Golden Prize · 4:02am Dec 6th, 2017
Well, a side story already. Nobody could have seen that coming.
No, seriously, nobody could have seen that coming. Least of all, me.
A while back, when I was griping about my manager being an idiot for the nth time, somebody asked me why I stay there and I gave several legit reasons and the tongue-in-cheek reason that he provides subject matter for blog posts.
I hadn't expected him to inspire a story, but . . .
The really short version is that I worked on a car today that we'd never seen before, and standard practice in a case like that is for me to get the vehicle info (VIN, licence plate number, etc.). Either because he's lazy or because he didn't have that info yet, he didn't give me a work order.
So I charged up the completely dead battery on the car, diagnosed that it was the alternator that was faulty, replaced the alternator, and then wrote up all the vehicle info on the back of a piece of scrap paper I had, then I went up front and since he was talking to a customer at the time, I dropped that piece of paper literally between his two hands and he glanced down at it.
I backed out the car, parked it, and went back to putting a starter in a Jeep Liberty and then he called me into the office.
"Hey, did you get the info from that Pontiac?"
"I wrote it all on a sheet."
"Where?" And then he began to look around on the desk.
And about ten seconds later, I came up with this story.
Golden Prize, you may remember from the last blog post, is named after a Robin Hood story. (Actually, did I put that in the last blog post, or did I forget?)
The pie was a weapon, which was inspired by Cold in Gardez's The Apprentice. Incidentally, if you're not following Gardez, you should be. He's a way better writer than I am.
The fact that it was a banana cream pie is from an episode of X-Files; Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose.
Bolo ties are also called string ties.
Also, I believe the building in the coverart (which is a screencap from the Wiki) is the Manehattan train station. Thinking back on it, have we ever seen a bank in canon?
I honestly don't think so.
Bits always exist in corporeal form, we've never seen nor heard of a check, the only investments we've ever heard of are Filthy Rich's local business stuff... in fact money in general seems to be... a background character, with some exceptions (AJ's clearly an impoverished farmer). Kid's show, I guess.
But I think the comics had a bank or two in some frames. Actually come to think of it, business and finance seem to be more prevalent in the comics. Not the best example, but it springs to mind that in the movie, the storm king is like 'I wanna rule the world,' but in the comics he's like 'give me ALL the money!'
Don’t worry, you said that in the last one.
Oh Surprise, always showing up where you're least expected... I'll read this later, the character very much interested me so I'm certainly happy about this.
Did you always have that much inspiration for stories? 'Cause that is impressive.
I assume there ought to be places in which ponies store their extra bits, but they are not necessarily like the banking system most commonly used today.
It could be as simple as just storage space to be accessed by pony patrons or it could be as different and complex as a nationally shared investment system where everyone gets constantly the same rate of returns as everyone else with no one being involved in the economy's management but a selected elite group of individuals with a special talent for it and mutual vision to look after the best interest for everypony.
...Or I guess Equestria could also be a hard-core communist nation with heavily regulated currency managed in such a way nearly nopony has leftover bits to keep around by the end of the month... (oh god please no)
~Leonzilla
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Yeah, I've got to imagine they have a more sophisticated money system than that, if for no other reason than it seems inconvenient to carry around a boatload of bits when you don't normally have pockets. Unless all ponies really do have access to hammerspace, in which case it would be no problem.
Yeah, I had a vague idea that a bank was mentioned in at least one comic, but I wasn't entirely sure, and I wasn't gonna search forever to try and find it.
I do like that the comics can go a bit further than the actual show does. Especially that one where Luna was mad that they couldn't punish ponies old-school any more (I can't remember the actual line).
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That's a relief. Sometimes I can't remember what I've put in a blog post.
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She wouldn't be called Surprise otherwise.
I could write a whole series about Equestria's worst (but still adorable) bank robber.
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Sometimes. I mean, it really depends, but every now and then a story comes pretty much fully formed, and this was one of them.
I'm honestly not sure if I'd walked all the way across the shop before I knew what I wanted to do.
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Maybe they just bury them in the backyard, or have a closet full of them (like AJ has for hats and bows).
Or it could be that ponies are still mostly used to a barter economy, and nopony really even knows what a bit is worth. It's just something that they have and they still haven't figured out how to use right.
I actually want to write a story like that, but I would need to know more about how currency works to do it justice.
Really, when you have as much magic as ponies do, there are probably lots of strange economic implications.
