The moonlight casted off a white glow over the rocky formations of the Badlands. Tall canyons, deep gorges, and endless deserts casted off ghostly shadows over the milky white sea of sand. In a small hole, enough to fit maybe three ponies side by side, was an entrance that led to a deep tunnel.

As the tunnel extended, various networks jutted out in random directions. The rock was smoothly carved in, but as one went further in, you could see black, organic resin cling to the walls, forming grotesque patterns and coils that moved around in complicated geometry. Hidden vents within bellowed out green smoke.

It was quiet, unanturally quiet save for the rumble of tectonic plates below. So quiet that-

A shadow flashed by, racing down the corridor. Zooming past stalactites and over shear drops, the object moved with speed and agility. As it came to a halt, one could see towering pillars of blackened stone, the crude designs emblazoned over them.

The creature itself was relatively short, with a serpent-like fin running the length of its equine-like body. Its snout was pointed and had two fangs protruding out of it like some sort of sabertooth cat. Its hooves were filled with circular holes that dotted it as if it was made of cheese. Moth-like wings adorned its insect-like carapace as it sniffed the area. Its eyes were a piercing, icy blue. Seeing that the coast was clear, the changeling gave a sigh.

She had just come back from another scouting mission. Usually, when in the field, changeling scouts would bring presents or souvenirs. So it was to no surprise that a brown paper bag was fitted snugly on a tan saddle bag. As she scanned the hallway, she counted the number of chambers.

"39,40,41,Ah 42."

As she crawled through the crevice, she was tackled by two black fuzz balls. With a giggle she rolled over the floor, feigning an over-exaggerated death as both baby changelings cackled madly. They were small, no taller then half of her leg, with large, baby blue eyes. Even the carapace was still soft. They grinned at her giggles, revealing the tiny scythes for teeth.

"Hey Clawity," two changelings chimed in a sing-song voice, "we gwat wu guuud!"

Clarity rolled up to face her two brothers, her eyes gleaming with compassion. "Yes you did, have you been treating each other nicely while I've been gone?"

The grins vanished on their faces as they stared at the floor, hesitant to face her as their little fan-like wings folded inwards against their carapace. "Swort wuf."

Clarity gave a small sigh. "Now Shifter and Alter, what have I told you about caring for one another?"

"We sowy Clawity," Shift mumbled.

"Wah, we vewy sowy," added Alt.

With a smirk their older sister began to transfer the love she collected to the two foals. As if an invisible force was tickling them, the two changelings rolled over the floor, their eyes filled with content. When all the energy she had stored was drained away, Clarity took in a deep breath. "Now I have something for you two. Can you guess what it is?"

"Wha is iwt, wha is iwt?" the changelings repeated, buzzing up and down on their ragged wings.

The changeling gave smirk as she reached in the bag. Then, she slowly pulled out a black box, followed by some wires, and several star-shaped devices with bright red buttons on it.

"Wha is thawt?" Alt asked confused.

"It's called a Coltstation," their sister explained," it's something that colts your age play on. They come with all these cool discs that you plug in and play games on. I figured I could get some energy from these vents here to power the equipment."

"Ooooooo." the changelings said in unison. They both jumped up and down, their bottoms doing a little wiggle to show their enthusiasm.

Clarity moved the wires to a vent, a green aura connecting the wires to another black box that she explained was a TV. After about an hour of wrestling, getting tangled in the mesh of wires, and coming back out again, she sighed in relief to see the screen glowing and the title of the game, titled Princess Flank-Kicker, standing valiantly in imposing, red letters.

"WWWOOOOOOOOOO." The brothers stood gaping at the screen, transfixed on how it could project such an illusion.

The masters of illusion meet the technology of illusion Clarity thought as she handed the things known as "controllers" to her two siblings.

Alter moved a little mushroom-like lever down with his hoof. In an instant, the yellow light adorning the text "start" dissolved with a click. The screen now shifted to a new menu, filled with a lot more menu options then previously expected. The changelings sighed as they read each word, trying to sound it out and test their pony vocabulary. When they had read though each one, Shifter clicked on play, his hoof smashing the red button.

Now they were staring at a selection of random ponies, most of them appearing to be of royalty. Clarity could see they were confused at this point so she said. "This is the part where you can choose to be any character you want. Just like how we can choose to be any creature we want."

"Ohhhhhh," Shifter said, "twanks sis."'

She smiled, watching the brothers scan over two certain characters. One was called Nightmare Moon and the other had chosen Princess Celestia. In a flash and trumpet horn, the menu was replaced with a beautiful rendition of a royal garden. The characters faced each other their hooves in a fighting stance. Then a coundown began, followed by the words "FIGHT!".

