The Gift of the Maud Pie

Before I watched the episode, I knew from the title that it was a reference to the classic Christmas short story "The Gift of the Magi". If you're familiar with the story, then you can pretty much guess the plot.

I watched the first half on Saturday night, but stopped at about the part with the giraffe and Boulder calling the jewelry stuck up. Pinkie Pie's behavior felt forced, and I didn't find Maud's deadpan humor as funny as I had in previous Maud episodes. I can honestly say that this is the first episode I didn't find interesting or very amusing.

I did rewatch/finish it this morning, though, and didn't find it as uninteresting as i did the other night. Perhaps I was too tired that night, or perhaps I figured I could bear the first half again since I'd already watched it.

This episode is a nice follow-up to "Canterlot Boutique" and previous Maud episodes. We learn that Rarity's boutique in Canterlot is doing well, and Rarity is naturally looking to expand to other cultural centers. Manehattan is a natural choice, not only because it's the home of Fashion Week ("Rarity Takes Manehattan") but because she has friends and connections there (Coco Pommel, Babs Seed's family, and Applejack's Aunt and Uncle Orange). In fact, I'd bet money that Rarity intends to have Coco be the manager of Rarity For You. I'm not too keen on having a different name for each different store, but I also understand that young children (younger than the show's target audience, however), may become confused about which boutique they refer to if they just say "Carousel Boutique". This, however, is a baseless issue because those who would be confused are much younger than the show's target audience and also have no problem with McDonald's in multiple locations.

Rarity performs well in this episode and is bound to be a favorite among Rarity fans. She naturally progresses from two successful stores to opening a third store in a populous city. I like that the writers chose not to have her say "Oh Manehattan, what you do to me!" again. I don't remember if I mentioned the rule of three before (chances are it was in reference to the dragonsneeze trees from "Princess Spike"), but I'll touch on it here. In comedy, there is a rule of three. You can tell the same joke three times and change it the fourth time, or you can change it on the third time. Telling the same joke four times in a row, however, make the joke fall flat, and is the main reason I consider "Princess Spike" the worst episode of Season 5. I'll go into greater detail in a future blog post. I was a bit disappointed that not once during the episode did she offer to make a rock pouch for Pinkie (something she definitely would have done), as that's certainly something she would do. However, I do understand why the writers chose to leave it out, or forgot to put it in, for the same reasons I'm disappointed but understand that in "Made in Manehattan" Applejack, the pony most associated with family, not once mentioned her Manehattan relatives: it wouldn't have worked as well with the lesson they were trying to convey. On the other hoof, perhaps Rarity will make a rock pouch for next year's PSSSDWR and put that nitpick to rest.

The humor: as is par for the course for Pinkie Pie episodes and Maud episodes, the humor was at a perfect level. Some gags were short and easily missed, but were best left that way. For example, the crayon landing in another stallion's soup after Pinkie spits it away, and skating in front of the pony equivalent of Rockefeller Center (Rockefilly?). Who knew Maud was so good at figure skating? Rarity's slow descent into madness at Maud being difficult to shop for was done well. Speaking of the rule of three, Pinkie saying how great her gift for Maud was follows. Pinkie introduces it with a party cannon by the postcard vendor. Rarity then makes comments on two occasions: the breathtaking view and the too-tight space. Rarity is about to speak a third time while skating, but is interrupted by Pinkie, and this is the last time Pinkie fires her cannon while saying what a great gift she's getting for Maud. And as always, Maud's deadpan and very literal responses to metaphors is humorous.

MLP is still a half-hour toy commercial, however, and I feel it necessary to bring up a toy at Target (and maybe other stores as well) with Pinkie Pie on a swan boat. I'm pretty sure we still sell it. I didn't think it odd before, yet the packaging makes perfect sense when this episode is taken into context: Pinkie is on a swan boat, and Maud appears on the packaging also riding the boat (not as a figure, unfortunately). Like Princess Skyla/Flurry Heart, this is a toy I think was designed to test the waters, to see how well a toy sold to see if they could get by with putting it in the show. Bronies hated Princess Skyla when the toy was released, and most if not all of the analysts will no doubt mention Skyla in their reviews of "The Crystalling", and I personally believe that Hasbro chose to change all but her parentage into the demon baby Princess Flurry Heart. Joking aside, I actually look forward to seeing what Flurry Heart brings to the show in terms of plots (new parents' struggles are always good material for show writers) and alicorn history. Seriously, Josh Haber, you wrote Celestia's line way too vaguely.

