@SeraphimDawn
All we know for sure is that it wasn’t inhabited by the Unicorn, Pegasus, or Earth Pony tribes.
Bat Ponies and Crystal Ponies could have been around beforehand.
It’s even possible that Celestia and Luna themselves are native to the land that became Equestria.
@Ridley Wolf
In my headcanon. They ARE aliens. Have you realized that they are far more different and magical than most other organisms that exist in their world? Cutie marks for example.
I’m inclined to believe that they aren’t even native to the planet they currently inhabit. But aliens that landed there like millions of years ago or earlier. Heck, it’s evident the land known now as Equestria wasn’t originally inhabited by Ponies according to Heathwarming Eve stories.
@Background Pony #853D
I think the rules concerning real horse behavior go out the window when the horses start talking. And flying. And casting spells.
Are they even what most people think of as ponies at all?
If anything, I’d say Equestrian ponies are an alien species that vaguely resemble Earth equines.
@Ridley Wolf
My theory of ponies domesticating pigs is that they slaughter(if they do do that), they extract their hides, fat for lard production(pastries use lard), and feed the flesh to carnivorous animals.
@Jaygryphon
Pigs are kepted by humans for non-food purposes too. They are mainly used to convert rotten food into organic fertilizers. For sniffing out truffles. Or simply as pets.
Pigs are also slaughtered for their hides to make leather. What is Applejack’s hat made of?
Not to mention that Ponies DO keep animals that are carnivores, such as dogs and cats. They need to be fed too.
Horses have been shown to resort to cannibalism in extreme situations… Maybe somepony decided they liked it? I mean, what’s wrong with meat? MLP has depicted ponies throwing up in a comical fashion once, but horses can’t vomit. They would die. There’s no reason they can’t defy expectations, it’s a cartoon.
@Jaygryphon
That’s a fair point with meat imitations but it is important to remember that we (humans) are seeing these things and thinking that it looks like meat, whereas a pony could look at some cartoon-ized world of ours and think that some of our foods are “slices of beat” or that they are a imitations of their food.
In trying to understand any other society it is important to take a sociological perspective by looking at their reality by how they view it.
In retort:
1)Unfertilized eggs contain no animal flesh.
2)You refuted this point.
3)I have a pet cat, and I don’t plan on eating her. Also, got milk?
4) Previous comment. But this point is a good one and all I can do is speculate but ponies might not feed meat to those pets that do naturally eat meat but rather some meat alternative. (Next sentence is very spur-the-moment made-up head-cannon!) It could be that ponies feel responsible to control another aspect of their world, the food chain, by removing predators’ need to feed on prey by feeding them some other alternative. It wouldn’t really surprise me and maybe that is Fluttershy’s official job.
So disregarding what pinkie said, it looks more likely to me that ponies do not eat meat. But I’m not certain. What do you think about these points?
@TexasUberAlles
No one more than I can understand where your coming from when talk about miss usage of titles but I think I see some of the confusion here. Hens actually can, and do, lay unfertilized eggs and because these eggs are not fertilized it is impossible for them to become an embryo. So nothing is being killed or harmed when an unfertilized egg is eaten. Most eggs that are sold in grocery stores are unfertilized.
As for people who eat fish and call themselves vegetarians, they are not. There is a term for them though called,“Pescetarianism”
In comment to the definition of the word vegetarian: I don’t really know the full etymology of the word “vegetarian” but regardless of it’s origin, the common definition of the word does fill a gap in the English language that creates a needed category to classify the people who abstain from consuming products that require the harm and death of sentient creatures.
Words are only expressions of ideas and things so when we do not have a word for an idea we must find one to convey it.
In regards to milk and dairy, I can understand your hesitation but I find it to be a poor idea to let a term be defined by the actions of some of it’s users. Also rejecting all mammalian milk as being allowed for vegetarians would lead to the conclusion that all ,err, “naturally” fed infants (where a mother feeds her baby [from herself]) could not be considered having vegetarian diets, and ,therefore, not be considered vegetarians.
And for your last statement: That is exactly what I was saying!
