Discordian Promise

Midas barely seemed to notice the paint on him as he grinned hugely. "I did it! You're okay! My philosophy draught did a thing, did you see? Um, hi!"

Steel just looked down at the paint on him. "This isn't washable."

Just as Skitterbuzz finished her Calling,somethingnwent FWOOOSH! She whirled around tonface it.

"What did you do!?" she shouted in a frightened voice, dashing over to see...

... A dog? Kind of? "What is he? And why are you three covered in paint?"

Compass stared as the statue was transformed into a living, breathing diamond dog. On any other day, she would have been joining Midas in his cheerfulness; after all, it wasn't everyday someone saw stone turn into fur.

But if it could go that way, why not the other.

She looked back at the unicorn statue. It wasn't possible. This statue had to have just been made to look like the Faithful Student. Just because one Diamond Dog seemed to have been petrified didn't mean anything. It was impossible.

...except if there was one thing that Wonders had taught it, it was that the impossible was always possible.

"Midas... can you do that again? I think that might not be the only not-statue here," she added, gesturing at the unicorn. If there was even a slim chance she was right, that this was more than just a likeness of the Student...

Marked's first actions are to just lightly chuckle. "Heh, went with the easy jokes... Not what I expected of the High-level Joker known as Discord. Then again... Going for the low-key gags is a good startup to any act..." Then the Diamond Dog notices the painted trio. "Ah... Good, good... Followed up with an post-petrifying prank to effect those that freed me... Mmm... Not bad, I'd rate it a 9.5/10... I'm not sure to call it his best work, cause I'm sure he can do better and likely has done better before. But he did great with what he was given to work with. Would be a straight ten if not for the first time ever I've seen this comedy firstpaw... And a first review should never be a 10/10 unless you wish to just brownnose the Jokester... Or it's a set up for a gag of your own..." The Dog said mostly seemingly thinking out loud to himself, then he looks around himself and said. "Ok then... So how do you all do? My name is Marked Questions, I am a Critic. Also might I ask what styles do you all practice?"

"Uh...uh...um..."

Midas looked around at every pony in the group. "S-sorry, alchemy, maybe and I dunno? I...I don't have a whole lot of Philosopher's draught but I'll try and do the thing. If you want me to."

Skitter was having trouble making her brain function. What was going on!? "Uuuh... What? I don't understand," she finally forced herself to say.

Sunlit Wave blinks, stunned as the stone statue disappears in a burst of paint and is replaced by a monologuing Diamond Dog. Returning to his senses as Steel points out the irremovable nature of the paint, he takes a moment to inspect the cacophony of color on his wings, which had been folded at his side and were therefor primarily painted on one side. He shrugs, deeming it an acceptable color scheme, and shortly thereafter the Diamond Dog finally got around to introducing himself. "Sunlit Wave. It's a pleasure to see you in skin instead of stone. What do you mean by styles?"

"And what's a Critic? Compass asked. It felt strange; usually she was on the other side of that question, and the dog was talking so quickly -with so much that didn't seem to make sense- that she could barely pick up on even that tidbit.

She did hear the name though.

"Discord? Discord turned you to stone?"

She looked back at the statue. If the trickster was going to turn a random (insane?) diamond dog to stone, why not the Faithful Student too?

"Ok..." Marked states unsure what to take of those who didn't understand what Styles, Critic, or even the fact his quick after-action review speech was seemingly too fast for all of them to follow... Those were three majorly odd things to the Diamond Dog on many levels it made him shutter. "Um... Well a Critic is a person who judges others skills... To help find ways in which to improve and what they've made mistaken in, or what they could've done better... Or was weak... Stuff like that. And... Ah... By styles I mean the Comedy Styles you all use... Being a Critic I'm not officially skilled in any form of them myself. But just try to do minor gags as I see openings." Marked starts to explain as slowly as he could then realized something. "But... Wait... None of you are from the Realm of Laughter, aren't you? Mmm..."

Midas shook his head. "Uhn-uh. I'm from generosity. But there are diamond dogs there too, and one of them is my tagged mom. See?"

He TKed his scarf up a bit on his neck so that the ruby studded collar was visible.

"Laughter? Is that where we are?

Despite her concerns, Compass looked at her feet and pranced a little. She had thought the game was going to take place outside if any if the realms, like the silvery void from before.

"I'm Compass, from the realm of Magic. And I'm not a comedian. I'm a Wonderluster."

