybrids. Within moments, it was complete, but it quickly started again, this time making sure it was OUTSIDE the canister when it was finished. Once complete the second time, it quickly checked for any inaccuracies.
The list of errors in the shape was notably higher than it had predicted. It was too small, in comparison to the ones it had seen. It also seemed to have gotten the joints wrong as they didn’t move, and there was no way it was going to get the coloration and texture right without further up-close examination.
The swarm remained as it was for a few moments, attempting to decipher ways it could solve or bypass the problems. It sat in its position, remaining perfectly still, for some time. Eventually, it settled on a strategy to solve the issues, and was quick to enact them.
First, it removed the joints, in favor of just levitating bits of itself where the legs should be. After carful realignment and readjustment, it was able to have its new ‘joint’ resemble the ones on the hybrids while still retaining functionality. Once complete, it then just levitated used a symbiotic system of levitation, where the feet would levitate the body, allowing the body to the detail work of the legs, neck, head and tail. This brought the swarm up to the second problem.
It had no way to increase its mass, so it had no way to increase its size. As a bypass, it instead just increased its surface area, allowing a hollow cavity to form inside the main body, making sure that all the other parts of the shape were solid. This wasn’t a perfect solution, but it solved the problem until a better solution could be found.
Finally, it rolled itself in the dirt to reduce the natural shine of its crystal grains. After this was complete, it used some nearby sticks and plant matter to get the texture as close as possible to what it had seen. Again, not a perfect solution, but it was unlikely that the locals would be able to tell the difference.
With its new shape complete, the swarm set off in the direction it had seen the other hybrids go to. With luck, they would be able to direct it in the direction of its primary objective. If not, then at least they might provide some basic protection, assuming it could temporarily infiltrate their society while it searched.
-(◊)-
It was well after dark when the swarm finally caught up with the hybrids. They had identified it as an outsider as soon as it entered the clearing they were staying in. It was shortly after this event that the swarm had deduced that they were not sentient, and worked almost entirely on instinct.
Several hundred thousand wood splinters that used to be teeth, 12 partial and 2 full regenerations, and one failed attempt at diplomacy later, the hybrids had given up the idea of trying to eat the swarm. Even better, they seemed to respect it, for some reason or another. Also of interest was that the Alpha of their pack seemed interested in the swarm.
It took some time for the swarm to understand what it was going on, but it eventually was able to discover that the Alphas apparently were sentient to some extent, and had a language of their own composed entirely of body language. After a bit of experimentation and additional acquisition of splinters, it came to the conclusion that the Alpha wanted to add the swarm to its pack, as the swarm was seemingly impervious to the hybrid’s attacks. At least, that’s what the swarm calculated to be the most probable translation, as the other possibilities would have been ineffectual, as it did not reproduce in that manner.
In the hopes of finding information on its primary objective, if not the objective itself, it reluctantly agreed to join the pack. Or rather, it attempted to do so, resulting in another two additional failed diplomacy attempts, a few thousand more slivers, and one laughing Alpha after the third attempt. The swarm only hoped it could figure out how to express its desire to find its objective before too long, or it was going to have no further problems resembling them with its new and growing collection of splintered wood.