Alright, so I took Zoe back through Ponyville so that we could meet up and see Maud. If this Diamond Dog girl liked to dig for bones and research other rare items, then why should she be stopped? Not every diamond dog wants to be a rough and tumble bulldog. Some of them liked to be smart little collies!
Those are the smart ones, right?
Anyhoozle, we walked through and towards the edge of Ponyville towards the caves that Maud liked to mine. Our trek there was mostly quiet, so I decided to pop a question to Zoe once we got close.
“So. Uh…Flurry tells me you met Maud earlier. Did you two say much to each other?”
“No…” Zoe replied while shyly twirling her floppy ear around her finger, “Not really.”
“Well I can’t blame her,” I said with the best inviting smile I could muster, “Maud’s not really a conversationalist. But I’m sure we’ll be able to talk to her.”
“...Are you sure?” Zoe looked up at me with her innocent puppy eyes, “I don’t…like to bother people.”
I nodded and replied. “Don’t worry. I know how you feel. I don’t like to bother people either. But it’s like my dad always says:” I put on a deep voice to mimic him, “‘You’ll never know what someone’s thinking until you search for answers.’” And then I returned to my normal tone once I was done quoting him. “...Or something like that. His weekly lectures were long.”
That must’ve worked somehow because my little imitation caused Zoe to giggle. “Hmhm! That sounds nice…” But her smiling expression faded as quickly as it had appeared. “...My dad just makes me sit through boring fighting lessons all day. I can’t stand it.”
Oh? Was she opening up? That was good progress.
“Why do you think that is?” I asked, wanting to hear multiple angles of the situation. “Does he know you like to dig?”
“Well…no…” she admitted while looking away from me, “I haven’t found it in my heart to tell him. And I think he wants me to wrestle so I can keep myself safe…but I already know how to.”
“Hm…” I furrowed my brow as we walked, and continued to wonder: How to respond to such a situation? I honestly didn’t quite have one. My dad loved what I did. However…that’s where having some assistance from an outside perspective came in. “Hold that thought for me, okay Zoe?”
“Oh. Y-Yes Ms. Glow…”
Case in point: Maud Pie. Now where was she…?
We arrived at the cave system where Maud usually could be found, and I called out to her.
“Ms. Pie? Maud?” I launched my voice and it echoed around the cave system. “You home?”
And in response, I got a resounding, “Yes.”
Then Zoe looked up at me and whispered. “...Are you sure this is okay? Maybe we should come back later…”
“It’s fine.”
“ARF!” Zoe barked and leapt behind me.
I looked up to find Maud was standing right there in front of us wearing a pair of reading glasses. How she managed to appear here without us hearing her move was a question I didn’t know the answer to. And to be honest? I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know anyway.
“Oh, hi Maud…er, Ms. Pie,” I said while I idly petted Zoe on the head to relax her.
“Maud is fine,” she droned, her expression unchanging. “What brings you here, Cozy?”
I was always taught to show respect to those older than me, but I suppose that a more casual scenario didn’t require formality.
“Er, I--Ahem. I have a friend that wants to speak to you a bit more…if that’s okay.”
“Is it Zoe?” Maud tilted his head at an angle to see around me and spotted the little diamond dog gal. “It is. I met her earlier. But we didn’t talk much.”
“I see…well, maybe now you can?” I looked down at Zoe and she had relaxed since I started petting her. So I pulled her forward ever so slightly. “Is that okay with you, Zoe?”
She looked down, then up at Maud with a nervous, quivering lip. “...Only if Maud’s not busy.”
“I’m not,” she replied, “I wanted to show you some of the things I’ve been digging up. They’re aluminum oxide gemstones that have been forming over the past few thousand years.”
“Uh…” I was at a loss for words because I had no idea what she had just said.
But you know who did?
“Oh…sapphires, right?” Zoe asked, her tail wagging, “A lot of them are blue, but my favorite is the padparaschas! Though, they’re super rare…”
“...I have some of those. Wanna see?” Maud offered as she turned around and prepared to walk off, to which Zoe accepted.
“Oh, sure!”
Meanwhile, I was stuck wondering what the heck padpara…whatever they just said--I was wondering what exactly those were. But! There was progress in the making here. One thing was for sure, I knew Maud would be a much better chatting partner for this particular case? Why? Because like Zoe, she once had problems with her parents accepting who she was. It was foolproof.
All I had to do was observe the subject in question and see how she responded to favorable stimulation.
…Okay, it took a while. Like, about three hours worth of picking through rocks, geodes, and other crystals. But it was worth it. Seeing Zoe in her element, truly happy with herself was what made it worthwhile.
But it all came to a head when Zoe asked the all-important question.
“...Ms. Maud. Um…has anyone ever doubted you?” Zoe asked as she sat next to the pile of orange sapphires they had mined together. “Or made you feel like…you shouldn’t do what you like?”
And Maud responded with the answer that I expected. “Loads of ponies thought I wouldn’t do well as a geologist. Even my own parents doubted me at first.”
“...They did?” Zoe asked with a confused expression. “Why?”
“They thought I wouldn’t bring enough enthusiasm to the profession,” Maud went on as she casually broke a rock in half with her hoof, splitting the crimson ruby geode open. “In reality, I was able to do it my own way. Because I never doubted myself.”
“...Never doubted yourself, huh…”
I was busy ineffectively chipping away at a rock using a pickaxe with my mouth while making notes using my wingtips to hold the pencil and pad. It was all coming together…