S07:E04 - Rock Solid Friendship

[Bit Boss 213]

A new ship has just sailed into port

*poot poot*

[Star Petal 215]

This is now my favorite maud pie episode. By far the best episode in a long time for me really. LOVED IT! 

[CypherHoof 26,483]

15 hours ago, Venomous said:

I did not enjoy this episode. The reason for this is mainly because of Pinkie Pie, as she was rather irritating all throughout the episode. I understand that she was keen on Starlight Glimmer and Maud Pie getting along well but she was just too much.

That is the established pattern for Maud episodes though, sadly.

[Dowlphin 463]

3 hours ago, CypherHoof said:

That is the established pattern for Maud episodes though, sadly.

It's believable though. When Maud is present, she's like a counterpole to Pinkie, and that switches her into overdrive.

[Bit Boss 213]

On 7/6/2017 at 8:26 PM, Dowlphin said:

It's believable though. When Maud is present, she's like a counterpole to Pinkie, and that switches her into overdrive.

Counterpole? *Imagines Pinkie and Maud jousting with counterpoles*

 

[Pastel 7,630]

Good episode but Pinkie Pie was really annoying. :/

The one I preferred in this episode was Starlight, I liked how she naturally befriended Maud.

[Nye 1,652]

I think my favorite part of this episode was that Maud moved into a place her new friend found for her.

[Twilight Luna 31,375]

I like that Starlight and Maud became friends naturally and not being forced into it. Potential for more episodes with these two. Just leave Pinkie out of it.

[Ruddboy Olaf 10,628]

This episode just makes me love Maud more than I already did. 

[Mortar 143]

I liked this ep. though I thought Pinky's behavior was kinda strange.  Since she has so many friends, her obsession for Maud moving to Ponyville seemed over the top. 

Equally odd was Maud becoming friends with Starlight.  She's so focused on her rocks, to even notice anything--or anypony--else is surprising.  Which actually makes this an important event for her.

Edited April 27, 2021 by Mortar

[Kevin Tang 2,426]

Maud is great in this episode

[Senko 459]

On 4/15/2018 at 2:50 PM, Mortar said:

I liked this ep. though I thought Pinky's behavior was kinda strange.  Since she has so many friends, he obsession for Maud moving to Ponyville seemed over the top. 

Equally odd was Maud becoming friends with Starlight.  She's so focused on her rocks, to even notice anything--or anypony--else is surprising.  Which actually makes this an important event for her.

I think its the difference between new pony = new friend where she's calmed down quite a lot if you compare her reactions to Twlight and Cranky and her favorite sister could finally be moving back from wherever she's been getting her rockterate and might actually move to the same town. She's going overboard with her dreams of being with her favorite sister and the possibility they may not happen. Its not just about a new friend or keeping an old one its family and I think a bit of big sister idolization. Of course given pinky's mindscape in equestria girls it could just be she had too much taffy.

As for the rest of the episode honestly I think my favorite bits in this were the background reactions. Rarity's to hearing all the gems in gemstone cavern were really common leaving her struggling to hold back tears then tossing gems out of her basket in the background as Maud and Pinky leave. Derpy's second appearance where I can just see her thoughts going "huh wha?", "ow why are they throwing things at me.", "oh its a free pizza yay." and her gleeful chasing off into the bushes after it. Thought the main storyline had its fun moments too like Starlights "way to go boulder" reaction to Maud breaking the ceiling by tossing him at it showing how much the two get each other or the happy little smiles on Maud's face every now and then. Maud being revealed to have played a key part in her enslaving her former village and Pinky warning her to tell no one. I do love the muzzle ridges when they're pressed so cute.

As for Lyra well if Pinky was snarling at you I think you'd be terrified too as its just so out of character, I know I'd probably freeze up and pretend to be a rock as well.

[bigbertha 414]

There's one thing I really like here and one thing I really dislike. I really like Starlight and Maud's friendship and that the episode didn't feel like a retread of "Maud Pie" like "The Gift of the Maud Pie" was. I really don't like how obnoxious Pinkie is here. Nothing she does is funny and she ruins any enjoyment the scene had just by showing up. Even when she learns her lesson at the end, she's still annoying. There are other things I like, like the bit with Rarity and a few other gags, but Pinkie just ruins so much of this episode.

Score: 5/10

[qwerE 96]

I liked this episode! How Starlight and Maud go well together was something unexpected but awesome. Pinky was a bit annoying, but I loved watching Maud a lot, and that made Pinky's behavior feel less irritating. 

[Moony the Cat 3,702]

I loved this Episode quite a lot, i think Starlight is more and more my new favorite character of Mlp and i liked how Maud and Starlight got along and even Pinkie Pie was quite funny in this Episode even though i usually hate her. This Episode was a positive surprise to me.

[TheAnimationFanatic 3,596]

Upon rewatch, I liked this one a lot more. This is definitely the most engaging that Maud has been as a character, Pinkie Pie wasn't as overly annoying as I found her to be, and Starlight's brutal honesty was also great.

[bigbertha 414]

This could've been great. Maud's story in finding a friend is really enjoyable, she and Starlight are charming together, and the comedy is consistently funny. The only problem is Pinkie. I know that the story relies on Pinkie being annoying since she needs to learn to not be annoying, but she's just too much. She ruins every scene she's in which is a shame since she's in a lot of scenes. This episode would've benefited greatly from a Pinkie more like seasons 1-3 rather than this obnoxious Pinkie. Instead of screaming a lot of her lines and being really shrill and high pitched, she could've just talked really fast and jumped around a lot, like the older Pinkie. It would've still gotten the point across while being less annoying for the audience. 

