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i finally figured out why i found Mudbriar's episode so gotdang annoying

it's because his character is pretty much a straight up Maud clone, but with the added bonus of being pedantic and condescending (seriously his "Technically..." line is WAY overplayed). His role in the episode is to annoy Pinkie (and the audience by proxy), but he does it a little too well, making it hard to believe in or root for his romance with Maud. Also, his voice actor is very clearly channeling Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory, and so I can't help but imagine awful, unfunny laugh tracks after every line Mud says. Bleh.

but dang i've gotten weirdly attached to the tiresome schmuck, i just have a thing for exploring barely-important supporting characters. So look out, headcanon ahead!

~~~

Mudbriar is a very unusual pony. He was bullied growing up for his detached, clinical way of speaking, social ineptitude, and odd, splotchy coat, which the schoolfoals would liken to mud. Mudbriar desired friendship, but never seemed to know how to talk to the other foals, nor how to laugh at the right moment at jokes, or how to catch a ball without stumbling over his lanky limbs. He didn't understand that a filly might consider it mean if he innocently likened her buck teeth to the class hamster's. He had trouble with eye contact, and tended to mumble. Soon, he stopped saying anything at all.

Mud would sit on the sidelines while his schoolmates played without him. Over time, he formed a bond with the schoolyard's resident oak tree, under whom he'd write in his science journal, and collect fallen sticks to craft into little "buddies" for him to talk to and play with. This didn't do much to improve Mud's social standing (in fact the kids now actively avoided that weird colt that talked to sticks), but hey, little Mud wasn't lonely anymore.

Mudbriar grew up fascinated with the world of dendrology, the study of wooded plants. He's rather annoyed when ponies dismiss it as a boring pursuit- what many don't know is that wood, like rocks and crystal, makes for an excellent conductor for magic. The griffons and hippogriffs use different varieties of wood to make wands, which often offer more precise spell-casting than a unicorn's horn. Mud wonders if ponies would mock his special interest if they knew the raw power that could be channeled through an ordinary little twig. He has distant unicorn blood, and as such is especially talented at detecting particularly conductive wood variants. Using a wand, Mud can cast low-level unicorn spells, like Levitation.

Not that many know this, of course, Mud isn't an earth pony to show off.

After the events of the show, Quibble Pants eventually takes his love of literature and all things nerdy and decides to open a publishing house. He enjoys moderate success publishing comic books and fan zines, making just enough to afford his small flat in Manehatten and attend/cosplay at his favorite conventions. Things are going great for Quibs....right up until the day a particularly boorish-looking pony shows up in Quibble's office. This pony- Mudbriar- says he's there to protest. Books, you see, are printed on paper, which comes from the corpses of countless, innocent trees.

Quibble pretty much says what the shit dude, why're you picking on me, i'm a tiny business, why can't you take up this issue with the bigger publishing houses clearly responsible for way more deforestation? Mudbriar sheepishly says the bigger publishers laughed him out of the room, so he'd hoped a smaller one might listen to his cause. Quibble helpfully offers to publish an article on the destruction of logging- Mudbriar reminds him that that article would still be printed on paper, defeating the point. This starts an argument, insults get tossed around, "capitalist tree-killer" and "stupid stick hippie" being notable. Mud storms out (read: trotted out calmly), leaving Quibble exasperated and furious.

Mud continues to send Quibble letters of protest. Quibs always writes back, either to argue, or to attach selfie pics of him chucking a log in his office fireplace, like oh gee Mud hope this wasn't one of your stick buddies lol. It isn't until months later, when news reaches Quibble of some idiot chaining himself to a tree in front of loggers with chainsaws that Quibble snaps into action- like, sweet jesus, just because he finds that hippie annoying doesn't mean he wants him to die, holy crapballs. Quibble catches the first train to where Mud is protesting, but the idiot refuses to budge, even in the face of angry workponies and their roaring logging equipment. So with a groan (what in Celestia is he thinking?), Quibble joins Mud in his stupid, stupid, stupid protest, because apparently, this is what his life is now.

In the end their protest ended up drawing countless ponies from across Equestria, all determined to save the trees. Ponies joined them in chaining themselves to trees, picketing with signs, writing letters to lawmakers....and to Quibble's (and Mud's, tbh), surprise, the forest is granted protected legal status, by decree of Princess Celestia herself. Hmm.

Mud and Quibble come out of the ordeal as something like friends (in the very least, they tolerate each other), and Quibble agrees to print his publications on recycled materials only, earning the first ever smile from Mud, holy shit he's almost cute when he smiles shit-

Quibs ends up asking Mud to hang out sometime, and the pair end up bonding over their shared interests- playing Ogres and Oubliettes, arguing over obscure trivia, watching campy old sci-fi movies and debating Kirk vs Picard for hours into the night. Mud warms up when he realizes that Quibble finds him pleasant to be around, funny even, and only a little off-putting. They listen to each other's long rambles and info-dumps, even if they don't always understand what the ass the other is chattering about this time, they do appreciate the other's passion for their respective interest, and find that passion endearing. Even when they bicker (which is often), it's always fun, if exhausting to on-lookers.

They end up roommates, which really makes things awkward when Quibble realizes he's head over hooves for his lanky bff. Quibble attempts to win Mud's heart first with anonymous love letters and romantic poetry (failure, Mud's doesn't grasp Quibble's flowery metaphors), and finally a nice dinner (bigger failure, it rained and Mud made a fuss over the wooden chopsticks), before giving up and sulking. Mud reveals he's aware of Quibble's feelings (he's not entirely oblivious to this sort of thing, and Quibble is stupidly transparent), he just thinks Quibble is cute when he's huffy. Quibble swats at him, and they have a squabble over it, that curiously ends in a night of snuggling.

notes

~

-Mudbriar and Maud Pie did date for a while, but ended on a mutual breakup. It all started one night when Mud's pet stick Twiggy flew into a jealous rage and attacked Maud's pet rock, Boulder. The property damage was unbelievable. Boulder needed surgery. Each pony was furious, with neither willing to accept the blame (Mud says the rock taunted Twiggy into attacking, Maud insists the fault lies entirely with the stick). The incident sparked up their age-old argument over which made better pets, rocks or sticks. In the end, given the choice between Mudbriar and Boulder, Maud chose her faithful rock over her boyfriend. The breakup was as ugly as it was monotone.

It took some time, but Mud and Maud were eventually able to recover their friendship. They remain pen pals and occasional research partners. Twiggy still hates Boulder.

-Quibble's design draws from a Shetland pony, while Mud is a Paint horse. It's debatable how much of Quibs is chub, and how much is fluff. Due to his short legs, it's really a sight to see Quibble clumsily trotting to keep up with Mud's longer strides. Mud secretly finds this adorable, but doesn't mind carrying his boyfriend on his back if he tires himself out.

-Quibble doesn't object to Mud collecting and talking to sticks, so long as Mud says nothing about Quibs' very precious collection of Daring Do merchandise and anime figurines.

-The pair end up married and reside in Manehatten. They're very casually affectionate with each other, with Quibble often leaning against Mud when he's feeling exhausted or anxious, while also being a convenient calming object for Mud to pet/snuggle/hold when Mud feels overstimulated from the city noise and lights.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More from my MLP character headcanon series:

Enjoy my content? Consider supporting me on Patreon! It has rewards, sneak peeks, and early viewing of finished art for patrons! Also, for each funding goal met, I produce a new promised art and story reward!

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Description

i finally figured out why i found Mudbriar's episode so gotdang annoying

it's because his character is pretty much a straight up Maud clone, but with the added bonus of being pedantic and condescending (seriously his "Technically..." line is WAY overplayed). His role in the episode is to annoy Pinkie (and the audience by proxy), but he does it a little too well, making it hard to believe in or root for his romance with Maud. Also, his voice actor is very clearly channeling Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory, and so I can't help but imagine awful, unfunny laugh tracks after every line Mud says. Bleh.

but dang i've gotten weirdly attached to the tiresome schmuck, i just have a thing for exploring barely-important supporting characters. So look out, headcanon ahead!

