Queen Chrysalis

"Fighting the 'Bugs' isn't as easy as you think - a basic Changeling worker grunt could be hatched and raised to adulthood within two weeks, the other army 'bugs' slightly longer. Every time we killed a thousand Changelings at a cost of one Royal Guard it was a net victory for the the Changelings; they would care even less how many thousands they threw at us than us caring how much ammo and magic we expended.

In the end, we have to hit them where it really hurts them - at their hives, in the deep caverns, where they live, where they eat, and where they breed.

Sure, the hives are often deathtraps - narrow, pitch-black passageways, impassable chasms. We lost a few buddies at the spike-and-acid-pit booby-traps now and then.

We burn our nerves out at days-long jaunts underground, where falling asleep would get the whole squad killed by Bug patrols. We couldn't get the wounded out safely with the bugs ambushing us almost at every corner. We spent every heart-pounding moment as we crawl through the tunnels, always wondering if the next second would be our last.

Worst part was the noise - the bloody screeching and chiming was always there, echoing in the background, taunting us, keeping us awake and afraid.

But... it's all worth the shot once we made it to the central caverns. There's nothing more satisfying then to blast them out of the air, crush a few hundred Changelings in one go by toppling pillars on top of them, and the best part: hear their eggs pop as we set the breeding-pits alight with fire-spells.

Take a look at the cavern: this place crawls, good sir! I'm-a burning it all down!!"

---- Royal Guard, Royal Equestrian Army, during the Changeling War.