Writer: Ted Anderson

Artist: Brenda Hickey

Publisher: IDW



This issue unfolds as a prolonged reading of Rarity’s diary. It opens up with Rarity running into Maud Pie at a Gem Convention. It’s pretty clear from the start that this duo have very little in common and completely different personalities. As they wander the convention floor they happen upon an opportunity for Maud to advance her academic standing. There is a potentially a large cave system below a mountain which has never been explored and the first pony there gets the credit. The race is on now between the pairing of Rarity and Maud versus a group led by the glory-seeking Buried Treasure.





Right off the bat a huge credit has to go to letterer Neil Uyetake. Comics that feature cursive writing, such as the journal entries in this issue, are often lettered very poorly. Neil does an amazing job keeping all the cursive extremely clear and easy to read. It’s a small beef I have with I’d have to say the majority of books I’ve read that feature cursive. I normally find it very difficult to read but this issue is basically a letterer’s clinic on how to do it right.





This one-and-done story does a formidable job in intruding us to the characters and their environment very quickly. You get a feel for each Pony’s personality almost immediately within their initial dialogue which, for this adventure, is of the utmost importance. The lesson learned in this issue is we all express our feelings and emotions in different ways. In order to get this across it was important for the writer to establish the different Pony personalities almost upon their introduction in the issue. With the definite characterization of the Ponies the important message on not to judge one another is unmistakable.