That's a possibility, but given what we see on the show, if that is the case, it's purely voluntary. I mean, with the cutie marks one could interpret that as either a communist system where you get assigned your role in society, or else a caste system where you're born into it. But we don't see ponies complaining about that in canon, so if either of those things are the case, they seem to be happy with it.
. . . I totally thought that the car you were working on was stolen.
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It could have been, I suppose. We haven't got the resources to check that out.
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"I miss the old days when we could just banish ponies to the frozen north." Or something like that. It helped the comedic effect that she said it while face-desked.
One perspective on that:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/368139/you-cant-eat-gold
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I agree with everything, but just because Equestria is a society that is vastly superior to us in terms of their average quality of life and percentage of individuals to achieve a meaningful degree of happiness and fulfillment wouldn't necessarily mean that all things are are rosy color.
I find the idea a bit interesting actually, a story showcasing a happier safer world despite not having anything resembling the economic freedom western society currently appears at large to feel so strongly about. I guess that goes to show that money doesn't equal happiness, and the value of financial growth might actually be overrated seeing that there might be other ways to address the things that are influenced in the lives of the people living in a highly developed economy.
Food for thought.
~Leonzilla
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Yeah, that sounds about right.
I do like the idea that Luna's last memories of ruling Equestria were back in a time when punishments were harsher.
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I love that story. It's such a Silver Glow way of thinking.
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Well, in some ways they aren't. Just monster attacks, for one . . . maybe that's just Ponyville, but there are other cataclysmic evils that threaten all ponykind on a somewhat regular basis. I'd like to think that we're mostly beyond that on Earth, although I suppose it depends on where you like and what you consider a cataclysmic evil.
Either way, there aren't monsters coming out of the forest.
I think it's fair to say that money doesn't equal happiness. Ponies also seem to have a somewhat more even distribution of wealth, at least in the small sample size we see in canon, and they also seem to favor things like friendship over bits, generally. We don't normally see beggars in the streets (we may never have seen that, but I haven't seen all the episodes, so I can't say with 100% certainty), and everypony seems to be living a comfortable life, at least.
I dunno, but I kind of get the idea that they don't really value money the way that we do.
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In S5E16 Made in Manehattan we see a homeless pony that was living in the park, (although he seemed to be doing so more by choice than out of need the way I saw it)
I'm interested in reading what's your take/spinoff of the pony's perception of money. It may not as complicated as my head-canon; but I think that would indeed make for a fascinating view on pony life.
My personal head-canon is that the ponies do have a great understanding of the ways of money but the different cities of Equestria actually hold different rules when it comes to their type of Economy and the kind and degree of social services they provide, with Manehattan being the more capitalistic type while a town like ponyville it's much more socialist with just about every job that doesn't produce or sell goods seems to be financed by their government. (With few exceptions here and there for services like Pinkie Pie's per commission party planning and Diamond Tiara's butler)
The different financial structure may be responsible for the vastly different values held regarding money.
In Ponyville everyone is guaranteed to have their needs taken care off, either because their special talent provides them with a way they can do something significant while being accepted and feeling like they belong in ponyville society. Everyone who doesn't belong is either expelled, or sent to be reformed/helped somewhere somehow. (Or in very rare cases destroyed but that is obviously last resort) In either case a socialist system where everyone is always comfortable in knowing that they won't have to worry about not being able to eat or have a place to sleep takes away the "need" aspect of money and leaves only "want" that difference is huge when it comes to how the monetary system shapes their lives and values.
By contrast the ponies of Manehattan seem to be much more focused on themselves, as in "More work, Less friendship!" seems to be the norm in comparison to ponyville. They seem to be less comfortable in giving away their money and time, more willing to cheat for the sake of personal gain, ready to extort others, always seeming to be busy/lacking time.
This are all symptoms of people under pressure to work in other to maintain their livelihood and/or to advance to a better financial situation. A society buld on ponies helping each other but while asking as much as they can get in return, forming a wealth distribution like a pyramid.
As a result the ponies of Manehattan seem to be more productive at the consequence of maybe sacrificing a little of some of the things in life that are more closely linked to happiness.
But that may not be all that bad, the fact that ponies seem to be able to travel between cities without restrictions suggest that they should be able to move to whichever place they find most suitable for them. Living under the values of their choosing among like minded individuals. And that should help ponies to more strongly shape their society's expectations according to their views and values instead of having to shape their views and values according to society's expectations.