In an instant the brothers were smashing all and any buttons that they could see. They were unsure how to work the character, but as they looked up they were delighted to see the two princesses beating the snout out of each other. They landed head-dives, random blasts of pure energy, tackled each other, bit each other, punched, kicked, and even used a special combo that Shift figured out.

"Too the Moon!" The mysterious, upbeat voice in the box shouted the words as Shifter's character bent down, raised her hind hooves, and shot them directly in his opponent's chest, sending the creature far out into who knows where. A knew trumpet sounded and the words "K.O." and "game over" flashed over the screen.

"No fawr," Alter hissed, "Swift wa not plwaywing by the wules!"

So the two changelings went into a rematch. As it turns out, that rematch turned into another, and another, and another.

As Clarity watched Shift and Alt battle each other out in the late hours of the night, she gave out a yawn. Being a Big Sister was hard work, but it was a responsibility that each swarm member had to carry out. With Queen Metamorphosis on her last wings, the hive knew the rightful heir would be Chrysalis. With the threat of starvation constantly bugging them, changelings were reverting to more violent means of procuring love. But in the meantime, such depressing thoughts could be repressed by this so-called "video game".

It was still in development, and few pony societies accpeted them, but she found the "TV screen" to be enticing. And who knows, maybe one day it would help Shifter and Alter become the strong, brave warriors that the nest desperately needed. She closed her eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep, dreaming of all the possibilities and futures of her two little brothers.

They'll probably be the best of friends too...

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Quite a few years later...

"EAT THIS!" Shift screamed at the computer. His hole-filled hooves danced across the keyboard as his character ran towards the watchtower, its hooves letting out a blaze of icy spears at a behmeoth from Tartarus. "You Tartarus folk need to chill down."

"Range-Spitter on your left," Alter informed, his character already moving to assault the massive beast." Chyrsalis' beard! He's a nasty one."

" Alright, Blood-Hound-oh shoot-contact on the left, 6 o' clock."

"Already on him," and with that Alter fired two shots at the heaving mongrel, putting it down in a blaze of ashes. From the screen, the sound of another microphone could be heard. A colt's voice echoed in the speakers of the changeling's jet-black ear set.

"What the heck are you foals doing?" The colt was a level 12 Barbarian, whose frost-enchanted spear was doing little to no damage on the diamond dog bearing a red ruby club.

The changeling sighed. Clearly this colt had come to the wrong battle. He could only watch as the barbarian was torn to pieces again and again and again.

"Sweet Celestia!" The scream of the colt nearly made both changelings deaf. From Shifter's vantage point, the colt had gotten himself cornered in by two Beast Bashers, a sticky situation, but one that could be solved by a more experienced player. "I'm pinned down over here, can you colts like...help me?"

"No can do little one," Shifter said, "you came to the battle, you'll just have to duke it out a while longer."

"Hey Golden Hoof ," Alter blurted over the mic.

Shifter turned his character to face Alter's avatar, who was currently taking on three Ravaged Diamond Dogs. "What now River Dasher?"

"I need you to teleport me outta here! Stat!"

In an instant a hole was materialized out of blue vapor. He could already see Alt coming down the pass, followed by the colt's avatar. Stepping in he held the button down for Alt to make it within the sanctuary of the portal. He could hear his brother typing in the coordinates to the other portal's entrance when the colt yelled again.

"Wait for me!"

"There's only room for two, little guy," Shifter said, "You gotta stay here."

"But, I can't fight all these guys by myself!" The colt was either banging on the hoofboard, or if he was a unicorn, blowing up his house. Shifter didn't have time for this. His brother needed to get out of this battle, and they would return in a second anyway.

"You chose to play this game," Shifter explained, "so therefore you knew the risks. Just hold them back for a little while longer and we'll be back before you can scream Luna."

"Buck this," the colt said after a thunderous crash sent his avatar flying into a valley infested by Shadow Wolves, "I'm playing Team Friendship Two." And with that the barbarian disappeared in a beep. Exhaling to himself, Shift pressed the command to teleport, white light now consuming their avatar's bodies.

When the flash had finally subsided, both brothers turned to face no other then...

"THE MARKETPLACE!" Shifter almost drove his brother deaf with the volume of his shriek.

"Yeah," Alter explained, "I need to go and trade some stuff."

But this wasn't an explanation in Shift's mind. He was, for the first time in a long time, doing fairly good in the game, gaining enough in-game bits to level up and achieve the Axe of DawnHoof. It was one of the top 100 coveted weapons in the game. Not only would it help him beat the lord of this realm, but it would also make other players think twice before choosing to ambush him. But instead, he had to teleport his brother-in-hooves to the marketplace to sell his items.

