The following days passed in relative peace, you continued to build the hatchery’s organs while the changelings moved into the cavern network, they looked wary of your zerglings at first, not that you blamed them, your zerglings were about half again the size of a changeling drone, and guard was just barely at eye level with them, the only ones with a clear size advantage were the princess, and the Queen herself.

Speaking of the Queen, she had been the last one to come, having stayed at the badlands’ hive to make sure every single one of her changelings had been safely moved to the caverns, the whole moving process had taken roughly three weeks, in that time you managed to make sixteen more zerglings, four new creep tumors and ten more drones, which you tasked with digging another chamber, it would be connected to the hatchery, and it would serve as base for the evolution pit, the second most vital zerg structure.

Of course, now that your new allies were properly settled into their new home, it was time for you to uphold your part of the deal, slithering across the creep carpet that was extending through the tunnels, stopping just at the entrance of the new changeling hive, as has become habit to you, four zerglings stopped behind you ready for anything, but otherwise acting very placid, you didn’t have to wait too much, a couple of minutes later, the regal, tall, slender form of Chrisalys emerged from the shadows, followed by an escort of seven guards.

“is it time then?” she asked, looking at you in the eyes.

You nodded “biomass and essence required for evolution acquired, voluntaries required”

Nodding, the Queen looked at one of her guards “Dart here has offered to be the first to test your modifications” the guard in question was a female, fairly large for a guard, being just a little bit taller than your zerglings, like the rest of her kin, the changelin’s chitin was dull black, sporting cracks and fractures here and there, her face remained a neutral mask, and her posture was tense, ready to pounce at the slightest hint of trouble.

Nodding, you looked at the guard, making sure she was staring back, then you turned around and began slithering to your, the zerglings following after you without need for ordering them, a new development that you had yet to look into, and unfortunately, something you will have to leave for a later date, seeing how you’ll be busy for the day.

You didn’t have to turn around to see if the guard was following you, the telltale squishing of hooves on creep was all the confirmation you needed at the moment, soon you and your test subject arrived at the hatchery, the zerglings dispersed back to the tunnels, leaving you and your voluntary alone, turning around to regard her, you spoke.

“process slow, painful, but safe” she stared back, repression resolute.

“I am aware evolution master, do as you must, if it is to help the hive and my Queen, then I am willing to go through hel and back” nodding at her declaration, you gestured for her to step into what appeared to be a sort of half-finished cocoon, the guard stepped inside without hesitation, and you closed the cocoon and got to work.

First came the extra messy part, the cocoon was equipped with a set of harpoon tipped tendrils, that all shot off at the same time, breaking the chitin and burying themselves in the soft flesh below, injecting enzymes and zerg micro-organisms that would make working on a non zerg body a hell of a lot easier.

Without further ado, you once more seeped into ‘weaving mode’ as you have come to call the tinker fugue-like state you get into when spinning and set to work in upgrading and studying the changeling, the first thing you did was add an actual digestive system, then you improved it to a Zergtm digestive system that would allow them to feed on creep, that alone took you about half a fucking day! ‘oh, I’m going to be here for a looooong fucking while’

Your work continued for the following two and a half days, breaking the changeling down cell by cell, and building her back up again and again, stretching, twisting and crushing her form repeatedly, the equine body shape was as inefficient and inflexible as they come, but you lacked the essence to give them anything else, so it would have to do for now, next up were the eyes, you would keep them compound, the design was primitive and basic, but it got the job done, so it would stay, for the moment at least.

Then came the wings, insect wings were exceptionally frail and not very good for speed, and without a proper rudder, were crap with maneuverability so you discarded them, and began working on a new set, the new wings were based on bat wings, but you took extra care in covering rigid parts in chitin, even the membranes would be hardier than what you would expect from a thin layer of flesh, bones too were reinforced as much as you could without making them too heavy, their size would allow the changelings to cocoon themselves in them, use them as shields.

Next up were the legs, you had a pretty solid idea, the entire body had received denser musculature, but the back legs would be specially packed with corded muscle designed to help push the weight of the body forward and changing the shape of the leg to digitigrade, replacing the hooves for bipedal dino styled feet with curved claws that would help dig into the terrain, or into an enemy.

Front legs received a second pair, then you modified the two pairs as much as you could, given the restrictive nature of the equine body-frame, they wouldn’t get much range in motion ‘another thing to fix later’ so for now you gave the legs a set of claws that were more for keeping a prey or enemy in place than for any actual ripping and tearing, it would have to do for now.

After that, you began working on the tail, you have chosen to give them a tail to partially compensate for the body’s lack of flexibility, it would be long, versatile, and be tipped with a stinger filled with four separate glands, each capable of producing a different toxin, a paralytic, a deadly venom, a sleep gas and a concentrated cocktail of adrenaline.

And finally, the chitin, compared to the rest of the overhaul, all you had to do is reinforce it, so you did, basing it off of the zergling’s armored chitin plating, with that done, you took a moment to appreciate your work, it wasn’t the best you could have done, but it would have to suffice, for now at least.

The overhaul will be spread to the whole hive, it will take time so you will be busy, in the meantime, what should your hive do? (you can only choose one)

[] Continue expanding

[] Make more drones

[] Make more Zerglings

[] Write-in

An important event will occur in the next chapter, change POVs to one Twilight Sparkle?

[] Yes

[] No

Author's Note

winning vote: armor: Chitin

eyes: Compound

wings: membraned

tail: 1

tail addon: stinger

limbs: 6

limb types: claws

body-type: equine

votes that don't use the right format will not be counted from now on, the right format is as folows

[X] vote option

well, here it is, sorry for the delay