So I'm doing some heavy outlining and world-building for my next story, The Minoan Crisis, and I had a lot of fun pondering the Mane 6's description of (and reaction to) the Everfree Forest, and how creepy it is to them that all this stuff happens on its own. It's funny to us because that's how our whole world works, but when you think about it more carefully, this tells us a lot about the world of Equus (or whatever you want to call this world). Basically, the Everfree scares ponies because to their understanding, without the help of ponies, these things should be impossible. So that led me to these questions: what exactly should be happening in "nature" without pony influence? How much of the world are ponies controlling? How do non-ponies grow food if they don't have Earth Pony or pegasus magic to allow it?

For the purposes of the Equus of my story, at least, I came up with some answers to these questions. So, I came up with Wilderland (thank you, Tolkien). On the planet of Equus, life and weather are completely dependent on magic. There are two ways life can happen: wild magic (the oceans, the Everfree Forest and similar places, perhaps most of Zebrica), and sentient, civilized, magical races caring for the land.

In the vast spaces between pockets of civilization, the land is almost completely lifeless save for some roaming monsters, and the air is completely stagnant. Outside of Equestria and other agricultural societies, there's nothing but barren deserts and rocky mountains. The key to "terraforming" this wilderness, for ponies at least, is Earth Pony magic. Wherever Earth Ponies live and work, the ground becomes fertile, and over the course of a generation or so, green plant life starts growing and benevolent animals start showing up. Within weeks of a new settlement they can plant trees in what was once completely sterile soil. Ponies have the easiest time of it because of the cooperation of the three races, so inland Equestria is a green, lively paradise. Other races have their own ways of controlling the weather and nurturing plants and animals, but none of them do so well as ponies.

As evidence, I cite the settlement of Appleloosa. The buffalo stampede grounds are necessary for their survival, since without their magic being pounded into the ground every year (or however often they stampede, I don't remember), not enough plant life would grow in their territory to sustain them. From an Earth Pony perspective, the stampeding grounds were hardly any different than any other wasteland, so they settled it like they would any other wasteland. In fifty years, Appleloosa will be as green as Ponyville.

This explains the crazy contrast in scenery shown in the show. Ponyville is only a short hike away from desolate wastelands, mountains, and crevasses in almost any given direction. Examples of Wilderland are the badlands that Chrysalis and the changelings were sent to, the diamond fields where Rarity was kidnapped by diamond dogs, dragon mountain, ghastly gorge, Pinkie Pie's family rock farm, and all those places Rarity's horn dragged her through before she got her Cutie Mark. When ponies live somewhere for a long time, their magic can linger for centuries after they are gone, hence all the crazy wild-magic ruins in the comics.

The show doesn't give us any evidence of how other races handle this (except maybe zebras, if we assume Zecora is a good example), so that's more up to speculation. I've come up with explanations for the purposes of my story, but maybe you'll disagree. Everything from here on out is really just me making stuff up, so you don't have to pay attention to this next part if you don't want to.

Gryphons have almost no magic, and are generally considered to be the closest among civilized races to monsters. Their magic lets them interact with clouds like pegasi, but they can't generate weather the same way, so they build with wood and stone. They do almost no farming, living on fish and hunted monsters and forage from wild magic areas.

Minotaurs practice magic by sculpting special magically-conductive clay, native and exclusive to the ground under their city of Minos, into "clayspells", whose function is determined by shape and markings, and power by size of the sculpture and the skill that went into the sculpting and firing process. Clayspells can be incredibly powerful and long-lasting, but they are impossible to reprogram or recycle, and someday the clay will run out. They also take a long time and a lot of effort to make. The entire city of Minos is a giant clayspell that lets them control the weather, and also allows them to plant gardens. Nearby estates outside the city are also clayspells that do the same thing, and they grow almost all the food for the city.

Zebras and deer both live in wild-magic areas, foraging for all their food. Deer have passive magic like Earth Ponies, but theirs wards away unfriendly creatures and keep their homeland pretty and edible. Zebras have powerful passive magic, but it has no effect until expressed through potions, fetishes, or meditation.

Let's see, anything else? Changelings are pretty well covered. Goats are all serfs to minotaurs now, but they came from a wild-magic valley and their magic lets them eat anything. Don't ask me about breezies. As far as I'm concerned, they're not canon.

