I have read a ton of stories and have recently seen a lot of HiE's or PoE's have the human be vegetarians right off the bat. (they have not encountered a pony yet)

it won't stop me from reading but I personally find this a bit of a irritating. How about the rest of you?

Personally I don't care since most stories isn't about food.

The Kid politely disagrees. Anything's better than having ponies hate humans for eating meat. In his book, anyway.

1115076 Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I guess it just depends on context for me. But yeah, I can see why it'd get annoying. Since it seems to only be there for the sake of convenience, since ponies are vegetarian.

People are just lazy, they don't want to do the "I eat meat" conversation with the ponies they meet. But in the world of Equistria I think that Griffons and other animals eat meat, so I don't really see a problem. I'm pretty sure Humans don't eat ponies.

1115088
Unless it's the French.

I despise it almost as much as I despise the writer having the ponies freak out about meat eating. I'm always like, "The hell? Fluttershy has a falcon for God's sake!"

1115099 Or Chinese, but we're not going into the discussion are we?

1115076 Having humans start out as vegetarians just seems like cop out writing to me. Authors just want to have some way around the whole "eating meat" conversation with the ponies.

Also, I think it's pretty annoying when the human instantly converts to vegetarianism upon meeting ponies. I for one could not give up meat eating so readily.

1115088 yea hell in my story my human OC outright ate meat in front of a pony and the princess at that, and i never even bothered with the conversation. (mostly due to pre-story Equestria head cannon) LOL

also like my story there are plenty of ways to avoid the conversation (a very short one at that)

1115076
Don't really read many HiE stories. Or any, truthfully, outside of pre-reading. It never interested me much, and my few experiences of voluntary reading haven't been great. So... not claiming any great expertise or knowledge of the genre.

But... how can that be a thing? It's so... lame.
The whole meat-eating thing being disturbing to ponies would be a must, if I (went insane and) wrote an HiE story. It sounds like so much fun! And a great way to add a bit of characterization or humor too.

I mean, dodging the issue by having them be a vegetarian isn't even really lazy, because it practically writes itself, and is a free slice of awesome that you don't even have to think about. It sounds the sort of thing you'd avoid when writing some Mary Sue because you're afraid it'll make your character less universally beloved by all they survey.

1115107 that is unless they end up as ponies through some circumstance

1115076
Well, as an actual vegatarian, it only bothers me if they portay it incorrectly. You know, such as claiming a human in Equestria can survive on a "vegatarian" diet.

Which is bull, cause one way or the other, we still need to consume protein. And the best way to get that is through meat, which can not be found in Equestria for obvious reasons, or meat subsitutes, which won't exist in Equestria because they are not needed.

Do you know how much protein a human needs each day? About 60 grams per day, depending on body weight. That is roughly equivilent to two to three Hamburger pattys (28 grams each), ten eggs (6 grams each), two cups of cottage cheese (15 grams per half cup) or three-five cups of cooked beans (7-10 grams per half cup).

As we can see, it is very economical for a human to eat meat, or dedicated meat subsitutes, like quorn (which contains slightly less protein than most meats, but still enough to be a viable alternative). I mean, can you imagine eating ten eggs a day? You might as well as just eat the chicken.

Now, when in Equestria, the vast majority of these protein sources are going to be unavalible (unless someone knows how to make mycoprotein from scratch, which I doubt), and as such, "normal" meals will have to constantly be fortified with beans, nuts, cheeses and eggs, and possibly fish—we do see Fluttershy feed some fish to some weasels, and we also see Rarity's dad fishing (although that could just be recreational).

So yeah, you can be vegatarian in Equestria, but like everything else in a story, it has to be handled right. Otherwise it makes no sense and kills the suspension of disbelief. I'd argue that it would actually be harder to be a philosphical vegatarian/vegan in Equestria, because in order to maintain your protein intake, you will be forced to consume fish (assuming it's socially acceptable—wait, screw what's acceptable. This is your survival on the line here).

Not that I read HiE fics, but yeah, I do. Having humans automatically being vegetarians (or vegans, for that matter) right off the bat is just plain ridiculous, to say nothing of unrealistic, being as the majority of us humans (myself included) do eat meat.

