Culture, Biology, and Dietary Headcanons

@Background Pony #1356
I’m mostly asking because I wanna make the role of a magical gay spawn OC of mine who was born of a nightmare (yeah it sounds crazy) to end with him being able to roam the very kinds of dreams he came from as reality is too harsh for him.

Hmm. I remember Luna mentioning something in “A Royal Problem” about needing her own cutie mark to be able to do anything in the dream realm. Perhaps, then, while any lucid dreamer could figure out how to go from dream to dream, you would need a specific special talent to be able to actively manipulate others’ dreams.

Princess Celestia: “But my magic isn’t powerful enough! I thought if we worked together…!”
Princess Luna: “I have your magic, remember? It doesn’t work in the dream realm. It has to be you!”

Random question. If ponies commit murder, how high/low do you think the murder rate is in equestria?

@Ranch
I would assume more murder from predatory species.

@Ardashir
Well I meant less ‘murder’ and more ‘dragons/griffons/whatever eating ponies/other herbivores when hungry’.

I don’t know if I can picture griffons eating entire ponies, regardless of the predatory creatures they’re formed from, but smaller, (hopefully) non-sapient herbivores could certainly be a possibility. As for dragons… you know, that’s actually a bit tougher to say. They are far more content to eat gems than anything else (as the show itself often demonstrated), but the bigger, older ones also have a real issue when it comes to noticing any harm they might be causing others (case and point, the sleeping dragon from season one). And that obliviousness and love of gems could become a problem for one subsection of the pony world in particular.  

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_{Maybe never invite dragons other than Spike to the Crystal Empire.}
 
 
@GenericArchangel  

Equestria seems to be a post-scarcity society to some extent, so why bother?

I wouldn’t say we have sustatial evidence of that - just because the show focuses on the middle and upper classes doesn’t mean there isn’t poverty.

I actually think GenericArchangel is closer to the truth on this matter. I mean, there is clearly poverty in the world Equestria inhabits. Both the Griffon Kingdom and some of the areas explored in the movie have obvious signs of individuals who are barely making enough to survive and are willing to resort to some unpleasant extremes to earn a living.  

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_{A reminder that Capper was planning on selling another sapient species.}
 
And to be fair, the show did actually make some distinction between rich and poor among the ponies as well. Diamond Tiara’s family is quite obviously wealthier than most of the other ones in Ponyville, and we did have the very brief moment in season one where Applejack’s entire reason for wanting to go to the Gala was to raise money. But we never get a sense that anyone in Equestria is really destitute and suffering as a result of that. Even Trixie, the most literal example of someone who doesn’t have a steady income or a permanent residence, was able to earn revenge plot money with a few weeks of farm work.
 
It really suggests that Equestria is either swimming in easily earned capital, filled with generous ponies willing to help others out, or that their social support is good enough that even substantial income disparity isn’t nearly a “resort to murder” level problem.
 
 
@Ranch  

I won’t take greed off the table as greed doesn’t have a cap or limit

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Agreed.

@Latecomer

I remember one scene where the cmc used a little gem to buy a big piece of equipment. I couldn’t tell you now what episode it was in.