It was another sunny day in Ponyville, not that the local librarian and princess, Twilight Sparkle, cared enough to notice. With her beloved still missing, Twilight was in a deep depression. If it weren’t for Spike, Nyx, and Scootaloo, she would probably have been even worse off. She spent her time secluded in the library, looking through the many books she possessed. Twilight hoped to find something that could help her find her husband, but always came up with nothing, never even getting close. At the moment, Twilight was flipping through their family photo album, crying tears and smiling as she looked over the pictures they had taken over the past couple of years. From DJ’s ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party, Berry’s arrival, and their first Hearth’s Warming together to the couple’s wonderful wedding and Scootaloo’s adoption. She stopped at the family photo they had taken several months back, her tears cascading down onto the picture.

A sudden knocking at the door brought Twilight out of her memories. Silently, she put away the album, got up from her seat, and went to answer the door. Upon opening her front door, Twilight was surprised to find a large, alabaster alicorn there waiting for her. “Celestia!” Twilight said in shock.

“Hello, Twilight,” Celestia replied with a small smile. “May I come in?”

“Uh, sure.” Twilight stepped aside to allow Princess Celestia into her home, closing the doors so her guards couldn’t follow. “No offense, Celestia, but what are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious, my faithful student? I came to see you. I wanted to see how you were holding up.”

“Oh,” Twilight said while hanging her head slightly. “I’m fine, Princess.”

“No, you are not,” Celestia said firmly. “Twilight, please be honest with me, and yourself. This is hurting you a lot isn’t it.”

Twilight tried her best to hold back her tears, but a few escaped down her cheeks. “Oh, Celestia!” Twilight flung herself at her mentor and mother-in-law. She sobbed into Celestia’s barrel, the princess’ wings wrapping around the younger alicorn. “I miss him so much! Why? Why does this keep happening? Why can’t we just stay together as a family?” She kept sobbing, Celestia just rubbing her back in an attempt to soothe the pain.

“I know it’s tough, Twilight. But you have to have faith, just as I have faith in both my children.”

Twilight looked up with tear-filled eyes into Celestia’s moistened eyes. “What do you mean ‘both’?” Twilight asked. “Did something happen to Berry?”

“N-no,” Celestia said shakily, looking away from her former student. “It’s just that… Berry and I had a fight. Some harsh words were said, on both sides. After that, Berry left for the Minotaur convention and hasn’t returned.”

“What’s the problem with that?”

“That was two months ago. The Minotaur convention is only a weeklong event. I haven’t heard from her since she left. And now my son has gone missing as well. You are not the only one feeling their family being torn apart, Twilight.”

Twilight embraced Celestia, who now had tears of her own, even tighter. “Like you said, Celestia, we just have to have faith in them. They’ll come back. They always come back.”

Smiling through her tears, Celestia said, “That they do.”

*****The Changeling Hive*****

Down in the dankest parts of the changeling hive, was the detention center. A place for ‘food’ to be kept; where all prisoners were stored until they could utilized for their love. Only one prisoner was here at the time, one worthy of having two changeling guards standing watch at all times. These two were Scout and Sting, the day guards assigned to watch over the Equestrian prince, DJ. Unfortunately, these two guards were not able to perform their duty at the time. Why? Because they couldn’t breathe, they were laughing too hard. Both changelings were doing the best they could to not roll around on the ground from their laughter. Let’s take a listen in on what is so funny.

“How you doing tonight?” DJ asked a strange looking creature on his hoof. The puppet had purple skin and tannish fur going around most of its body with a deranged look its face and wearing one shoe on its foot.

“Doin’ pretty good! How about you?” the puppet asked in a whacky voice.

“I’m fine,” DJ replied.

“That’s good. That’s good. That’s goooood!” The puppet answered with a wild laugh. “Well, looks like a pretty good crowd tonight.”

“You like it here, Peanut?”

“Oh, I love coming here to… uh… uh… duh this town right here!”

“Which town?”

“This one.”

“Which is?”

“The one we're in right now?” Peanut answered with a worried voice.

“Peanut?”

“What?”

“Where are we?”

“You don’t know?”

DJ gave Peanut a deadpanned look. “I don’t think you know.”

“I forgot!” Peanut whispered to him, but still loud enough to be heard.

“What?”

“I forgot!”

“You forgot?!”

“Well, we go so many damn places, I FORGOT!!”

“Well think about it for a second!” DJ admonished.

“Alright, alright, alright!” Peanut hung his head. “Damn.”

“The drive from the Valley…” DJ started for him.

“Was bad as hell.”

“Traffic…”

“Sucked like hell.”

“Drivers?”

“Angry as hell.”

“And you?”

“Were scared as hell!”

“Parking here?”

“Sucked more like hell!”

“So?”

“We’re in hell!” Peanut cried. “And these are our hell mates!” Peanut gestured to Scout and Sting, who couldn’t stop their laughter, but were able to suppress it. This was the third puppet that DJ had brought out of nowhere. The first being a very grumpy guy with strong opinions and the other a skeleton with a turban its head. It was almost too much for the two guards. “So you know when someone tells you to go to hell?”

