As the six walked to the town dusk approached, so they decided to set up camp in the wooded area not far from the settlement. The trees around them where in perfect rows, making it seem obvious the town planted the woods for use of lumber when they grew. Twilight could see the town from their camp, it looked about a three hour walk away. Why they planted the trees so far away from town she wasn't sure. As they sat around the fire they all noticed that they had taken on the appearance of their characters. Applejack was now in a suit of armor similar to the Royal Guard's and was carrying a large spear , also bearing similarities to the guard's. Aside from that however she looked just like she normally does, orange Earth Pony, hay colored mane, and her Cutie Mark was still the three apples it had always been. Pinkie Pie was wearing a green and pink outfit with many pockets and a jester's hat. Everything else was the same however, from her mane to her tail. Rainbow Dash was wearing a black cloak that covered her almost completely. She had a dagger at waist as well as many other tools used in her “profession.” Rarity wore a cloak similar to Rainbow Dash's, however her's was a bright red and was covered in gemstones forming various eye catching patterns. She was also carrying a short sword and a book in a strange language. Fluttershy's only possessions included a brown cloak and a small angry looking bunny which could have only been Angel. Twilight was in a white cloak with golden trim at her side was a mace and around her neck was a chain with Celestia circling the Sun on it. The only difference in her physical appearance besides her new garb was that she was no longer an Alicorn but a Unicorn. After they had finished their self inspections Discord decided to break the silence from his chair at the head of the game table looking down at the game mat, which now appeared to be a window into the world the six ponies where in.

“You know you're all boring,” was the first thing he said to the group.

Twilight spoke up looking for the source of the voice to no avail. “Boring? How are we boring?”

“You could have been anything! Twilight you could have been a Pegasus! Applejack you could have been a Unicorn! But no! Almost all of you decided to be who you already are!”

Twilight was about to speak up again, but he knew that Discord was right. They has nearly limitless ways to flesh out their characters, but once they became those characters the where pretty much exactly how they where in real life. Sure some aspects where different and some of her friends where better at playing different personalities than others, but they never did go far from who they where normally. Even Applejack who was surprisingly good at fleshing out a different back story for each character and who they where vices and all. They where still like Applejack in the end , honest, hardworking, and stubborn. Rarity was perhaps the worst offender of the characters are just like you accusation. While none of her characters where the same class (most of her characters where some odd obscure class nopony but Twilight had even heard of) she didn't even work on the personality of the characters she played. They seemed like Rarity with a different name. Given the classes she played and the odd abilities of each one they could have been the same class and nopony would have noticed, because nopony understood anything she played but her and Twilight.

“Well it turned out well and good this time,” Applejack stated. “Imagine if somepony played a Griffon or a Dragon, or worse in this case a Stallion.” Most of them shuddered at the thought of a gender swap.

“It would have been hilarious!” Discord said as he started laughing. “You know we just started, I would allow you to make some changes before we get too far.”

“You know,” Applejack replied. “Sometimes hilarious isn't what's best for everypony.”

“Oh whatever, you all just have no sense of imagination.”

Most of the argument's meaning was lost to Pinkie. She thought of herself “How could you not be you? If you weren’t you, who where you?” Nopony noticed the ear to ear grin on Rainbow Dash's face that arrived when the argument began.

Back around the table in Twilight's basement Discord was interrupted by the arrival of Twilight's number one assistant.

“I'm back! I brought the more snacks!” Spike announced as he backed a small cart full of junk food into the room already full of junk food.

“Why hello Spike! Glad you could join us!” Discord welcomed Spike into the room and grabbed a bag of chips off the cart. Not to be confused with helping Spike move the cart into the room.

“Hey Discord,” Spike said with his usual happy tone. “Where's Twilight?”

“Oh you know, getting into character. It's a very important aspect of these kind of games and she's taking very seriously.”

“Okay, so where is she?” Spike asked sounding slightly annoyed knowing not to trust anything Discord says at face value.