Ponies are smart so I can see them being able to work out a contry with vastly different local systems that together synergize and complement each other to make for a most ideal whole for everyone.
Unlike Griffonstone, a place where poverty and standards of living seem worse than a third world country. With an economy that is completely stagnated due to the mentality of the citizens to never give bits unless they absolutely have to and to do just about anything to get more bits. That mentality at the same time could be a symptom of the poverty present in on itself, for Griffonstone is a population filled individuals with unfulfilled needs compelling Griffons to be covetous in their need to help themselves in favor of others and as such a vicious cycle between the two aspects continues to hold Griffonstone from becoming a better place to live.
~Leonzilla
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I don't think I've seen that episode; if I have, I don't remember seeing him.
I could see there being ponies who don't like living in houses, though.
Hmm, well the really short version of it is that it tends to be what's required for a particular story . . . I haven't really put a whole lot of thought into the pony economy in general. Although I guess it is kind of an overarching theme in a lot of my stories that ponies don't tend to have vast amounts of bits that they can do whatever with, and some of them are definitely struggling . . . Berry Punch, for one, is chronically short on bits.
I think that holds true on Earth, as well, and not just in different countries. The economy of a small town is certainly different than the economy of a bigger city, or at least that's how it seems to me. For one, there's more bartering that goes on--one of our customers gets free oil changes and tire rotations on all their vehicles in exchange for the owner getting hunting rights on some of their land. Plus, in a small town, you're more likely to know people more directly--when I had my roof replaced, I called up a contractor who is one of our regular customers, rather than look in the phone book to see who was available, and I also know a plumber and a furnace repairman that way (haven't needed either, yet, luckily).
As for government financing of some jobs in Ponyville, I don't know if I buy that. Obviously, there are some that would be--postal service, probably, Twilight's job as a librarian, Mayor Mare and other elected (or appointed) town officials, weather patrol, most likely the doctor and nurses at the hospital (Equestria seems like it would have universal health care, although I don't think that we know that).
I'm not entirely convinced that Pinkie Pie gets paid for her party planning--that strikes me more as a hobby for her rather than a paid gig. And I also don't know if Fluttershy gets paid for her animal caretaking (I've heard lots of headcanons on that one). [My personal favorite headcanon from a story was that Fluttershy's family was quite wealthy and bought her a big cloudhouse in Ponyville, which she traded to Rainbow Dash in exchange for the ground cottage.]
Some ponies might also be living in arrangements where one pony earns most of the bits and the other one doesn't; one plausible relationship like that might be Lyra and Bon Bon--I could see Bon Bon earning far more for selling candy than Lyra does playing the lyre (if that is in fact what she does).
I think that especially in a town like Ponyville, personal connections will get you a lot further than big piles of money. I think I blogged about that once, regarding DT's mother Stuck Up Bi
ch (or whatever her name actually is). A bigger town like Manehattan, you might just be one of hundreds or thousands of ponies and there might be a little bit less personal interaction . . . .
. . . or not, because even in big cities, there are circles where people know each other. Neighborhoods, restaurants, professional organizations, and so forth.
I think it would be.
And let's consider more than just Ponyville and Manehattan, because we've got several tribes of ponies to consider. What about the economy in Cloudsdale? Obviously, it's mostly weather-based, but I have to figure that if you're a pegasus, living there is really cheap. Depending on their rules, you might just be able to knock together a little cloudhouse and tie it on to the main part of the city. Of course, they probably don't grow any food there, and if there are any food markets/restaurants/etc., it would all have to be imported from the ground, which could potentially make it far more expensive, especially in the off-season. Unless, of course, they could just move Cloudsdale to above wherever there was a surplus of food, which would tend to keep prices low. . . .
I don't entirely agree with the first part of your thesis here. I don't think that everypony is guaranteed to have their needs taken care of. I'll admit, I can't think of any canon evidence to the contrary, and I do think (as was discussed in one of the Sam and Rose stories) that if there was somepony starving on the streets [if that's possible] that somepony would help out . . . not necessarily out of an official obligation, but out of the kindness of their own heart.
I mentioned that starving on the streets specifically because it does tie in to this. There's a reasonably well-known hierarchy of needs for people, but I think it might be a mistake to assume that it's the same for ponies. If they can still eat grass (which canon suggests that they can), starvation isn't likely to be a problem except for winter. Baked goods probably taste better and are almost certainly preferred, but not mandatory for survival.
