Maud thought she could hear something off to her left, her far left, while exploring the further depths of the gem grotto, field case set on the ground nearby, Maud eventually decided to catalog the gem formations and stone types for future reference. It would be her first act of breaking in her new home. Immediately she knew most of the structure was made up of limestone but she noticed small strains of gypsum, salt, and dolomite. Maud made a small note the check later on for traces of alabaster or trilobite fossils before-
 
She felt a shift in the cave scape, a pile of small stones behind her but slightly off to the side tumbled from their perch followed by the lightest sound of crunching and shifting as if being stepped on, it was distorted by the echoing chorus of the waterfall bouncing on and off the cavern walls. Maud turned to the sound but saw nothing.  
“Who’s there?” she asked with the slight intonation of a question, but overall unconcerned. While joyous with her claim, Maud knew it would be unrealistic to think she would be the only living creature in the subterranean. A sudden thought crossed her mind, ask Pinkie Pie if she has ever seen any diamond do-
 
Something solid and heavy crashed into her from behind, with no time to react she felt the mass tumble down with her and when she came to a halt on the hard ground just inches from the pool, her vision was filled with red fur biting green eyes, and ivory white teeth.
 
“What you doing in my turf, pony…”  
“Oh.” Maud blinked feeling the weight of the dog, smelling the breath so bad it could make a lesser equine forget their name, while staring straight into the eyes that demanded her death…and not feeling all that bothered about it.“A neighbor. How nice.”  

 
Since I’m generally a Next Gen artist when it comes to Pony art, I’ve been thinking about Maud a lot, if she’s shippable and who I would ship her with. After talking about it with a friend I came to the conclusion that I don’t think Maud is the kind of pony who I would consider “ship material” as in, someone who is interested in romance. (And unless I use some wacky anime logic, romance is usually necessary for offspring.)Please note this is just my personal interpretation. She desires companionship sure, but not sex. For now she’s celibate by choice.
 
But I still wanted her to have a kid. So I’m going the tried and true adoption route. I always thought a diamond dog or some kind of character/creature that lives among rocks would be a good companion for Maud. A diamond dog seemed the best fit. Rock Solid Friendship’s setup was far too perfect to pass up.Instead of her having to raise an infant into adulthood, Flint here is a scrappy teenager but also a runt so he won’t grow much bigger. He left his family pack because they all pushed him around due to his small size and strange colors. His colors may change but as of now I’m still high on bandicoot fumes…so yeah. (He might even get a pair of shorts later, lol.)