"Steel, from Loyalty. Mechanic." Ian moves so his head is visible above Steel's, and barks. "This is Ian, my companion."

"I'm Skitterbuzz, from Honesty. I keep bees," she said in a alightly flat tone. "Oh! I almost forgot! Speaking of bees, they should be arriving any minute now. I think. The bees I mean. Anyways, I know they won't hurt me, and I don't think they'll hurt you, but just to be safe try not to act, y'know. Threatening."

"Don't think we're in my realm..." Marked comments trying not to think too hard on the idea of people not being comedians... It was too scarey a thought for even the worst of any horror Jokester to come up with. He also looked around half-expecting something to happen in reaction to his statement, cause if they were in the Realm of Laughter it'd  make itself well known of what it is... "Yeah... We're totally not... It would've made a joke in reaction by now if we were. And... It's... Weird... To meet you all... I mean... Are really none of you Comedians of some type? Really you aren't?" He starts to nervously laugh to try and calm himself down. "Oh... Bees, my god..." He then jokes to himself, seemingly to chuckled some more into being a bit more calm.

The unicorn put a hoof to his chin in deep thought. "Well, Arachne, that's my sister, said I was funny looking. And Ruby said I smelled funny, but she thought all ponies did. And sometimes ponies laugh at things I say, but I don't mean to be funny. We aren't jokers in generosity. We're givers. People ask and we give."

"I'm from the realm of the Kindness, and I'm decidedly not a comedian." Sunlit Wave says, scrutinizing the diamond dog for a moment. "You wouldn't happen to have received a battered piece of jewelry from Discord before being turned to stone, would you?"

"Maybe... I'm not sure... Odds are it'd more likely be set-up to drop on my head or something..." Marked said, hoping to be hit with such an item right now after he spoke... Cause he could totally use some "realm laughing at you" joke to help him adjust to the ongoing weirdness of these non-Comedians.

Right as Marked was finishing his statement, he felt a sneeze coming over him. Said sneeze, in addition to the usual results, produced a large quantity of tiny yellow triangles. Then a small raincloud appeared over him and showered him with cola.

Midas huffed a large sigh at this and threw his front hooves in the air. "PHYSICS! Stop making my science harder!"

Marked Questions just sighs at teh raincloud... Not getting a chuckle at all, looking annoyed but a lot more calm then he was a second ago. Next he went to looking around over what meaning there was to the nonsense he just sneezed out... And if that was the prop in question. As he looked over the oddness Questions' commented to Midas. "Um... It's just a bit of surrealism... Nothing worth getting upset over. Heh. What this is out of place in the realm you come from? By the way... That's quite an honor to see a pony being tagged... Must have quite the story behind it. You said something of having a.. Am... Something? Err... Hate when I overlook something that easy to pick up on."

perception check:

Midas, since he was still on two legs, toppled backwards on his rump. Rather than get up though, he curled into a grumpy ball. "Sure it does. But being used to it doesn't make it not a pain when the formula you're nitrating turns into glycerin for no reason and explodes. And there's not too much story. Ruby tagged me before I came here, but I didn't have a name to give her back, so I gotta get back and give her hers again."

Questions can see that the triangles were made of a weird crystalline substance he hadn't seen before. As he looked over the triangles, a small cloth bag about the right size to hold all the triangles blows by and lands in the mud in front of them.

While this is happening, Skitter can hear a buzzng sound getting closer, coming from were she had been standing earlier.

"You both need to look at the bright side of things," Compass said. She could understand being annoyed by the way things were- most ponies didn't appreciate that sort of thing. And, really, a fizzy-pop rain cloud didn't even rank as a Wonder... but still. Wasn't that randomness wonderful in itself?

She glanced back at the statue. Maybe not.

She leaned forward, kneeling on her forehooves.

"Midas... please. I know your excited to see another Diamond Dog... but there's another pony here that could really use your help. Please," she pleaded, ignoring the gathering buzz. "it's important. I need you to use that potion again. Please."

Midas nodded and wobbled to his feet. "I'll try, but every batch is different. I dunno what I did to make that one work so well."

Pressing his ears to the sides of his head to ignore the buzzing, Midas moved over to the statue Compass directed him toward. He took out another vial of Philosopher's draught (the last one he had on him. It was very hard to make) and just like before, rubbed it onto the stone with his hooves.

Meta: