Oh my God Spike Has adoptive parents and parents and real parents

Simple, they are apex predators with the sentience to realize it.

I get your argument Splinter17, and even though we have only seen a small segment of natural Dragon population, I can’t help but feel that what the show is trying to push is that dragons are naturally if not evil, then just mean and unreasonable, and that Spike is special for being raised by harmony loving ponies. But it’s doing so poorly by giving us such a limited sample of the dragon population. So they either need to show us a dragon with good qualities developing in the average dragon environment, or give us a reason that they’d all be naturally destructive, like genetic engineering.

The way I see it, FiM dragons aren’t really that Chaotic Evil. The evidence is circumstantial at best and pretty flimsy. I mean, in Dragon Quest, all we saw were some teenage dragons. One small group of dragons certainly can’t represent the entire species. That’s like saying all Christians are like Westboro Baptist. The other two large dragons in the show are grey at best: the red one was woken up from his nap by some meddling ponies and annoyed(Twilight, Pinkie), lied to(Rarity), and attacked(Rainbow Dumbass), and in the end he did back down and leave, when a CE character would’ve laughed in Fluttershy’s face and eaten her right there. The green one, meanwhile, had is precious treasure/food source partially eaten by Spike. Maybe he overreacted, but you’d be pretty peeved too if some kid ate your food. Dragons in this show seem to prefer being left alone rather than going around causing wanton destruction. They’re Chaotic Neutral at worst.  
Of course the show is pretty big on black and white morality with very little grey area, so you’re probably right. A stage magician does her job, tells some tall tales to make herself look good and deals with hecklers the way most magicians would? SHE MUST BE A BAD GUY!!1! And I don’t even like Trixie.

An species or even a culture shouldn’t be locked into any sort of moral standing though, not without a very good reason. FiM dragons in particular you think would be a very diverse lot, seeing as they apperantly have no civilization and live scattered across the land.
 
An example of this done well is the Daleks from Doctor Who. They have been genetically engineered for evil by the mad scientist Davros, their entire society revolves around hatred fueled murder, and and they have no opportunity to learn to do otherwise.
 
A bad example of this is the Saiyan race from Dragonball Z, which has some parallels with FiM dragons. Apparently they’re all planet destroying savages, and Goku was a thrashing bastard as a baby until he fell off a cliff and smashed his head, then became like a normal human baby. Even after Vegeta joined the good guys, he wis still and asshole who murdered people left and right and was still focused on gaining power to beat Goku.

They are more like Chaotic Neutral, with a bit of moral dissonance.

@Splinter17
 
Yeah, I know it’s completely crazy and has no basis in the shows reality, but one, I just don’t like the idea of a species being Always Chaotic Evil (there’s Spike, but his own episode indicated he’s rejected his dragon heritage entirely) without some sort of logical justification, and two, I really like Genesis of the Daleks.

@Trickquestion  

A Wizard Did It!!! :V

@a6p
 
Did you read my entire post? I said they didn’t evolve naturally, but were specifically mutated by a malevolent wizard.

>Rejects theory that dragons evolve  
>Then posits they evolved (mutation)
 
Dragons aren’t portrayed as “chaotic evil,” they’re portrayed as a self-indulgent, instinctual animal.

OK, crazy as all hell theory time. The dragon race as we see them now is artificial. I mean, how in the hell does a species evolve by incouraging the level of greed in dragons we see, which would make mating a dangerous affair. Long ago, a race of lizard people lived, but were mutated into the race of Draconic monsters we see toady by some mad wizard scientist. Spike’s egg when dormant, and he is the last unmutated dragon in Equestria. I refuse to believe any species is made Always Chaotic Evil by nature, and will hold my this theory until proven otherwise.