~~~

Mudbriar is a very unusual pony. He was bullied growing up for his detached, clinical way of speaking, social ineptitude, and odd, splotchy coat, which the schoolfoals would liken to mud. Mudbriar desired friendship, but never seemed to know how to talk to the other foals, nor how to laugh at the right moment at jokes, or how to catch a ball without stumbling over his lanky limbs. He didn't understand that a filly might consider it mean if he innocently likened her buck teeth to the class hamster's. He had trouble with eye contact, and tended to mumble. Soon, he stopped saying anything at all.

Mud would sit on the sidelines while his schoolmates played without him. Over time, he formed a bond with the schoolyard's resident oak tree, under whom he'd write in his science journal, and collect fallen sticks to craft into little "buddies" for him to talk to and play with. This didn't do much to improve Mud's social standing (in fact the kids now actively avoided that weird colt that talked to sticks), but hey, little Mud wasn't lonely anymore.

Mudbriar grew up fascinated with the world of dendrology, the study of wooded plants. He's rather annoyed when ponies dismiss it as a boring pursuit- what many don't know is that wood, like rocks and crystal, makes for an excellent conductor for magic. The griffons and hippogriffs use different varieties of wood to make wands, which often offer more precise spell-casting than a unicorn's horn. Mud wonders if ponies would mock his special interest if they knew the raw power that could be channeled through an ordinary little twig. He has distant unicorn blood, and as such is especially talented at detecting particularly conductive wood variants. Using a wand, Mud can cast low-level unicorn spells, like Levitation.

Not that many know this, of course, Mud isn't an earth pony to show off.

After the events of the show, Quibble Pants eventually takes his love of literature and all things nerdy and decides to open a publishing house. He enjoys moderate success publishing comic books and fan zines, making just enough to afford his small flat in Manehatten and attend/cosplay at his favorite conventions. Things are going great for Quibs....right up until the day a particularly boorish-looking pony shows up in Quibble's office. This pony- Mudbriar- says he's there to protest. Books, you see, are printed on paper, which comes from the corpses of countless, innocent trees.