What do you think of these ideas? Anything missing? Anything you really don't like? Anything you do like? Please post a comment so I can tell if people read this or not. Also let me know if you would read this story. I've done even more world-building for these races' governments. Someday I might post a thread for those, if this gets any attention.

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The Minoan Crisis

4098225 The question of what life is like outside Equestria's borders has never been explained in the show. There are a few clues, such as Queen Chrysalis saying that Equestria has more love in it than any other modern civilization.

Having their lands unpleasantly covered in wild zones or barren wastelands works.

I do disagree with you about the griffons. I think that they can use magic which would be naturally centered on strength and extra-sharp senses.

We saw a deer in Filli-Vanilli. It was part of the group of pets for sale. Non-sapient, or, for a darker interpretation, deer are seen as a lesser species that is legally owned and controlled by ponies.

4098225 That is exactly my head cannon of griffons. (Though I also have a headcannon that says they have a thing where if a cow donates their body to be meat after death then their family gets paid.)

4098641 That gryphon magic makes sense. And I never noticed the deer in Filli-Vanilli. I really only threw them in at the last minute because I thought people would expect them, but I'll actually be glad if I can leave them out.

4099451 I checked the wiki. If you go through the pictures gallery for the episode, there is a pic of a deer being pulled away by the pet-buyers. They are not citizens.

4099458 Yikes. So either ponies are slavers, or we all drop deer as an intelligent, civilized race. I was always looking for an excuse to do the latter, so that's fine with me.

4099540 Maybe not all deer. There are several subspecies. One or two varieties might be intelligent. Or they could all be stupid. Up to the writer.

I know it is off topic, but, Why not portray Equestria as a slave-holding civilization? The purpose of fiction is to explore ideas, encourage thought and reflection, and entertain. From a scholarly viewpoint, a story is a success if it inspires any emotion beyond boredom. Stories exploring the social/political/economic results of Equestria having slaves could be interesting and thought provoking. There is a ton of room to explore. And not all slavery was cruel. Just look at the Old Testament of The Bible. There are several chapters that explain the ethical treatment of slaves. It elaborates that slaves must be fed, housed, and not abused. In fact, many sold themselves into slavery because the laws said that the slave holder must feed his slaves before himself. So even if a slaver could not feed his own family, it would be a crime for him to let his slaves go hungry. Guaranteed food, shelter, and employment, with a chapter in the later parts of Leviticus (one of the earlier books of the bible, shortly after Exodus) stating that a slave must be released at the jubilee, an event every fifty years. So if a man sold himself and his family into slavery ten years before the jubilee, he and his family would be guaranteed freedom in ten years.

4099598 All good points. I never really liked including deer along with gryphons or zebras because the show doesn't give them nearly as much attention, and the only screen time they get is as a pet once or twice. So any civilization authors want to give them is complete speculation, even more than for other ones, because we don't even have any evidence that there is one for us to speculate about.

I wouldn't object to Equestria utilizing "benevolent" slavery, but the show doesn't really have any evidence of it, unless you count some implications with pony attitudes toward goats and Spike. It would be much easier in a historical fic. I wouldn't do it in any of my stories because I don't think Celestia would approve of owning another sapient being, but then again there are the cows of Sweet Apple Acres.

On a related note, why do you think the Apples keep pigs, if they don't eat pork?

4099759 On the subject of meat. If you are sticking with canon: Griffons in Equestria, as citizens, tourists, or resident aliens. Even if a griffon prefers to eat fish for their meat, it will not work. They need a bit of variety in their diets (try feeding a cat nothing but fish, or rather, don't. It will get sick). The pigs can be killed for the griffon population.

My headcanon is that Unicorns eat meat. This is part of a headcanon that I am building piece by piece. The initial idea came from the old old stories, ones that had unicorns as complete badasses. One knight in armor with a sturdy sword or lance could kill a dragon. One unicorn could kill twenty dragon slayers in about an hour without getting hit once. So I had unicorns eating meat. Later, as I continued to build my cosmology, I had the idea that unicorns are basically the descendants of reformed demons. Sombra showed a glimpse of their true demonic forms. So now I think that unicorns eat meat to suppress their demon half. They are not aware that the meat suppresses their demonic souls, just that a unicorn without meat goes crazy and homicidal.