And, as several of you have very correctly pointed out, there are carnivores (like the Manticores, Timberwolves, Hydras; etc.) in the MLP-Verse, and the Ponies don't seem to freak out about them being carnivores very much.

(Well, unless they're running from one or the other, that is.)

And as Merc the Jerk pointed out, Fluttershy has a falcon, as well as an eagle.

Where we humans are concerned, I think it's be fairer to say that we're omnivores, as we eat both meat and veggies. Writing one in Equestria who's that way would be way more realistic than automatically, once they meet Twilight and Crew, have them say, "Hi! I'm *insert generic human name here* and I'm a vegetarian, so you don't have to worry about me getting the sudden urge to eat any of you at some point while I'm here in Equestria/Ponyville/whatever city in Equestria!"

But that's just my 2 bits on the subject.

1115076
I can certainly agree with you there.
Vegetarians are worstetarians.

1115076 You'd think the ponies would be used to stuff eating meat, since they live by creatures that consume meat all the time. Those griffin claws weren't exactly made for chopping salad after all.

1115076
It depends on whether the author actually uses that as a plot point or not.

Here's a twist for you, have the pony become an omnivore instead.

1115076
They are vegetarians. They already annoy me out of my sanity.

Doing something like that does sound like the author just wants to strip the most conflict they can out of the situation, which is retarded as stories depend on conflict to be worth-reading. Not conflict everywhere, but you get my point.
And not only that but it also seems going a bit on the mysantropic idiot route of "humans are bad, ponies are good. must change ways for poni".

And now your thread gave me a couple of ideas for a couple of my own fics, so I just had to try to help and thank you for it.

1115076

It makes me laugh when people forget horses are omnivores. Sure, it's bad for them to eat meat, but they will in dire situations.

But, if we're going the whole "pony turn human when arriving to Earth" route, then it will bug me that an author makes them vegetarians.

The human body is made to consume meat (omnivore) and the pony-turned-human will now be able to handle it without going cannibalistic or "Mad Cow" (pretty sure that's the term coined when a horse eats another horse. Well, it's Mad Horse at that point).

I also have to go with what 1115184 said. Surviving on Vegies alone ain't enough. My Fitness trainer even told me "your body needs protein. Supplements may help, but it's better to just eat meat. I don't think you want to eat beans and protein bars the rest of your life." Protein bars are awful, by the way. But, anyways, your body needs some form of protein and in Equestria, it isn't easily accessible.

Especially since we now have a "canon" map to base our stories on. The Griffons will, most likely, eat meat a lot (c'mon, it's a Griffon.) and their "country" is located due west of Equestria. I mean, Equestria has fish, but I don't want to eat fish all my life either.

So, my point is this:

A pony should be eating meat a little shortly after arriving to wherever on Earth. They should recognize what it is, maybe make a comment, but they'll eat it. After they realize they haven't gone insane, move on.

For a human in Equestria, ponies shouldn't freak out when a human asks for some steak, or something. Maybe say "well, we don't have that here, but we have fish!" I don't know, something that doesn't make them go all "AAGDSFGSDFGSDFGSFGSDFGSWEF ASDF MEAT" because they're not stupid.

Also for the human, avoid making him eat vegies the rest of his life. It's impossible to instantly adjust from one diet to another (I'm someone dealing with that right now, and it isn't easy) without struggling. Especially when you eat something you hate. I hate beans and I'd never eat ten eggs (it's really bad to eat that many eggs. Three to four a day is good enough) for protein alone. I mean, I like vegies, but I need meat. Meat is good. MEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT.

I once wrote a crossover between MLP and Chris-Chan (yes, that Chris-Chan). One of the earlier plot points was that Lyra had figured out Chris was actually a human disguised as a pony, and began interviewing him regarding certain things about humans. Among her many questions was the human diet--the answer of which, when Lyra shared it with Twilight, they both found slightly disturbing. Not because they eat chickens and fish, but because they eat beef, which comes from cows, which we've seen as sentient creatures in the show.

