The Mysteries of Maud Pie
The cliff was high. Or at least, it looked like it. She couldn’t really tell how high it was. The base was hidden by a deep, voluminous shadow that seemed to swirl and bubble from the base of the cliff all the way into the golden sun-lit horizon. A mystery lie beyond it, a perhaps unknowable mystery that Maud Pie had often wondered about, but never had the courage to discover for herself. There was only one way to find out, after all. And there was no coming back once she did.
“Come on Maud, this place is super boring!” Pinkie Pie’s bouncy voice echoed from the mountain face behind her. “Let’s go back to Ponyville and have fun! Rarity will be there too!”
Maud ignored her, taking a few more steps towards the abyss.
“Hey Maud,” Starlight Glimmer’s voice interrupted her thoughts again. “Trixie and I were thinking of going kiting today. Do you wanna come with us?”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie demands your presence!” Another boisterous voice added.
Again Maud took another couple of steps.
“What are you doing wasting time here, Maud?” The rough voice of her older sister, Limestone Pie, demanded from behind her. “We have work to do on the rock farm! Me and Marble are waiting for you!”
“Mmhmm,” Agreed the meek voice of Marble Pie, though it was clearly audible through the still air.
Only a few more steps away.
“Maudelina Daisy Pie,” Echoed the voice of her mother, Cloudy Quartz. “You listen to your older sister. You have responsibilities, and your family needs you.”
“Listen to your mother, Maud.” Her father, Igneous Rock agreed.
She was at the edge now, staring down into the swirling mass just one more step away.
“Maud?” Maud blinked slowly, but didn’t turn when the voice of Mudbriar finally echoed out from behind her. “What are you doing?”
“I’m just curious about what’s down there.”
“Technically, there’s nothing down there.” Mudbriar voiced out. “You can see that from here.”
“Science is about finding out for sure.”
“But this isn’t about science.” There was silence for several minutes before Mudbriar spoke again. “I wanted to take you out to dinner tonight. Would you let me do that?”
Maud didn’t respond. Instead she took the final step, and let herself plunge from the sheer cliff face. There was still no wind as she fell, racing through the sky towards the blackness until it enveloped her world. She could feel nothing, she could feel nothing… and for a few brief moments, there was a sense of relief.
Then all around her lights began to spring to life. Glittering through the void like fireflies in an endless cavern, until there were so many all around her that they looked like stars in the night sky. Maud’s body passed through the bottom of the blinking lights out into the air over the empty cliff face where she’d started. She could look up and see the stars above her twinkling as her body spun upright in midair, its descent slowing as she approached the grass. In the horizon past the void of darkness where the sun had shown moments before, there was now a big, bright, pale moon shining its light across the little land she could see.
“Is this heaven?” Maud asked curiously.
“In a manner of speaking.” Maud’s eyes stuck to the moon as it began to shimmer and shake, and a tall alicorn walked through the air towards her with openly spread wings. “A dream is whatever your mind wills it to be. If you wish for heaven, that is what you will find. But I don’t believe that this is what you wish to find, is it?”
“Princess Luna?” Maud glanced around the empty cliff face, then back at the alicorn princess as she reached the grass and approached the much smaller earth pony. “This is a dream?”
“I’ve seen this dream from you many times before, Maud Pie.” Princess Luna nodded. “You never seemed disturbed by it, so I never thought it was my place to intervene… but you’ve never taken the final step before.” Maud silently looked away from her. “Do not be ashamed by what I’ve seen. I wish only to understand.” The alicorn placed a hoof on her chin to gently face her eyes towards her own. “Why do you walk away from ponies who say such kind things to you?”
“To put it simply.” Maud turned around as all of them appears before her. It was her entire family, Rarity, Mudbriar, Starlight Glimmer and Trixie, all smiling and beaming at her in their own unique ways. “I don’t trust them.”
Luna cocked her head in confusion. “Why not?”
“Because for all of them…” Maud looked past them as a small army of other ponies appears. Big, small, young and old, giving her the same bright smile. “There are many more who treated me the same way while they had to, then left without a second thought.”
“I don’t understand.”
Maud shook her head and approached the new ponies. “I never fought with any of them. They didn’t say anything was wrong. They simply left.”
The first two ponies she approached grinned at her. “We’re moving away to move on with our lives! Okay? Byeeeee!” They whirled to trot off the edge of the cliff, into the darkness swirling beyond.
“I thought everything was fine. I thought we were friends.”