Quibble pretty much says what the shit dude, why're you picking on me, i'm a tiny business, why can't you take up this issue with the bigger publishing houses clearly responsible for way more deforestation? Mudbriar sheepishly says the bigger publishers laughed him out of the room, so he'd hoped a smaller one might listen to his cause. Quibble helpfully offers to publish an article on the destruction of logging- Mudbriar reminds him that that article would still be printed on paper, defeating the point. This starts an argument, insults get tossed around, "capitalist tree-killer" and "stupid stick hippie" being notable. Mud storms out (read: trotted out calmly), leaving Quibble exasperated and furious.

Mud continues to send Quibble letters of protest. Quibs always writes back, either to argue, or to attach selfie pics of him chucking a log in his office fireplace, like oh gee Mud hope this wasn't one of your stick buddies lol. It isn't until months later, when news reaches Quibble of some idiot chaining himself to a tree in front of loggers with chainsaws that Quibble snaps into action- like, sweet jesus, just because he finds that hippie annoying doesn't mean he wants him to die, holy crapballs. Quibble catches the first train to where Mud is protesting, but the idiot refuses to budge, even in the face of angry workponies and their roaring logging equipment. So with a groan (what in Celestia is he thinking?), Quibble joins Mud in his stupid, stupid, stupid protest, because apparently, this is what his life is now.

In the end their protest ended up drawing countless ponies from across Equestria, all determined to save the trees. Ponies joined them in chaining themselves to trees, picketing with signs, writing letters to lawmakers....and to Quibble's (and Mud's, tbh), surprise, the forest is granted protected legal status, by decree of Princess Celestia herself. Hmm.

Mud and Quibble come out of the ordeal as something like friends (in the very least, they tolerate each other), and Quibble agrees to print his publications on recycled materials only, earning the first ever smile from Mud, holy shit he's almost cute when he smiles shit-

Quibs ends up asking Mud to hang out sometime, and the pair end up bonding over their shared interests- playing Ogres and Oubliettes, arguing over obscure trivia, watching campy old sci-fi movies and debating Kirk vs Picard for hours into the night. Mud warms up when he realizes that Quibble finds him pleasant to be around, funny even, and only a little off-putting. They listen to each other's long rambles and info-dumps, even if they don't always understand what the ass the other is chattering about this time, they do appreciate the other's passion for their respective interest, and find that passion endearing. Even when they bicker (which is often), it's always fun, if exhausting to on-lookers.

They end up roommates, which really makes things awkward when Quibble realizes he's head over hooves for his lanky bff. Quibble attempts to win Mud's heart first with anonymous love letters and romantic poetry (failure, Mud's doesn't grasp Quibble's flowery metaphors), and finally a nice dinner (bigger failure, it rained and Mud made a fuss over the wooden chopsticks), before giving up and sulking. Mud reveals he's aware of Quibble's feelings (he's not entirely oblivious to this sort of thing, and Quibble is stupidly transparent), he just thinks Quibble is cute when he's huffy. Quibble swats at him, and they have a squabble over it, that curiously ends in a night of snuggling.

notes

~

-Mudbriar and Maud Pie did date for a while, but ended on a mutual breakup. It all started one night when Mud's pet stick Twiggy flew into a jealous rage and attacked Maud's pet rock, Boulder. The property damage was unbelievable. Boulder needed surgery. Each pony was furious, with neither willing to accept the blame (Mud says the rock taunted Twiggy into attacking, Maud insists the fault lies entirely with the stick). The incident sparked up their age-old argument over which made better pets, rocks or sticks. In the end, given the choice between Mudbriar and Boulder, Maud chose her faithful rock over her boyfriend. The breakup was as ugly as it was monotone.

It took some time, but Mud and Maud were eventually able to recover their friendship. They remain pen pals and occasional research partners. Twiggy still hates Boulder.

-Quibble's design draws from a Shetland pony, while Mud is a Paint horse. It's debatable how much of Quibs is chub, and how much is fluff. Due to his short legs, it's really a sight to see Quibble clumsily trotting to keep up with Mud's longer strides. Mud secretly finds this adorable, but doesn't mind carrying his boyfriend on his back if he tires himself out.

-Quibble doesn't object to Mud collecting and talking to sticks, so long as Mud says nothing about Quibs' very precious collection of Daring Do merchandise and anime figurines.

-The pair end up married and reside in Manehatten. They're very casually affectionate with each other, with Quibble often leaning against Mud when he's feeling exhausted or anxious, while also being a convenient calming object for Mud to pet/snuggle/hold when Mud feels overstimulated from the city noise and lights.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More from my MLP character headcanon series:

Enjoy my content? Consider supporting me on Patreon! It has rewards, sneak peeks, and early viewing of finished art for patrons! Also, for each funding goal met, I produce a new promised art and story reward!

Support on PATREON!