So to answer the OP, I would say it would only be annoying if a few conditions are met:

> The author does not factor in things such as where the OC is gonna get his/her protein.
> The author throws it in to obviously make their OC seem more benevolent.

I can picture a scene in an HiE story in which the main character internally debates how he's going to ask for something like meat. Fluttershy could probably oblige him with a helping of fish.

You have no idea how much that takes away from the importance of conflicts in the plot. Makes me want to just grab that person by the shoulders. Shake the hell out of them. While yelling, "fix this crap!".

1115076 Humans eating meat was never made to be a big deal in my own story, one of them at least. The story establishes that pegasi supplement their own diets with fish, I've also created a cloud city that's over the ocean and the pegasi that live their live almost entirely on seafood. Then there's a village in the frozen north, where the ponies there have adapted to eating meat, because they can't grow anything.

1115076
It depends how they do it. If they just never mention meals in the story I don't care as they are avoiding a (Admittedly hard to write) conversation. I think that with things like eagles and badgers and stuff that meat shouldn't be a big deal especially seeing that Fluttershy caught some fish for some animals once.

To sum this up. I don't mind if they don't make a big deal of it.

1115851 LOL I have a human turned pony and i may just have him find out he needs the protein he needed as a human (this will fit in with another plot twist that will be shown in my story

At the end of the second chapter of, Leave the World Behind, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia are presented with cheeseburgers. I don't sugarcoat the fact that any of my characters are omnivores, they may eat a meat free diet for a while while visiting Ponyville, but I figure if ponies are going to accept and love a giant hairless biped, then the meat thing should be relatively minor hurdle.

Not really, is just too keep the story flowing i guess. In my HiE story Fluttershy's chikens keeps disaparing for no reason though.

1115184
Would be fishing socially acceptable in Equestria? that's quite a good intake for an horror story. Do more horror

1115431 Not to mention couple of their own product technically require it.
There aren't that many, but is present.

1115076
Well... my OC in my pony on earth fic the OC/Main character is a red-blooded American male who loves bacon and eats his steak rare

My only real problem with it, if I read HiE, would be if it's randomly brought up and serves no real purpose. Heck, even if they have to eat, mentioning that they're vegetarians in a vegetarian society seems almost pointless. The converse, the HiE eating meat, would be something that would make sense to bring up if the subject of food is brought up organically instead of feeling forced and irrelevant.

Of course, most of the time it is irrelevant and shouldn't ever be brought up in the first place.

1115088 For all the poking at by other people, the Roma do not eat horses. The result is rather like being shunned in an Amish community. You have no family, you have no friends, in their eyes you're viewed as gadje (or English, since we're drawing an allusion to the Amish to make the point).

1115076 Yes. Vegetarians are dumb, vegans should be shot.
That said, if it was done like how Eragon gave up eating meat... I'd be interested.

1115184 Ahem, Tofu? Beancurd? Milk?

Yes, it annoys me. It feels like they are takeing the easy way out and I enjoy the dynamic of the omnivore/herbivore interaction.
Especially when Fluttershy is the one most okay with it.
Plus it makes it seem that the author doesn't realize that we have griffins(and maybe Diamond Dogs depending on if you go with them being petrivores or not) as a thing, so the Ponies should have prior experience with meat eaters.

Obviously the above annoyance is waived if the author gives a good reasoning in story for why said character is a vegetarian. Not that I've actually seen that, but it could happen.

1115088 Not to mention Fluttershy takes care of quite a few carnivores e.g. bears, foxes, eagles. I think she of all of the mane six would be most...for lack of a better term "comfortable" with meat.

1115076 I don't read HIE (since it defies canon explanations of transdimensionality), but if I wrote one, the character would not be a vegan or vegitarian, even after coming to Equestria, and that'd probably be the conflict of the story. Something like "Equestrian Veal: It's Magically Delicious!"

Yes.