So, I'm sure there's a question on most minds about a particular line in this episode: what is Maud's Maud Sense? It could, of course, be a parody line that the writers made about the Pinkie Sense, but I think it goes deeper than simple meta explanations. And I'm not just saying that because I think meta explanations are a cop out answer for people not wanting to use their imagination. It actually makes a lot of sense.

First off, there might be a genetic basis for the Senses, seeing as both Maud and Pinkie have them. Pinkie's line isn't technically confirmation, seeing as I often say that stubbornness runs in my family. There's no stubbornness gene. Seeing how Marble is Pinkie's twin, she most likely has a Sense of her own. It could be primarily hereditary, in which case Cheese Sandwich's Cheese Sense makes him at the very least a distant relative, or it could be something that several earth pony families just happen to have similar to others.

All we know for sure about what Maud Sense does or how it works is that it was able to tell Maud where Pinkie Pie's party cannon was. Anything beyond that is conjecture and headcanon, and coincidentally where it gets fun for me.

If we choose to take the route that Boulder and possibly other rocks are actually sentient, then how it works is a no-brainer: Boulder literally tells Maud what he knows. This would be similar to Gummy and Pinkie, and what much of the fandom has believed since "Slice of Life". Considering that we now know Gummy to be very introspective and intelligent, yet forced to silence, perhaps Boulder is the same, and Pinkie and Maud's Senses are something akin to super-sensitive hearing. However, this does present some issues. For one thing, if it's an auditory cue, then Pinkie's twitches have little logical correlation (then again, it's Pinkie Pie). For another thing, if Boulder is sentient, then what's stopping the giant rocks that Maud and Pinkie pulverized in "Maud Pie" and "The Cutie Remark" also sentient? That would then be straight-up murder. The sentience perspective also helps explain why some rocks can be considered "stuck-up". My personal preference is that Maud and Pinkie are able to detect vibrations in the ground and air, and read them from a focused source. For Pinkie, this would mean that her body is attuned to the earth in such a way that each body twitch corresponds to something that the ground and air is about to happen. For example, her tail is the most detached from her torso, and thus could pick up the most vibrations from the displaced air under a falling object than any other part of her body. Finding logic in Pinkie's twitches, however, is a different post altogether. Similarly, Maud might keep Boulder as her pet because she uses it as a focus for vibrations in the earth.

Let me explain. Pinkie had already given up her party cannon when Maud set Boulder on the boulder ("Play nice."). If vibrations in the ground were able to collect in Boulder, then Maud might be able to detect the differences, especially for very familiar vibrations. For example, Pinkie Pie and her party cannon. When Rarity lets slip that Pinkie gave up something important to get the rock pouch, Maud wasn't fooled when Rarity tried to hide it. Thank you, writers. If they'd gone with that trope this late in the episode, it would not have worked. I have little doubt that Maud knew right away that something was wrong with her sister but, like the fandom, doesn't question where Pinkie stores her things. When she learns that it was the party cannon, she starts walking in the opposite direction from which they came, which means one of two things. First, they could just be closer to the exit at that spot than where they'd been before. Second, she'd already focused on the vibrations of the party cannon's wheels and was going towards them. The next thing we know, Maud leads Rarity and Pinkie to exactly where the party cannon is. If Boulder absorbs vibrations when set on the ground, then this would allow Maud to track somepony or something just by periodically setting him down and then interpreting the vibrations in Boulder as him speaking to her.

I personally believe that Maud Sense is also what allows Maud to detect different densities, moisture content, etc. through her hooves and nose, which she then interprets to exactly what type of rock or dirt exists. I can't recall a time where Maud used just her eyes to identify a type of rock.