An earth pony stallion gave her a coy look. “Yyyyeah, look, I know we’ve been dating a while… but there’s somepony else. Later.” He, too, trotted off the cliff with a pegasus mare at his side.
“But it wasn’t long before they moved on, and never bothered to say a word to me again.”
One by one the various ponies began to disperse. Many with comments.
“I got a new job in Manehattan! Isn’t it exciting?”
“I’m going into the royal guard! It’s gonna be great!”
But among the comments, there were many more who simply turned and left with no word nor explanation. Quickly the cliff face was emptied of different ponies, until all that was left was Maud Pie, Princess Luna, and the precious few who would still spend time with her today.
“When I started to recognize the pattern, I realized there was only one consistency among all of them.” Maud turned to look back at Princess Luna. “Me. They simply didn’t value me.”
“Maud…” Luna’s face contorted in sympathy.
“I’m not a pony that anypony else would choose.” Maud approached her current friends to give him a blank, almost resigned look. “Whether because of familiar obligation, desperation, or because they want something from me, every pony who spends time with me does so because they can’t do better at the time.”
“Maud, you cannot assume the worst of everypony.” Luna shook her head. “You cannot live your life believing that everypony is out to get you. You need to have faith in friends.”
“I do have faith in them. I simply don’t believe I’m worth their time.” Maud paused for several long moment as she moved in front of Pinkie Pie, looking her in the eyes. “Why should somepony like me, somepony so quiet, inconsequential, and clueless, matter to ponies so amazing? What difference would it make to their lives, in the end, if I wasn’t here? I have nothing to offer that they cannot get more of elsewhere.”
Pinkie Pie glanced back at Rarity. “Hey, let’s go find all of the others and have a super fun play date in the park!”
“Why that sounds splendid, darling!” Rarity nodded her agreement and turned to leave with Pinkie.
Trixie threw both of her hooves into the air, fanning her cape out behind her. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will make you the greatest kite of all time!”
“Hey, that sounds great! Let’s do it, Trix!” Starlight Glimmer and Trixie both left.
“Come on, let’s get back to the farm, where we really belong.” Igneous Rock gestured to Cloudy Quartz, Limestone Pie, and Marble Pie, who all nodded and turned to follow him off the cliff as well.
That left Maud staring eye to eye with Mudbriar. “Technically…” Mudbriar mused. “There are certainly other fish in the sea.” He, too, marched around Maud to disappear into the dark void off the cliff face.
“I feel like this is my place in the world.” Maud turned to stare out across the abyss, where all of her friends and family had gone without her. “The pony who is here, in the background, watching and supporting other ponies. They’re nice to me. They’re kind, even. I do as much as I know how to for them, but I have nothing of value to offer them… so why should they value me?”
Princess Luna took a deep breath and approached Maud, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “What you’ve shown me tonight is one of the most painful dreams I’ve ever witnessed… and I don’t believe any amount of advice I have to give you would make it better. But I would advise you to tell your friends how you feel.”
Maud hesitated. “If they discover that I don’t trust them, it could make them walk away from me even faster.”
“If you truly believe in your friends, Maud, I don’t believe they will. They can help you in ways that I cannot, but only if you allow them to.” Luna’s eyes turned towards the sky as the world began to shimmer. Luna’s eyes met Maud’s once again as she was slowly pulled back towards the pale moon behind her. “You must have faith, Maud. Not for their sake, but for your own!”
Maud’s eyes fluttered open, the sound of her heavy heartbeat almost matched by the sound of the bell beside her front door chiming back and forth. Maud blinked the sleep out of her eyes and slowly climbed out of bed. The chime continued to ring out through her small cave-dwelling under she reached the stone door and pulled it open with a mighty heave.
Starlight Glimmer was standing on the other side, with a pair of kites hovering close beside her head, and a bright grin on her face. Her grin faltered when she saw Maud’s face. “Oh dear, I woke you up, didn’t I?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Maud told her.
“If you say so… anyway, I was in the mood for some kiting today, and I was wondering if you wanted to come. I got a brand new one we can try out. It’s supposed to get more air than any invented yet!” Starlight wiggled the blue kite beside her head with a wiggle of her eyebrows. “I’ll even buy you breakfaaaaast.”
“Sure.” Maud kicked off her sister slippers and her robe and stepped outside of her cavern, pulling the concrete door closed behind her. “I think we should talk anyway.”
“Talk? Sure, what’s up?” Starlight turned to follow Maud out of the cavern.
“It could take a while…”