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| I'll be discussing things from "Rock Solid Friendship" here, fair warning. |
Now here's an interesting topic up for discussion. Maud's "Rocktorate". Now on the surface, this might seem like any old, boring diploma where she has a hard time finding work afterward. Let's take a step back and dig deeper at this though.
So ever since Maud's first episode back in season 4, we know that she is "heading out" to get her Rocktorate and anything with Maud beyond that gives time relevancy to where she is on her journey. Inferring Pinkie's "heading out" line, we can assume that Maud's path to that diploma started there or that this is another big trip for Maud, seeing as she traveled "all over Equestria for her rock dissertation". Now I want to come back to this, but I must bring up the essence of time passage between that line and what it means.
With that line, a flashback is shown where Maud basically leads Starlight Glimmer to the cave where she holds the Village Pony's cutie marks. Now while you might think that took place in season 5, but rather, that had to have taken place in season 4. Due to the Village still being under construction at the time. Heck, this might just be on Maud's aforementioned trip in Maud Pie.
There's also something to be mentioned here about that point in time. As speculated earlier, this might have been the start of Maud's path to her degree. But whether or not it was, it should be known that a dissertation (a thesis by definition) has taken her 3ish, maybe 4 years to complete in order to graduate for the Rockterate. Which would be standard for a Bachelor's Degree. But since she's now considered to be a doctor, that means she had to have been in graduate school for that long.
Now I'd like to believe that Maud would be not only smart enough to do this in 3ish years and graduate early, but also this has always been something she's the most passionate about for years.
Discoveries. Nothing would drive a geologist further than finding something completely new out in the field. We see from the very beginning in Pinkie's exposition about Maud, that the rocks in the rock candy are ones "she discovered". So you're telling me that she's been discovering rocks not known to all of Equestria since she was a young filly!
I would have given her the Rocktorate right then and there. This just further proves that Maud has the drive to go for something this big.
One more bit of info that should be brought up is the journey brought up in the Maud and Rarity Friends Forever 29 comic. Here's where things get a big iffy on canonicity, but as far as it stands, as long as it doesn't interfere with show canon, it would be up to reader's choice I'd think.
Professor Strata, a geologist pony, gives a lecture on how there is a cave system yet to be explored and how the first pony to find it will be given credit for the discovery. Through many perils, she and Rarity end up beating the competition to get to this cave.
Multiple discovers? Another student?
(Now jokingly, when Maud beats her to the cave, Buried Treasure says she's going back to be a lawyer...but Maud is the only one at her graduation. This could mean one of two things. Either BT was a different year than her, or there were other students going for this Rocktorate and Maud was so good, she was the only one to get it that year.)
This Rocktorate must mean a lot to Maud. I mean, after all this hard work, she gets go about every day looking for new rocks and be credited as the pony finding them. AND, she is now conversant enough in the field to be a doctor! What an amazing thing! :)
Sorry about this long post, but I hope you all enjoyed it :)
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