Likewise, we can rule out clothes as a need; most places they generally seem to go without, even in the wintertime. [In my own headcanon, one of the things that makes a difference is if the pony in question is vain and trims her winter coat, or isn't and doesn't.]
Shelter . . . well, we see Rainbow napping on trees limbs all the time, even though we know she has a house with a bed. Obviously, as a pegasus, she could make herself a simple shelter out of just a cloud as well. Other ponies, like the homeless pony that you mentioned in the beginning, might simply sleep outdoors.
In short, most of the things that humans need money for aren't a must for ponies.
I haven't watched enough episodes about Manehattan or paid enough attention to the ones that I do watch to draw firm conclusions on that matter. I do kind of get that vibe, but I can't be sure that my own biases against large cities aren't playing into it; plus, it's arguable that since the show is generally focused on the Mane 6--who are mostly small-town bumpkins--that their perception of the city is biased as well, or that they simply don't understand it. Not to say that you're wrong, mind.
That's possible, or maybe they have a different idea of happiness than a Ponyville pony might. One thing that I take away from the show is that friendship is magic, and while isolated ponies might not necessarily die, their entire social structure is reliant on personal connections more than financial well-being. Yes, there are certainly ponies who do have a lot but they don't always seem to flaunt their wealth. I think that a good example might be Filthy Rich--he seems like a good dude, and reasonably well-liked in Ponyville. Assuming that DT and Stuck Up Bi
ch don't change, when Filthy Rich dies, Barnyard Bargains might go out of business in a couple of years, because ponies won't want to shop there even if prices are cheap. You can't buy friends.
Agreed--there aren't any restrictions that the show implies, other than non-pegasi living in cloud cities (and even that might be possible, although it seems unlikely).
We do see that different cities and towns have different 'vibes,' and if we assume that that's a reflection of the ponies who live within them (as opposed to the show creators making all the towns look very different so younger viewers can easily tell them apart), they would tend to attract like-minded ponies. So somepony who likes glitter and glam might find herself in Las Pegasus [actually, thinking about what I said earlier, isn't that a cloud city that has lots of non-pegasi living in it?]; somepony who likes finance and the hustle and bustle of the city might move to Manehattan; ponies whose cutie marks reveal a talent for government work would likely gravitate to Canterlot, and those who like crabbing and bars would wind up in Baltimare.
They'd have to, and that's a central point of my long-overdue tribalism blog. Their society functions largely on the fact that they have three different tribes of ponies who are functionally different and who have, of necessity, different roles in society. That automatically implies that a homogeneous civilization could not work for them.
And this could all be exacerbated by the fact that they're predators, and possibly solitary ones at that (aside from lions, most cats are solitary, which is half a griffon; eagles are also fairly solitary, to my knowledge).
When you're a little pony living in a world where nearly everything is bigger than you and would like you as a snack, if you don't work together, you die. It seems to me like that would be the entire foundation of pony society, and that everything else would have come from that, and I feel that while I can't exactly say in simple words how money would fit into that system, I feel like it would.
Actually, here's something else to consider--did ponies even invent money? Or did they get the idea from somebody else? My own headcanon is that minotaurs are travelling traders, and I could see them being the ones that came up with the concept of money, and the ponies adopting it because sometimes it's more easy to just offer some bits to get a bottle of wine, rather than go to the market with a bushel of apples to trade (plus, what if Berry Punch doesn't like apples?).
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Wow and I thought that my comment was long, you beat me!
I'm replying on my phone to the things I have something to add, it's a bit tricky to copy paste quotes but I at least can number my responses by the order of quotes you had in your comment so that my reply is a little easier to follow.
1) The pony I'm taking about wasn't just a background pony, he actually had several lines throughout the episode.
3) Yes, there are certainly some differences that you can find between Economies at the city level. Even further there exist micromarckets that focus on trading of specific goods and others that use something else like card packs as currency instead of money within cities.
Is just that I imagined something different for the Equestrian Economy that doesn't yet exist in our world, but I don't see why it couldn't someday.
Some ideas like, A fully Capitalist Economy existing within a socialist structur,e or on the flipside, a socialist safety bubble existing within a Capitalistic world. Modern countries seem to go only one way or the other and then if they are smart institute policies to deal with the side effects that come along to try to get all of the benefits while minimizing the drawbacks.
Economic policies more often seem to be written as a power game than as something designed to best benefit the population in the long run.
