‘so, i’m dead, honestly? It could be worse’ you thought to yourself as you floated in an endless grey void, death had claimed you at the ripe old age of 174, quite the achievement for an average man like you, an uneventful affair too; gone to sleep one night after a long day of lplaying VR Starcraft and teaching those gate-spamming Protoss mains not to mess with a true Zerg main, and then waking up in this god damned void!

Ah, VR Starcraft, truly one of Blizzard’s magnum opus, a massive multiplayer warfare simulation role playing game set in an alternate, non-canon timeline where Zagara was forced to flee after the destruction of Amon, being chased by rogue elements from both Terran and Protoss, igniting yet another, far greater and bloodier war that stretched across the entire galaxy, the game itself was a piece of art, witnessing the true scale of the units, being able to issue orders verbally, that units like queens and brood mothers could actually learn from you and help you coordinate your legions, or being an ‘heroic unit’ and diving headfirst into the enemy lines to slaughter them by the thousands on your own, truly, a work of art.

‘ah, I’m spacing out again’ you shook your head, sighing and looking at your hands, just like with the rest of you, had gone back in time, to your 25 years’ self, ‘well, at least I won’t spend the rest of eternity as a prune on legs’

“Greetings, human.”

“what the-?!” whirling around, you found yourself face to face with what could only be described as a human shaped piece of outer space, once you managed to get your panic down to acceptable levels, you spoke “w-what are you?”

The being tilted it’s head. Seemingly considering your question.

“Your kind know us as Random Omnipotent Beings, or ROB for short.”

“oh, oh! ohhh… so... I’m about to get isekai’d to another world as something more or less game-changing for them?”

“Indeed, and before you ask, I already decided what you will be.”

“can I ask what will be my new form? And where I am going?”

“You will be a Zerg organism, and you will be sent to an iteration of the universe known as my little pony.”

“…Fuck!”

“As an apologize for the inconveniences, a boon shall be granted to aid you in your new life.”

As soon as it finished speaking, a short floating screen with a list appeared before you, in it, there were quite a few very interesting things

(choose three)

[] Production Strains: you will be given the genetic blueprints for two new organisms capable of converting any type of energy into minerals and vespene gas

[] Dimensional Rift: every now and then, ruptures in the dimensional barriers will occur, letting dangerous creatures through, these creatures will be deadly and varied, with many useful traits for the swarm

[] Game Logic, son: your swarm will have the potential of reaching the production speed of the game, and surpassing it

[] Essence Spinner: you will be able to see and interact with essence the same way Abathur does

[] Dimensional Trap: once your swarm reaches a certain size, it will emit a signal similar to a displaced’s S.O.S. luring the more careless of their ilk to the awaiting maws of your swarm

[] Mutualistic Creep: the creep will automatically bond and form mutualistic symbiosis with the local flora, allowing it to produce more energy and biomass without any extra effort

It took you a while to decide, all of the options would be useful after all, but at least you made up your mind, hopefully it wouldn’t bite you in the ass later on, once your choices were made, the screen vanished and the ROB nodded.

“Very well, the upgrades will be applied once you make it to the planet, one more thing before sending you on your way, keep an eye out for these.”

The ROB extended a hand, a tridimensional rendition of the zerg emblem made out of crystal manifesting in it’s palm

“These are tokens, creatures with particularly potent essence will drop them upon death, collect as many as you can and bring them to a Hive, I think you will like what will happen then.”

Rising an eyebrow, you looked at the token, committing it to memory “not going to tell me what it does?”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, as it would be considered spoilers, and it’s time for you to go, good luck, human.”

You felt your body start to fade, it was a strange sensation, and more than a little scary ‘oh god this is going to give me nightmares’ you thought, shivering in place as you lost consciousness little by little, eventually darkness took you, and you knew no more.

By the time you woke up, you found yourself in a vastly different place, looking around, you realized you were in:

[] A desert, vast and sandy and hot (the desert west of appleloosa)

[] A Wasteland, lifeless as far as you could see (badlands)

[] A thick and dark forest, you sensed plenty of dangers, and plenty of opportunities (everfree forest)

[] A Pony made tunnel, there was foul smelling water on the flour, you were on a stone sidewalk, near the water (sewers of canterlot)

‘well then, plan, first thing first, what the hell am I now?’ twisting your body, you found yourself to be a zerg larva, long, spiky, and with tentacles coming out of your mouth and ass, all in all, a not-so-tiny nightmare fuel snake-worm ‘okay, could be worse I suppose, now, I need a place to mutate and grow a proper brood’ with that objective in your mind, you began slithering/wiggling your way through your new home, looking for a place to set down roots.

All the while, completely unaware of the pair of compound, light blue eyes watching you from the shadows with curiosity and caution.

Queen Chrysalis, last surviving changeling queen, watched mournfully as her hive suffered in the blighted wastelands her kind had been forced into, every day was a struggle just to survive, her children fought tooth and hoof with the many deadly beasts that would love nothing more than to uproot her hive and devour everyling down to the last egg.

Right now, her drones were slowly removing the rubble resulting from one such attack, the creature, a strange worm-like monster covered in overlapping plates as hard to pierce as steel, had taken them by surprise, tunneling straight through one of the nursery rooms, and rampaging for ten long minutes before she had managed to finally put it down, the attack had cost the life of thirty-seven grubs, seventy eggs, and forty-three drones.

With a dejected sigh, the changeling queen slowly made her way through the tunnels to her throne chamber, and just as she was about to enter, she felt the mind of one of her infiltrators ping her through the hive mind.

‘what is it, child?’

‘my queen, you may want to see this’

The infiltrator’s memory flashed before her eyes, and through it she saw as a wound in the fabric of reality was torn open, briefly illuminating the surroundings, and depositing a single, strange, and quite honestly intimidating looking creature, it appeared to be some sort of worm, covered in segmented plates of rough looking chitin, tentacles on both ends, and a pair of bladed pincer-like mandibles on the head, the thing appeared to be unconscious, but after a second it began stirring, soon it rose a part of it’s body, as if examining itself, then it’s surroundings, and finally, it flopped back to the ground with a slight splat and slithered off.

There was something about the strange creature, something deeply unsettling, yet, familiar, what it was, Chrysalis frowned, couldn’t quite tell what was so familiar about it, but something in the back of her mind kept niggling at her, her gut told her it may be a good idea to keep an eye on the creature, and her gut never failed her before.

‘follow it, keep out of sight and try to determine if it will be a threat to our plans’

‘at once, my queen!’

Author's Note

hello and welcome to this quest, i hope you enjoyed the first chapter, to vote just place a comment with the selected option and it's 'box' checked, example:

[X] Dimensional Trap: once your swarm reaches a certain size, it will emit a signal similar to a displaced’s S.O.S. luring the more careless of their ilk to the awaiting maws of your swarm