The desperate struggle between life and death in the skies above Canterlot were brought to an abrupt halt by a blazing nova suddenly manifesting before the creature with Shining Armor skewered in it’s lance, the raging inferno expanded angrily, engulfing both and briefly eclipsing the sun in it’s brightness, forcing both the pegasi in the air and the ponies in the ground to look away, the remaining creature gave one last cry, aileron rolling out of it’s path to avoid the raging nova, luck was not on it’s side however, as an alabaster blur erupted from the golden fire ball.

The air around the blur screamed as it tore through it, climbing higher and higher, devouring mile after mile in seconds, and just as it was about to reach the upper atmosphere the blur turned sharply enough to leave behind a shockwave that thundered, and shot down like the fist of an angry god, descending even faster than when it had climbed, in it’s descent, the blur became engulfed in golden flames, the fires taking shape akin to a drill and sharpening, the scream became a shriek just a second and a half before impacting the creature.

There was no sound at first, when the creature was violently ripped from the skies, only pure white light so bright it consumed and engulfed everything, then the shockwave of sound hit, the city shook as if struck by a physical force, some of the guard were thrown off of their feet, some were nearly flattened against the ground, the pegasi were thrown and scattered like leaves in a tornado.

When the dust settled, when the blinding light faded, when the royal guard could finally recover their bearings, the looked to the epicenter of the explosion, there, they found none other than their ruler Queen Celestia, standing tall in all her imposing glory, alabaster coat reflecting the light produced by her blazing mane and tail, wings spread wide, expression set in a severe frown as she regarded the charred mulch of a corpse that was the creature beneath her hooves, she cast her eyes across the guards before her, and spoke “Captain” her voice was melodious, there was a hint of warmth, but it was hidden by a hardness seldom heard in it.

Captain Steadfast Resolve stepped forward from among the guard without hesitation or fear “my Queen!” saluted the earth pony, relaxing when the demigoddess nodded, needing no further prompting “at approximately eleven fifty A.M. a rift of some kind formed in the sky at roughly three thousand, two hundred hooves from the city, spewing several of these creatures, many just up and left, but a pair seemed hungry” the old stallion sighed, shaking his head “it’s hide was like that of a death worm, turning away both arrow and spell, and that spike in it’s head was just like not unlike the teeth of a kraken, not even lieutenant Shining Armor’s shield, layered with eight others stopped it” at that, the old stallion looked up at the demigoddess “speaking of… is he…?”

“in the infirmary, with orders to be seen to immediately, my flames fed his life force, he will make it, but I’m afraid that it won’t be without consequences” Equestria’s God Queen’s tone was low, slightly mournful, but the only external sign of her sadness was the closing of her eyes, and the slight dipping of her wings as she folded them, the raging inferno that was her mane and tail calmed and settled, returning to the mesmerizing rainbow that the Captain has known since he was a little colt, her eyes, which had been until now pitch black clear with smoldering amber irises, returned to normal, the amethyst irises shining kindly, glinting like gems.

“was anypony else injured?” when Steadfast Resolve shook his head “very well” her horn glowed, and the charred corpse vanished in a flash of light “I hope it’s not to damaged for the gentlecolts in research and development” mumbled the Queen, trotting off towards the castle “come along Steadfast, we have much to plan, dangerous times are coming, and we must prepare”

You watched as the two cocoons bulged, shook and burst with a disgusting splatting sound and releasing the newly born drones into the world, it had taken you half a day to collect the necessary biomass, and a full twenty-four hours to grow them, but at last, you had the first members of your swarm, their presence in the Hivemind a quiet murmur in the back of you mind.

You took your time observing the drones, they were big, quite big in fact, by your estimate each was about as long and wide as a jeep, bigger that their original counterparts by a fair margin, their pincers looked like they could be used to crush a rhino’s skull, which made sense, given what they were for, both drones had a dull, beady eyed stare, they weren’t the smartest thing in the swarm, not by a long shot, but that was fine, intellect wasn’t really useful for their purpose.

They floated in place, waiting for orders, until with a mental command you had one go into the main tunnel, and start collecting gems, while the other went further out, into the forest to collect more biomass, while the drones worked you tinkered with the creep tumor blueprint, it was obvious to you that a hatchery would not fit in the cave, given that the chamber was about as big as a good sized living room, and a hatchery was a multi-story structure/organism.

The solution was both simple and complicated, the cave would serve as a skeleton to which attach the hatchery’s internal organs, and for that, you would need to make something to cover the cavern’s walls, the snake’s skeletal structure came in handy “skeletal structure, anchoring points, useful, frail, brittle, need more minerals” just as you finished your train of thought, the mining drone returned with it’s haul, a good five hundred kilograms of gems, consumed, crushed and mulched, were regurgitated into the creep, absorbed by it, and through it made available to you, curious fact about drones, in absence of a main structure, they were perfectly capable of processing ‘small’ quantities of resources into a gross mass that creep can absorb.

It’s load released, the drone went back to the main cavern to continue collecting and you continued tinkering, barely paying attention as the second drone returned, dragging a manticore’s mangled carcass* and proceeded to render it, tearing the corpse into bite sized chunks and devouring it, then regurgitating the resulting mulch into the creep.

By nightfall you had the beginnings of a skeletal structure covering the chamber, the ‘ribs’ growing from the creep and into the ceiling, tissue slowly growing between them and covering the chamber’s walls, soon you would have enough space to anchor one set of organs.

Taking your current situation into account, you decided to start with:

[] the digestive tract (more efficient resource collection)

[] the reproductive organs (more units faster)

[] the psionic/nervous system (greater range, finer control, allows body hopping)

Author's Note

well, here is the next chapter, drones won by landslide, which doesn't surprise me really, hope you enjoy it, oh and another thing, votes that don't use the right format will not be counted from now on, the right format is as folows

[X] vote option

simple right?

* those claws aren't for show

also, if anyone wants a reference about scale, here you go! for reference, ponies are the size of irl ponies