You might not like the idea of the government financing a sizable % of Ponyvilles jobs but I personally don't see a problem with that idea. More than universal healthcare I can see them having universal Infrastructure coverage among other things. If the ponies had to pay with their own pocket every time their homes get destroyed by a monster attack or something there would be so many that would get their homes destroyed a disproportionate number of times and wouldn't be able to keep going with their lives in Ponyville. So if it's in the best interest of everyone to be collectively secure and protected in any regard I can see the ponies being ready to do so.
While in the case of Pinkie Pie's parties, someone is got to pay for all that confetti and balloons! I do think is a side activity for her with her main source of income being her job at Sugarcubecorner, and whenever she is the one to decide to throw the party she would find a way to finance it herself, but when someone else's requests one of her parties I can see her getting enough bits in return to pay for the party utilities and a little extra for her troubles. Maybe, just maybe the reason she throws a welcoming party to every new citizen in ponynille is partially to promote her party planning service, and if she could get enough income out of her party planning she would choose to do that full time instead of working at Sugarcubecorner.
I think individual ponies may not need to work since they live in a magical world and have so few basic necessities and possible social services. Money is not necessarily a must for the ponies in ponyville to live, but rather they do have every other reason to want to work besides getting bits. More than work I believe that it is most natural to want to do something meaningful, to want to feel useful, to feel like you belong. Those are things that I believe to be universal desires that are inhrlerently buried in all people and when those things are not achieved is because something is wrong. If I'm to draw a key distinction between pony culture and human society would be that pony culture shows itself to be much more competent in helping individuals achieve the desires I mentioned above.
4) For Cloudsdale my head-canon is that the whole weather management is a coordinated country wide system with Cloudsdale doing a critical part of it. The Pegasus working for the weather there and else where receive compensation for their time. Compensation in the form of bits collected through taxes likely from the products grown with the aid of the weather. I had never thought about how the cost of living might be different there, but it seems to be manageable for all citizens living there.
5)Well yeah, but I can see all the things that are a must for ponies being guaranteed to be taken care off when and if one is already an established citizen. Outsiders on the other hoof may not necessarily find either aid or shelter for any number of reasons. I don't think there is a social expectation to help anypony, but helping your neighbor is pretty much expected. As to whether this situation is the product of law or the ponies own nature I don't think they are separated at all, laws should be equivalent and match the desires of the citizens to the T.
7) I believe you are absolutely right.
Although spoiler:DT has already sorta being reformed tho by the end of season 5 so that probably won't be an issue.Actually, never mind that spoiler, if you know about Spoiled Rich then you would know about that episode.
8) There seems to be a way to make objects such as bricks and even real ground that grass can grow from to stay on top of clouds indefinitely. So perhaps the other ponies can walk on those surfaces if they are put on top of a cloud, and get around that way.
9) Ha! Friendship is the only way,
Literally, there is no other option, it's either that or death.
Friendship or death, you choose!
Muahahahahaha!
10) Yes, now that you mention it is possible that Griffins aren't a naturally social creature. They could have all been nomadic predators until interacting with other species gave them ideas of things they could only do as a group in settlement.
~Leonzilla
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Man, I need to get caught up on the show. There just isn't ever any time.
To an extent, that's something that Western societies try to do (and probably others, but I'm not as familiar with them). Granted, America at least isn't all that good at it; our social safety-net programs leave a lot to be desired, and some members of the government try to cut them to the bone whenever they have the option, but at least we have the idea of it.
Well, yes, they largely are. And I don't think that it's been all that different historically, although like most things the pendulum has swung both ways over time . . . in general, though, the 'haves' do try and profit from the 'have-nots' and whenever in power do their best to implement policies that keep that divide in place.
And clearly, one benefit that Equestria has is a long, steady leadership of one pony who can plan out policies over decades or centuries, and who probably doesn't need or want any kind of wealth, nor does she feel the need to consolidate her power (and why would she; she can already control the sun).
It just doesn't work in my headcanon, at least not in the direct sense that I think you're talking about (i.e. the Crown directly pays Lyra to busk in the park, or Pinkie to plan parties, or Jelly Pony to do whatever it is that he does). I guess I can't say that it's impossible, though . . . if we assume that Ponyville currently has an equal mix of tribes, it would be reasonable to also assume that about half of the pegasi work weather, and on that basis alone, 1/6 of Ponyville's population is employed by the Crown, and that of course doesn't take into account hospital ponies, police ponies, fireponies, goverment ponies, water and sewer ponies, mail carriers, etc.
