YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S7 E4 "Rock Solid Friendship"

• Base-Breaking Character: Pinkie Pie. You could find her antics adorable, or you could find them outright annoying, especially considering she outright gets in the way of Maud and Starlight's budding friendship. The fact that she learns the same moral she did in "A Friend in Deed" is also up for debate: some like that they're giving more clarity to a moral they nearly failed to do last time, while others once again decry "It's the Same, Now It Sucks!".
• Broken Base: Some fans are disappointed that Maud befriended Starlight rather than one of the other Mane Five like Rarity (using as example a Friends Forever issue) because of their interest in "minerals". From the other side, it's pointed that Rarity has already been shown not to be able to get along with her in "The Gift of the Maud Pie", and their Friends Forever issue was more about them understanding and working together.
• Catharsis Factor: Starlight Glimmer bluntly telling Pinkie Pie she was solely at fault for her sister Maud leaving Ponyville for Ghastly Gorge. What would otherwise be Innocently Insensitive is extremely satisfying to see considering how many times Pinkie had acted insufferably to others at times, especially to Cranky Doodle, Fluttershy, and Princess Luna in their respective episodes without actual consequence.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Maud mentions how not only is the chartreuse gem Rarity was looking for, but all the gems in the cave, are "common gems". The chartreuse gem is peridot; all the other gems are most likely also forsterites with different metal oxide impurities.
  • Starlight's spiel about kite construction is entirely accurate and uses actual kiting terminology, such as SLK (Single Line Kite) and AOI (Angle of Incidence).
  • Maud compares how easily her heart melts to that of "sodium-rich plagioclase feldspar". This is actually an igneous mineral with one of the lowest melting points.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Maud's comment about how "you could rule all of Equestria with the right stone" becomes a lot less funny when you reflect and realize how many magical artifacts in Equestria are made out of rocks or gemstones (the Crystal Heart, Queen Chrysalis' throne, the Staff of Sacanas, the Memory Stone...)
• Les Yay: Like every friendship in the series, there's an element of it between Starlight and Maud, perhaps even more so than usual due to a throwaway line from Pinkie, who takes a picture of them and says it'll be something to show their grandfoals, which can naturally be read as the grandfoals that Starlight and Maud share.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Starlight Glimmer overcomes her criticism of either being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad whenever she appears in an episode or doesn't appear in the show often enough (outside of cameos) if the episode isn't about her. She has a major role in the episode, but doesn't take precedence over the plot making her a more natural-feeling character. She also shows more redeemable and relatable qualities than her magic or her past (which were referenced to the minimum), in this case her adorkable love for the kites. She also won more favor by being one of the few characters in the show to respond to Pinkie's antics with anything other than blissful "That's just Pinkie Pie" dismissiveness (in fact Starlight looks to be irritated by it), and call her out, which some fans felt Pinkie had desperately needed since "A Friend in Deed", where Pinkie did the exact same thing to Cranky Doodle Donkey but was spared consequences.
• Stoic Woobie: The episode reveals that Maud is one of these. Despite generally not showing it, she does end up admitting that she feels a little lonely because most ponies don't understand her and thus aren't interested in being friends with her.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The majestic new lost world cave, which is just begging to be explored, could have made a better setting for Pinkie and Maud to work out their issues than the "Will she move to Ghastly Gorge instead?" fake-out and the excuse to recycle six-year-old art assets. Hopefully, we'll get to see more of it in the future, since Maud sets up her home in it.

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