Someone help me out here, it occurred to me today that several times in the first handful of seasons the plot of MLP revolves around Applejack needing money, at least once so she didn’t lose the farm.
My question is who is she going to lose the farm to? Granny Smith said Princess Celestia gave them the land so they shouldn’t owe anything on it. Not to mention, when we do see places out of business they’re boarded up by the ponies who own them (like when Applejack ran Rarity’s store into the ground when the cutie marks got switched up) not foreclosed on.
I assume Equestria has money because it’s easier to trade with other species (like griffons who I assume must have their own thing going on), or for travel, but it looks like in between members of a community it’s mostly payment in kind. After all out of the 6 main ponies only 2 of them have regular jobs they would get paid for.
I know the other 4 have jobs they do, but Twilight is probably bankrolled by Celestia, Rainbow Dash’s cloud busting is never seen to be financially rewarded, and neither Fluttershy nor Pinkie Pie seem to get paid regularly for their services either.
So for a family who owns their own land given to them directly by the Goddess Queen (even if they call her a princess that’s what she is), there’s no reason a bad year or two would cause them to lose everything.