"Why can't you trade after we finish pummeling those scoundrels into dust?" Shifter asked.

"Because my inventory was full," Alter argued, "I still want loot from this battle mate."

Shifter simply grunted and rammed his character into any stalls he could find, the invisible wall holding him back from reducing the table to splinters. After a second or two, he simply went AFK to check on the time crystal. It's light was nearly dimming out, meaning that they had little time left to play before sleep was initiated. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day after all.

"What in the name of the swarm are you selling anyway?" Shifter asked.

"A couple of blue shard clubs, a raving bow and arrow, along with a couple other stuff I found on the grunts."

"That's all level one stuff," Shifter moaned, "why are you collecting that? No wonder your inventory is bloated."

Alter's character was now pacing from merchant to merchant, his character's speech making a new level every time. "I can sell it and amass a much larger quantity of money with this stuff then if I just took every yellow-coated wepon like you do."

"It's called choosing wisely," Shifter replied grudgingly, "and I can sell them whenever I want to. I just don't pick up every little stick and rock I see on the path."

"Then how can you expect to buy anything you need?" Alter swiveled out of the rock he had been making his seat to face his brother. "You do know that your'e gonna need potions and armor for our next mission, right?"

"I can find that stuff," Shifter said, "but I'm just saying that when we finish draining all the love outta of these things, then we can collect the goods afterwards. Every time we stop to go to the market, I lose all the energy I've pumped up in the beginning of the battle. "

Alter sighed and turned back to his own screen. When he finally finished haggling a bargain with a ragged old stallion, his green unicorn avatar trotted over to where Shifter's red pegasus awaited. "Let's go."

With another shimmer of white, the two changelings were transported back into the battlefield. Shifter went right back into ripping the livers out of his foes while Alter decapitated the larger monsters with an obsidian bow.

"You ought to visit the auction house," Alter advised as he took out another three Clan Brothers with a single arrow. " It can really help you."

"The auction house is where they're going to ripoff shape-shifters like you and me," Shifter explained in a matter-of-fact tone." I'd rather earn it then have to pay somepony else for my gear."

And so for the next hour or so, the changelings sat hunched over their machines, laughing, crying, and occasionally yelling at one another. They fought fiercely on quests, high-hoofed each other when they defeated a boss, and even did a little wiggle with their bottoms, a trait they had carried on since hatching, whenever they found exquisite items and vast amounts of loot.

Ever since their Big Sister had shown them the magic of video games, the two changelings made it their duty to buy the latest technology whenever they got sent out to the field. Alter would look for the newest titles while Shifter would pick up the latest accessories. Recently, Shifter had to pose as a pony shopkeeper, and was able to sneak out two coltputers to use for their latest game, Tartarus Rises. So far it was the best one yet.

But as the months progressed, it was getting harder and harder to find time for games anymore. Shifter was responsible for guarding the cocoon chambers, while Alter had to manage a maintenance crew down in B Hive. Along with that, they also had to go out every now and then to find love to feast on. Then they would bring back the love they had stored for the rest of the swarm.

Soon, Shifter and Alter would have to be Big Brothers and take on a hatchling to teach on their own, which Shifter had repeatedly told the officer in charge that he was not ready. To make matters worse, the Queen was planning an invasion on Canterlot of all things. This would mean that the entire hive would be participating in a full-out assault on Equestria.

As Shifter pulled the plug from the steaming vents, he could see that his brother had already fallen asleep. Carrying him back to his cot, a resin-secreted slab of stone, Shifter began to think back to how his Big Sister would alway sing them a lullaby before letting them sleep. With that thought in mind, he smirked.

Maybe he could take on the responsibility, but he wouldn't be like his Big Sister. With that, he yawned and went to his own slab to rest on, sensing the entire hive whisper good night to Queen Chrysalis. It was a simple good night, no blessings or such. The hive was ready to nap and the night-shift would be taking over soon. From the little hole in his chamber, Shift looked up to examine the stars. His Big Sis had shown him all the constellations when he was little. Tonight, all of them were out, shining in the night sky like gems.

Games had provided him a view into a world that not even a changeling could go into. A changeling could be anypony they wanted of course, but they didn't go around slaying giant hydras with a lava-built axe. That, and gaming also took off the stress on his shell. The Queen could be very demanding sometimes, but hey, these were tough times. Right now, with all the conflict and hunger, he rarely got to see his brother. And when he did, they had to be uptight, speaking with little words. So then that left gaming as the only pastime that Shift could actually spend with Alter.

As his eyes drifted off to sleep, he dreamed of achieving the Axe of DawnHoof. But once he did that, he would eventually get bored with the game and then what would they do? Maybe he could go and buy a new game when the Queen sends them out to gather love. But just what game would suffice?