Instead we have a lot of great things brought down by one big problem. It's unfortunate. Nothing feels worse than missed potential.

Score: 5/10

[Rushing cash 836]

I love this episode, the comedy is great, we get to know maud better and honestly it was the best episode about her in the show so far. Yeah, pinkie was a bit over bearing here but it was understandable, she really wanted her sister to move into ponyville her went a little to far, but things like this happen. Lyra got the scare of her life, good thing bonbon was there to save her. So maud incidentally helped starlight enslave a town, that actually is a very interesting detail I never saw coming. Starlights brutal honesty when she tried to say it without hurting pinkies feeling was great. Raritys pride got a hit in the cave there, that scene was hilarious! The only grip on the episode I hold is what happened at that town, felt a bit forced to reach the conclusion and a little over the top. 9\10.

I'm jealous of derpy, she got a free pizza, I wish something like this would happen to me...

 

[Cloud5001 20]

On 2020-12-26 at 1:12 AM, Califorum said:

Pinkie was quite annoying in this one. It would have been better if it was just Maud and Starlight. Maud and Starlight go quite well together! Maud doesn't react to anything at all it seems. I love the role Maud plays in Starlight's backstory. Maud and Starlight are a great friendship I wish we saw more of. They are a good couple! I just wish Pinkie backed off so we could enjoy their friendship and Maud is adorable in slippers.

You know that's the whole point of the episode right? Like Pinkie undersestmated Maud's ability to make friends and so that's why she acts the way she does. From her perspective she does have reason to believe that Maud would struggle with that when she's already seen it happen with her friends the first time she introcuded each other. Infact Maud still needed a little nudge just to try, so her learning that she needs to trust Maud enough to be able to make friends without her is a believable lesson she needed to learn and it actually isn't out of charachter at all. Cranky was a random stranger, but this is her sister so it's going to be much harder for her to see where those boundaries, especially because this issue has never come up before between them. The episode never once treats her forced attempts for them to bond as a good thing but also that they know she's only concerned for her big sister and Maud moving to Ponyville obviously means alot to her.

 

People are focusing on the forced attempts and not the actual reason why she went so overboard which comes from a good place and that's why even though she was meant to be annoying I found it enderaing and funny because she's not doing it to be mean. Her going overboard ALSO does'nt make her a bad charachter, it shows she has a flaw but that's OK for her to have. To make the out of charachter claim you need to look over all of the facts about the charachter not just the positive ones and THEN see if it does'nt match. For example I know Spike is out of charachter in Spike at your Service because it contridicts everything we know about him even down to the smallest details. By contrast I never once got the impression this episode contridacted Pinkie or how we've seen her relationship with Maud up to that point. The lesson she needed to learn felt completely natural and as someone with a disability I can tell you that your loved ones will often have the hardest time believing you'll be ok on your own if you don't show them and Maud has NEVER shown Pinkie that she'd be able to make a friend on her own.

 

Phew sorry this has been bugging me for awhile cause I really love this episode. Alright all that aside one more thing I want to touch on, Spike and Maud like I can't believe this is the only time they ever interacted and it's not even with him speaking with her. I do get that Cathy might not have been able for this episode and that's fine we still got to see this. It's just I really feel like the scene should've had follow up to it, I'd love to see if Spike can gel with Maud.

[Cloud5001 20]

14 minutes ago, Califorum said:

@Cloud5001

I get your point there. I wish we saw Maud. I love this episode too. I wanted to see more Maud interacting with others for sure. 

Exactly and i do think Spike and Maud be able to get along with each other too. I'd try to do it myself in my fanfic except I'm not sure I can nail Maud's type of humor. Honestly she seems way more trickier to write than Pinkie or even Discord for that matter. 

 

[Astralshy 26,654]

Yeah, Pinkie was really annoying here.

But I really loved the idea of Maud finding some friends and stays in Ponyville. And then it's Starlight! I really adore the interactions between these two. I think the have perfect harmony and balance.  We also  learn the about their history   And this cave is the perfect home for Maud.

So I enjoyed this good episode quite a lot.

[JMTV99 1,353]

This episode is meh. Maud and Starlight had a pretty good chemistry together, Maud's home looks nice, and it's great to see Lyra again, but Pinkie Pie's pushiness bogs down the episode for me.

[Rosy Moonlight 369]

It's understandable how someone would try very hard to convince someone they love, especially a close family member, to live closer to them. This episode shows that while love can be suffocating sometimes, it also allows us to improve, but only if we make the choice.

I enjoyed that this episode wasn't driven by a lack of proper communication but by someone's overeager or drastic well-meaning actions, like in Bird in the Hoof. I chose Bird in the Hoof as an example because

Spoiler

it was extreme for Fluttershy to steal someone's sick pet in order to secretly nurse it back to health because she didn't want the owner, who is the ruler of the land in this instance, to feel like she doubted their ability to care for their pet.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Rosy Moonlight

[MichaelWFX 35]

It was fun seeing Maud and Starlight together

[Iforgotmybrain 5,676]

Pretty funny episode even if Pinkie was a bit annoying at times. At least her being annoying was part of the conflict of the episode. Like usual most jokes involving Maud are great. “It’s not like she’s enslaved anypony lately” and really all her scenes and interactions with Starlight got me good.