Discord sighed. “You're not just going to let this go are you?”

“Twilight said that when she finished with her game today she would teach me how to play.”

“ Well in that case,” Discord said pulling spike over to the game mat. “Look and see for yourself. Her and her friends are perfectly safe, for now.”

Spike looked into the mat/screen and sure enough his friends were safe.

“So,” Discord began. “You want in?”

“What?” Spike asked. “I don't know how play.”

“Not a problem my friend! You should know by now that uncle Discord has his ways,” Discord said with a grin wide enough to make the Cheshire Cat green with envy.

Back in Discord's game world our heroes where almost to the town after deciding not to sleep for the night because the town was close. Although morning had arrived it didn't feel like they had been walking all night. They got their first good look at the town. It was a decently sized town only slightly larger than Ponyville. There was a river along the Eastern side of the town the West of it was surrounded by a light wooded area and the North and South where open to large plains and farmland with a dirt road leading through the entire settlement. As they reached the entrance to the town they could see a sign that read “Riverdale.” Two guards where standing by each side of the road in the entrance. Rarity was the first to speak.

“So, this is the town we saw from our camp.”

“Looks like it,”Twilight answered. “Let's go in.”

As they approached the town the guards stopped them. They could see clearly now that both where Earth Ponies. One had a tan coat and brown mane ant tail and the other had a dark brown coat and bright yellow mane that clashed against the rest his coloring. Both guards wore what looked like some kind of light chain mail.

“Halt,” shouted the tan guardsman. “State your business in Riverdale.”

“Yeah! Whadd'ya want?” The brown guard yelled shortly after with what sounded like a very heavy Manehatten accent.

“We're new here,” Pinke answered. “We want to make friends in the town and go on adventures! Hey what are your names? Do you want to be friends with us?”

The brown guard spoke up. “Whoa, whoa, easy, slow down, chill-out. Youse said you where new here. What's the deal?”

The tan guard translated. “My partner means, are you just new to the town or the area entirely? We only stopped you because we don't recognize you. So where are you from?”

This time Twilight answered. “We're from err-somewhere far from here! Just passing through.”

The brown guard replied. “Well ya picked a bad time for both of those ya know. The Queen has been looking for outsiders like you girls, and she's scheduled for a visit today. Ya know, like here, today.”

“Okay,” Dash started. “Who is this queen?”

“Ya mean ya don't know?” the brown guard shouted looking a little more than panicked.

“Err, no,” Dash answered .

“How do ya outsiders not know of the Changling Queen?” The brown guard questioned.

“Ya answered yer own question,” Applejack said.

“Okay, okay enough,” The tan guard said finally able to speak over his partner. “You can enter the town, but keep your heads down.”

“Thank you,” Twilight spoke again. I think we do know her actually. Don't worry we’ll keep quiet.”

The inside of the Riverdale was nothing like Ponyville. Riverdale was darker in coloring. It didn't seen gloomy just darker. Instead of the pinks and whites of Ponyville where replaced with brown logs and gray stones. There was a market place as well as a lumber mill and a large building that appeared to be the town hall. Most of the townsfolk seemed to be crowded in the town square or along the side of the main road through the town. A loud buzzing could be heard from the direction of the town square. As our heroes approached they could see a fancy sky-carriage that was completely covered concealing the rider, but they had a pretty good idea who it was. The carriage was surrounded by undisguised Changlings on all sides.

“Well,” Applejack said. “Ten bits says it's Chrysalis.”

“You're on!” Pinkie answered.

“Ya sure?” Applejack replied.

“Yep, I'm feeling lucky!”

A Changling wearing a suit of armor announced to the crowd. “All bow before your queen!” As he shouted this the carriage unfolded into a stage. “The Great and Powerful Trixie!”

The mane six stood there mouths agape except for pinkie who was smiling, happy about winning ten bits.

Author's Note

Sorry it's a little uneventful. Needed to set up a few things and explain some stuff. If you see any problems let me know. Thanks for reading!