1115076

I guess in some cases it answers the question what the story's authors would rather prefer to be like when living together with the ponies. The omnivorous humans would probably be fine for some ponies … if those ponies had that kind of knowledge about them from the very beginning. It’s not a mystery that all world’s societies tend to assign their own customs as the most normal and most suitable, so I guess even if ponies would be aware of the humans and griffons carnivorous diet, some of them would still find it repulsive and disgusting.

The human in my PoE story stays of course true to his real omnivorous nature … but sadly, his lack of good timing makes him pitiful sometimes

1115184

. I mean, can you imagine eating ten eggs a day?

You mean that's not normal?

1115076

I don't read HIE. The chance of running into some pedophile's pony fap-fest is exponentially high.

Sounds like a pretty stupid thing to be common. I probably wouldn't notice it if it was mentioned in passing in one fic, but not if it's common. Dealing with the whole meat issue can be a heck of a lot more interesting, but it can also be overused. I suppose that if EVERY HIE had a 'meat talk', I'd tire of it.

I was initially miffed that sexual orientation doesn't seem to be much of an issue in Equestrian fanfiction, but after reading so many F/F fics, I can see how every story dealing with that would become tiresome.

Don't worry, you can just let the human eat inorganic stuff, completely having to forego killing anything at all. Then all you need to do is cook up a backstory that is not completely retarded and you'll be good to go.

Yes

It's a piece of fiction and ponies are essentially canvases.

In Final Fantasy XII in a certain region before Chocobos were introduced, they had horses that were (in)bread for war down the line. They were built to be carnivorous and sortied with armor they were conditioned to wear from the moment of birth. In the events of the main game, the armor has fused to their flesh and since the kingdom of the region where they were found was decimated, they roam the plains wild and eternally in search for a fight, holding ground for their dead masters. Those horse are known as Sleipnir.

All of that said, this is (fan)fiction we are dealing with. It is a no-brainer that Equestrian are largely of a plant diet (eggs and fish included for all their confectionery professions and meat-eating neighbors/visitors.) But I would not completely cross out the possibility of ponies eating white meats and even red meats, especially those ponies who live in the frontier outside Equestria.

Although the prospect of Human in Equestria suddenly becoming vegetarian could be irritating, we can always assume that whatever forces that put the human there can turn them into vegetarian or simply chose those who are the most compatible with Equestria I.E Vegetarians. Because most stories never really show how the human ever get there. They just suddenly appeared through unknown means.

But hey... That's just a theory, a.. [REDACTED FOR COPYRIGHT ISSUES]

I do find it more insulting that ponies find omnivores offensive, considering that in Equestria they have griffins. Fluttershy has a few predator animals in her circles. Pinkie Pie has a pet gator Gammy, and those aren't vegetarians.

I only find diet chat annoying when it becomes a plot point or when more attention is given to it than need be.

Diet chat is super cliche anyways, and I tend to zone out if more than a paragraph or two is devoted to it.

1115076
I find it annoying that pretty much every human in equestria fic is just an anon in equestria fic in disguise. The humans rarely have any personality traits, and when they do, they're "Beta", "Sensitive", "Long-Suffering", "Harem Protag", "Shitty anime protag", or "Thinks being a snarky prat makes him cool and intellectual".

Also that so many writers think having their humans and ponies not want to fuck immediately elevates it into high art territory.

Also that the HiE fandom has accepted mediocrity.

1115076
What I find irritating is the fact the subject gets brought up in the first place

Mine doesn't have that problem, although he's not human. In fact, despite his species being omnivorous he told the ponies he can only eat meat, and in the future ponies will be prejudiced against because there are no fully herbivorous sapient races in the Milky Way (it's an Stellaris crossover); plant aliens will particularly feel insulted by their mere existance.

1115102
Twilight has an Owl and Rarity has a Cat. (Applejackl has a Dog too) *snickers*

For the sake of the argument, Fish, Egg and Milk is still on the table of permitted foods you can enjoy.

While Humans are known to eat most anything you could put onto a platter, Pony is not placed there as of yet.
(even if Horse has been there in the past)

Is there a reason why this is a sticky?

If consumption of food is a big thing, I could write a Food-oriented novel, where a visiting human does nothing but eat. Pretty much how this book only focus on how a human tries to learn the language.