It’s pretty well established that gems are quite common in Equestria. Handing out gems like that most likely is like handing out a couple dollars or so.

@achy  
That IS her special talent. Gem detection.

@Background Pony #8568  
That’s a very simple and logical reason. Gemstones only crystallize in special circumstances. While gemstones are everywhere in Equestria, there’s no promise they’re in the rocks Pinkie Pie’s family has.
 
If it’s a family farmland it could been wealthy at some point, but through generations of the same family taking from the earth gemstones there would be nothing left.
 
Sides, when you want JUST the right rock to accent your garden. Smooth, but not river bed smooth. Go to the Pie farm and your sure to find the stones your looking for. Cause they’ve got the stones to sell to you.

@Background Pony #8568  
Perhaps they’re simply frugal, or it takes a long time to farm gems from rocks. Or both.

Apparently gems grow in rocks in Equestria, but why are Pinkie’s family still poor?

@Mad Black  
Well, to be fair, he was pretty upset when the bird swopped in and took it from him. Looked as if he was actually looking forward to eating it.
 
Now me, i wouldn’t touch that garbage.

@Justice4243  
That’s what led her to get the cutie mark in “Cutie Mark Chronicles”; her horn led her to the gems that eventually let her finish her designs.

@achy  
It’s certainly a theory that her cutie mark lends credence to.

I almost think her primary special talent is finding and using gems for various purposes, and fashion is really her secondary talent.

she can find gems with magic. Duh.

And spike eats those thing, and all he got for caring all that stuff was a vegi-hot-dog.

@Psychopomf  
Maybe certain areas aren’t as bad in those respects. Maybe employment could be made in those areas by assigning ponies to work as a guard for the miners.

@Background Pony #0B70
 
I can dig this theory.
 
It always bugged me that miss Element of Generosity handed Spike the smallest gem she had.

Man that one bellhop
 
He must have made like, an entire month or two worth of pay in tips alone from when Rarity visited.
 
@anonymouspegasus
 
Unicorns seem to like gems especially. Could be some of the more robust unicorns and earth ponies make livings as miners.
 
The only problem seems to be gems would also attract diamond dogs (shinies) and dragons (food source) so the job would be perilous despite how plentiful gems are.

@Justice4243
 
Well it may be that the one she gave the sliver of was more valuable or higher quality, while the ones she handed out are either more common or have more faults in the crystal

@Princess♠Molestia  
Makes me wonder how many other ponies do they have digging up gems.

@Princess♠Molestia
 
Makes sense.
 
I’m watching the episode right now, my wife put it on for our daughter.
 
Judging by everypony’s reaction, I’d imagine Rarity is handing out at least the equivalent of $20 with each of these.

This is an image I downvote on. Notice that if I filter out a tag like “spoiler:s04e08” I won’t see other images under that tag.

@Justice4243  
After three full seasons, you should have learned not to expect consistency anymore.

@Justice4243  
Well, I’ll just assume that Gems are like dollar bills in their world. They got 1s, 5s, 10s,100s, and 1000s

@Princess♠Molestia
 
Not that I expect the show to be perfectly consistent, but in ‘Just for Sidekicks’ the CMC rented or perhaps bought a giant, industrial pet hairdryer with a tiny sliver of a gem.

YOu know. When you think about it. She very well might just gave those ponies the equivalent of 5 dollars. Considering how earlier eps showed gems are really easy to find and are in massive qauntity.

Meh. Earlier episodes showed she uses a lot of those on dresses. So it depends on how much she uses on the dress and how much she uses on currency.

I take offense to that! She does not look like a dog! She is rich though.

The best ritch bitch.