She’s gonna break any second now
 

 
@World Eater  
 
“That’s my boy”

@Ereiam  
Ah, my mistake. Thank you.

@World Eater  

 
It was a sandwich, not an apple.

@World Eater  
Well I agree she has a full range of emotions. I just think the show is hinting at social or phychomotor difficulties, probably from that same deranged rock smashing life that Pinky grew up in.
 
I mean the interpretation is up to you. I love high fantasy and fiction in general because it lets you play with ideas in your head while you follow along.

I like the IDW take on her, that she’s every bit as effusive and expressive as Pinkie says, but she can only present that to the world in writing.

@Ninji  
You’ve got a really confident tone of voice, and I respect that, but I still have to unconditionally disagree with your stance on Maud. She just expresses her range of emotions in a different way, without showing her tells. That is, without showing them in a way that is immediately obvious to the casual observer. I’m a subtle person myself, and I can tell you truly that I have very big emotions. I just don’t bother to wear them unless I really want to broadcast.
 
As for Boulder, it can move at remarkable speeds as long as it’s not being observed. It’s eaten an apple when nopony was looking, for instance.

@Tragiclady  
Well that’s expressed in the show, and your interpretation.
 
I have lots of interpretations of the characters (too much time on my hand, and I’m falling feaverishly in love with cartoon horses…) and I can only imagine that Maud has a strikingly ‘normalized’ brain or central nervous system. Phychomotor agitation, or clinical depression perhaps, but it would be disparaging to my cat to say that she’s any less of a kind hearted and lovable pony. I’m more inclined to say it’s a phychomotor issue, because people with such have a lot more intraphychic energy. Stephen Hawking for example has lateral sclerosis, chemical energy fails to travel down his spine, and instead constantly churns inside of his head, and I don’t think I need to sing him praises. How does this relate to Maud? She has an extremely active imagination, and seems to create complex mental objects to interpret and deal with her surroundings; Boulder could even be another cognitive entity in her brain tissue.

While I can definitely accept that Maud Pie is stoic a lot of the time, and doesn’t express emotions a whole lot. I’m still pretty sure she has them. I’m already pretty bad at reading peoples emotions in real life/online (unless they make it super obvious).
 
If I ever hung out with Maud, I’d just try my best, treat her like any other good friend, and hope she is being honest about if she’s having a good time, or would prefer to do something else.

@World Eater  
‘Hidden’ is probably something we can both agree on. I’m not sure quantum field theory, and biochemistry support a separate mind and body. Every neuronal impulse is the result of polarity swaps in the cell membrane of the neuron via voltage gate channels, and every cell in the body systematically shares and reciprocates electrical potential through water soluble ‘earth’ metals that enter and exit the cell through these. In the central nervous system these impulses potentially take full path until the chemical energy exits your body one way or another, however ‘inhibitory’ and counterbalancing responses can shunt the electrical resistance of a cell (such as GABA’s effect on chlorine dependent gate channels) and make an otherwise strong signal become diluted, and otherwise reabsorbed into another circle; an impulse doesn’t disappear, but can become ‘normalized’ and lose energy potential.
 
Even in your bodies most normalized ‘resting’ state the brain is still stirring your body like a spoon, and any thought, impulse, and emotion has some mirror response in your body. Maud is either always really steady at stirring that spoon, or little stirring is going on at all.

@Ninji  
Objection; emotion and physiological response are closely tied, but not inseparably so. Maud has all the passions and fears as any other pony, they are merely hidden behind a ‘poker face’ that is ill practiced at expression.  
The fact that she doesn’t wear her emotions on her sleeve, so to speak, should not be confused with a lack of emotion.

I feel ya, Maud; my first words as a toddler were when I walked over and stood in the middle of a campfire and said “Hot… Hot… Hot…” in a monotone until one of my aunts skyhooked me out of the flames.

I don’t speak for the author, but… the wrinkly shape and dark, almost brownish coloration make me wonder if the artist intended to depict some kind of dried or smoked pepper, like a chipotle pepper. Which would be perfectly okay–those are hot too.

Is that a Bhut Jolokia ghost pepper? Only Maud could chew on one and keep a straight face.

Emotion and physiological response are inseparable. The way Maud is animated (or lack thereof) would mean that she actually has little to no emotion, or response to external stimuli, which would mean her entire central nervous system is inactive to near lifelessness, and she’s a walking coma.
 
This would explain why she talks to a rock, her theta waves (deep subconscious, fantasizing, ID signal) are way louder than her alpha waves (Conscious, ego, rationalizing, acting on stimuli) and she’s actually in a disassociated, hypnagogic state.

Maud Pie: the only one capable of chowing down on a Mareolina Reaper and just spring a few tears. Truly she is the ultimate badplot.

Hardcore.

D:  
She’s almost showing emotion!