“Yeah?”

“Come right here!”

“Where are we?”

“I DON’T KNOW!! Help me out!”

“What?”

“Help me out-ta!” Peanut accidentally spit in DJ’s face. “Sorry.”

“I’ll help you out,” came a female voice from outside the cell. Scout and Sting were standing stiff as statues while Queen Chrysalis stood there smiling down on DJ and his puppet. With a flash of her horn, Peanut turned to dust.

“HEY!” DJ cried out. He looked at his hoof, making sure it was still attached. “Watch what you’re doing with that thing!” he admonished while gesturing to Chrissy’s horn. “You’re gonna hurt somepony doing that!”

“Then I had better make sure it’s you,” she retorted smoothly. She then cast a glance at the two guards who looked as if they would be sweating up a storm, if they had sweat glands that is. DJ still didn’t know for sure. “Do I need to have these guards replaced? You seem to enjoy their company.”

“Eenope. I hate both of these guys! They don’t do nothin’ but stand there and stare. How boring is that?!” DJ cried out, making both changelings glare at him from the side.

Chrysalis smiled proudly. “Very well, then. I shall return for you later, Prince DJ. We have another experiment planned for today.” With that, the queen made her leave. The two guards now turned to DJ who smiling goofily, but was inwardly groaning at the prospect of another experiment. It would attempt number four to turn him into a changeling, all of which keep failing for unknown reasons.

“Okay, that’s the third time in the past two weeks that the Queen Mother has come down here to replace us only for you to tell her you hate our guts,” Scout summed up. “What the Tartarus dude?!”

DJ smiled smugly. “Simple reverse psychology gentlecolts. Chrysalis will only have guards that I absolutely despise around me because she hates me. So if I tell her I hate you two, she’ll make sure that you’re my guards. Don’t take it personally guys. I don’t hate you, not in the slightest. In fact, I actually consider you both good friends,” DJ said while making himself comfortable against the wall of the cell.

Sting raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t against having changelings as friends?”

“Why would I? I don’t have any resentment against you, just that bitchy queen. Although, I really don’t that much about changelings to be honest.”

“You don’t?” asked Scout.

“Nope. Ponies have very little knowledge about your guys’ kind. What we believe is that you’re a hive minded culture where the Queen’s word is law and she is the mother of every changeling. Everything after that is about how you murder ponies to take over their lives and drain love from their loved ones.”

Sting looked sick. “Ugh, ponies actually think that about us?”

“Have you given them any reason not to?” DJ retorted. “You did try to take over a few years ago.”

“Yeah, but that was just to stop from starving. We don’t need to replace others to get love. Equestria has love in its air; we just need to live in the country to be able to absorb it. The love doesn’t need to be directed towards us for it to be eaten, not like it actually harms them anyway,” Sting explained.

“What’s this about a hive mind?” Scout spoke up. “We don’t have a hive mind. We are our own changelings. We have free will and independence! We are strong together!”

“Wow, now if only had a quill, some ink, and a piece of paper. My wife would be going crazy getting all this knowledge.”

“A real bookworm?” asked Scout with knowing look.

“Oh yeah,” DJ looked off into space with a dreamy look. “Twilight is just perfect in every way. She’s smart, funny, a real good looker, and she is so kind. I’m lucky to have gotten her.”

“Any hatchlings?” asked Sting.

“Foals, is the proper term. And yes, two actually. Both adopted, but I couldn’t care less. Nyx and Scootaloo, an alicorn and a pegasus.” DJ sighed longingly. “I hope they’re all doing alright without me. You know, this is the third time I’ve been taken from my family? Sometimes, I really have the worst luck in the world.”

Scout and Sting winced a little, knowing that they were partially responsible for keeping the stallion away from his family. “You don’t hate us because of that, do you?” asked Scout.

DJ shook his head. “No, just your mom. I should have put more of a pounding on her back at Canterlot High.” DJ’s eyes widened in realization. “Hey, I didn’t kill any of those changelings that were on her invasion team, did I?”

Scout shook his head. “No, had some cases of hypothermia, but they were pretty much all okay.”

“Whew,” DJ said while wiping his brow. “Didn’t want that on my conscious.”

The three males were quiet for a few minutes before Scout asked another question. “What do you want to do before the Queen Mother returns?”

DJ tapped his chin in thought. “Well, why don’t you two tell me a little more about changelings? In return, I’ll answer any questions you have. It’ll be the perfect research opportunity!”

Scout smiled knowingly. “This for the wife?”

DJ deadpanned. “This is the third time I’ve gone missing. If I don’t show up with something, I can expect a very unhappy wife. Remember you two, happy wife, happy life.”

“Alright then,” Sting said while laughing, Scout doing the same next to him. “What would you like to know?”

DJ smiled. “Absolutely everything.”