>>/12107/
> dislike might be too strong a word, so let’s just say the first character that I don’t particularly care for.
Bringing up this point next episode. 


> - it seems the ponies are not aware of their presence so I doubt they have permission to mine here.
I wounder how sovereignty works though in this case? In the vast open areas there is various different monsters with varying levels of sentience. Could they be an independent race that operates in the area?  A future episode might provide an answer but I'll wait till we get to it.

>  it looks like a rocky clearing to me, but perhaps a rocky clearing in the woods? So, does that mean the Everfree?
The White Tail Woods are also a candidate but the presence of the Diamond Dogs makes me lean to in, or at least a place near the Everfree (was Froggy Bottom Bog from Feeling Pinkie Keen established in the Everfree?).

 >>/12108/
> ere the fellow seemingly in charge has just called them ‘dogs’, and I wonder whether ‘Diamond Dogs’ is a species name, or rather a title of these three diamond-collared dogs who seem to be in charge of the operation) to dig instead.
I think IIRC the Diamond Dogs are the species name in official other appearances but I am not 100% sure on that because I don't think they appear in much of anything. Will check later. I do see your point here though and that would be a logical inference that would make sense. 

>  feel this strengthens my theory that the majority of unicorns have in fact very limited powers, which I like since it balances out the races a lot more, doubly so since we know the unicorn population is smaller than the other two too.
I had always headcanoned this as a matter of education. Most unicorns only learn the basics and their own spells or magic related to their talent. Your leaning on this, especially in Season 1, is probably the more conservative to what we see on screen and that position is one with me taking into account other things in the show. In either case though: Magic is hard and while their are spellbooks everywhere with a lot of useful and dangerous spells, few unicorns have the ability to use them! 

> unicorn population is smaller than the other two too.
I thought Lauren Faust wanted something like pegasi were an order of magnitude less than earth ponies, and Unicorns were an order of magnitude less than pegasi, but I'll need to see if I can dig that up or if that is just a false memory.