Page 773 - Off the Beaten Map

Someone in the comments is going to school me about agriculture and insects, I just know it.

As DMs, we like to use technical details to give our worlds a higher fidelity, but without technical degrees in every field, we’re still gamers and laymen at the end of the day. I personally believe that we reserve the right to be technically wrong sometimes on the basis of “It’s fantasy,” “It’s a game,” and “If one of my players corrects me on the spot and the facts are more interesting than my made-up version, they won’t complain if I change it on the spot to make the world more interesting. Win-win.”

Applejack: Well, let’s go through it for a second. Maybe it’s outside our means right now, but that don’t mean we can’t solve this problem later on. What would help their harvest woes? Maybe planting some flowers outside their home so they don’t have to go as far?
DM: The main problem with that is the location of their home: On the edge of Equestria, where there be monsters. Thankfully, they don’t see the Breezies as prey, but their presence makes any kind of colonization… challenging.
Rainbow Dash: Sweet! I know where we’re sidequesting later!
DM: But even without the monsters, the whole area is arid and rocky. Setting up and maintaining an industrial-sized garden year-round would be difficult and costly. Not to mention importing the wildlife to support flowering plants, like bees and–
Fluttershy: <gasp!> I got it! I know how to help!
DM: Oh, really? Good. I’ll be honest, my notes stopped being helpful about two scenes ago.