My Little Pony: Friends Forever #29 - Rarity and Maud Pie
- Story by Ted Anderson, Art by Brenda Hickey
Rarity attends the Equestrian Geological and Gemological Society's meeting, and is elated to find Maud Pie there as well. The two take in one of the lectures about a newly discovered cave system in the Crystal Mountain Range, and the elderly lecturer notes that whomever finds it first will get known for the geological find of the century. Rarity convinces Maud that this would help her greatly with her rocktoriate, but before they can head off, Buried Treasure and her two mooks arrive and claim that they will find the caves first. Maud notes that Buried Treasure has beaten her to the punch before, and Rarity insists they can win out.
As the two head off to the Crystal Mountains, they find Buried Treasure already had a head start. Though Maud tries to help, Rarity is able to help them to get transport and well as lead them through treacherous weather and dangerous creatures to get to the caves, though Rarity gets more frustrated at Maud's lack of emotions. They find themselves only minutes after Buried Treasure, but she burns down a rope bridge over a chasm, preventing Rarity and Maud from proceeding. Without any hope of proceeding, Rarity pulls out her diary, which she has been using to catalog the journey, only to discover she actually got Maud's diary. Rarity quickly apologizes and gives back Maud's diary, but Maud insists that she read it. Rarity is surprised that while Maud herself never showed any emotion, her diary expresses a huge range of emotions, as well as her admiration for Rarity's help in getting this far. Rarity is touched, and Maud explains she has troubles directly expressing her emotions but uses her diary to express them.
Now inspired to finish the trip and beat Buried Treasure, Maud finds a nearby passage to a empty lava chute that gets them to the stunning crystal cave minutes before Buried Treasure, who storms out after learning she lost. Rarity says her goodbyes to Maud as Maud sets off to talk to the rocks and document her findings.
Tropes appearing in this issue
- Arch-Enemy: Buried Treasure to Maud.
- Did You Think I Can't Feel?: Rarity is frustrated with Maud's apparent lack of emotions and motivation...only to discover upon reading her diary that Maud decidedly does have both, which genuinely surprises her.
- Empathy Pet: Though not pets per se, the cave bats that accompany Rarity and Maud appear to reflect the emotion of the pony they stick with.
- Evil Is Petty: Buried Treasure, who seems to be doing this mainly to rub it in Maud's face that she's better than her, any fame she gets being a bonus.
- Expy: Bruied Treasure Of Belloq. She even quotes the "There is nothing you possess that I cannot take away" line.
- Not So Stoic: Maud, big-time. While outwardly, she remains her cool-as-a-cucumber self that we all know and love, her diary reveals that she inwardly struggles with almost as many doubts as, say, Fluttershy.
- Secret Diary: Maud's, in this case. (Rarity's diary is not-so-secret after "Ponyville Confidential")
- Shout-Out: As quoted above, Buried Treasure is an expy of Belloq, Indiana Jones villain from Raiders of the Lost Ark. She even tells Maud "There is nothing you can possess which I cannot take away!".
- Stupid Evil: Though how it is resolved is not discussed, the fact that Buried Treasure burns down the only bridge that leads in — and out of — the cave is short-sighted thinking.
