...Pigs? · 5:23pm Apr 24th, 2012
So, writing a lengthy Applejack fanfic has brought this particular question to mind: Why do ponies keep pigs? I mean, chickens, I understand. Cows, likewise. (Although, since cows are both demonstrably sapient and fundamentally equivalent to ponies on a social level, it makes the whole "dairy barn" scene in "Boast Busters" a nonce questionable.) But why pigs?
Thoughts:
(1) Nothing in Equestria can even take a dump without ponies being involved. It is possible that, much like weather and the falling of autumn leaves, decomposition does not take place without active animal involvement. It is possible that pigs are walking compost generators for pony agriculture. Basically a clean theory, except that Apple Bloom fantasizes about apples rotting on the trees if nobody is around to buck them off. Hm.
(2) Via a mind-bogglingly inefficient animal-by-product harvesting process, they shave the bristles off them to use in brushes.
(3) Pigs' blood is occasionally harvested so that ponies can re-enact the climactic prom scene of Carrie. (Thanks, Sherclop Pones.)
(4) PIE CRUSTS ARE SO MUCH FLAKIER WHEN YOU USE LARD THEY JUST DON'T EVEN CARE.
Other thoughts?
UPDATE: "Truffles" camp has me convinced. Good job, folks.
They make for good company, much like a dairy most unicorns use, they'll listen but won't tell anything to anypony.
I think the 'official' answer is, ponies really like truffles.
BACON!!!
Because it's not a real farm without pigs.
Organic garbage disposal honestly.
They don't need compost for fertilzer when thay make their own anyway.
dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Mr_Cake.png
Truffles (pigs have dog-surprassing sense of smell) and garbage disposal of stuff that the ponies don't want to eat or can't eat.
And for the pigs to eat the appless form the tree, they would have to be collected and bucked off. Plus, don't try to put too much evidence in panic-induced imaginations.
My thoughts on the matter are identical to 83661's. And truffles are another reasonable supposition.
But maybe pigs bring something to the table (no pun intended) that we haven't seen yet--f'rinstance, maybe they're the philosophers of Equestria, and farmponies keep them because there's a market for porcine philosophy among the educated elite, and transcribing their musings into books to be sold brings in additional income to the farm. Also, lots of farmponies probably appreciate a round of epistemological discussion now and again, because one can only buck so many apple trees before inevitably wondering whether you are actually knocking apples down out of the branches, or whether it's all in your imagination.