One possibility is privatized insurance for property--you pay a monthly premium for your house, your barn, your wagons, etc. There could be government controls on how much can be charged.
A second possibility is that ponies just help each other after disasters. Now, I realize that that's a fine point; essentially, instead of giving money to the Crown, and the Crown then paying contractors and repairponies, the repairponies are directly giving their labor (presumably for some return, which could be food provided by the homeowner or who knows what).
It's also worth pondering how easy it is to fix broken houses. If there are mending spells that can stick the ends of a broken board back together, and if those are commonly known to unicorns or something that Earth ponies can do with their hooves, than rebuilding is a lot easier than it is for us humans. Not saying that that is the case, but it's possible.
Where did she get the party supplies from after she got her cutie mark?
This is possibly a stretch, but it is Pinkie Pie, and maybe she can just materialize them from nowhere out of sheer force of will or something. They might not cost her anything, and it's also possible that a lot of her party supplies can be re-used. Have we actually seen her in canon buying any party supplies, or indicating that she bought them (besides her party canon; I think she mentioned that she bought that).
That is a reasonable idea.
Potentially, she could also not be making a living from it because she doesn't charge enough for her parties (if she charges at all), or there could be some other reason, like if she quit her job at Sugarcube Corner, she'd have to get her own industrial kitchen and home and so forth. It could be that it's worth sticking to that job to keep her overhead down, especially if the Cakes don't mind.
Well, here we might run into the conflict between jobs and hobbies, and which one pays the bills. For instance, I'd like to spend more time writing ponyfic and less time at my day job, but one of those things keeps a roof over my head and food in my belly, and the other one doesn't. But I'll be honest, I get more satisfaction with writing than I do with fixing broken cars, and I feel more like I belong in the pony community than in my shop environment (the fact that my current manager is a d
k surely plays into this).
But I think that in a lot of cases, it's true that ponies don't need to work, or at least don't need to work a 9-5 type of job. I think for a lot of them, as long as they have enough bits to address their basic needs and wants, and are able to pursue their dreams one way or another, that they're happy.
Take the case of Cherry Berry in my headcanon: she has a grove of cherry trees (which relates to her special talent), she grows other stuff for food and trade, and she spends extra bits funding her hobby of flying, and she has a special somepony (Comet Tail). She's not rich by any means, but she's got what she wants and she doesn't really need anything more than that.
Agreed. I think that weather is a nationwide system (it would have to be, really, although perhaps in the early days different cities were offering different weather and perhaps there were even weather wars). Those ponies would certainly have to be paid and the only fair system would be to pay them through the Crown, or else you might wind up with a really wealthy cactus farmer ruining it for everypony else in town.
A few things to consider here--
We don't know what makes one a citizen of Equestria. Is Gilda? She lives in Griffonstone which I don't think is part of Equestria, but she also went to flight camp in Cloudsdale.
We know that the ponies in Ponyville weren't friendly towards Zecora, and were probably unlikely to provide any kind of city services to her. I suppose it's open to speculation whether she's a citizen or not, but I personally suspect that she is.
And as far as helping your neighbor goes, I think that that's just something that's in their culture/instincts. I don't think that there has to be a law regarding it (and in fact, there probably isn't), it's just what they do.
Yeah, it was just the first example that came to mind (plus of course, prior headcanon was often that she would stay a b
ch forever. . . .
Certainly a possibility. The fact that objects can stay up in the clouds (like Daring Do books) implies that there's some way to firm up clouds, and of course we know about the cloudwalking spell; it stands to reason that there are ways to make some clouds ground pony friendly. How difficult and how permanent it is is open to question as far as I'm concerned, and whether or not pegasi want ground ponies in their cities (or if ground ponies generally want to be up there) is totally open to speculation as well.
Seriously, that could be the way it is in Equestria. Whether it's death by being cast out of the herd and forced to survive on pine cones, or a more direct cessation of magical/biological functions could be debated (I think the first, generally).
I really think that they probably are. And I don't know if they generally have the idea of things that they can only do as a group--if Griffonstone is the only insight we've had into Griffon culture thus far, I think it's conceivable that they only have a city there because it's close to resources of some sort, and they just deal with having to live close to each other in order to access those resources.
[I should mention that my own headcanon is that the Griffons had a decently advanced civilization and then some catastrophe (messing with Celestia, probably) set them back a lot.]
4743276 FYI (backtracking) I just posted my bank robbery story that this one inspired.
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