JAN 29 Saturday.

Andra looks a bit perturbed at my question and the idea of more questions but a fresh drink being placed down seems to change her mind. "You better have a lot of questions, because I'm not answering this shit without more drinks." I nod again to confirm and she sighs. "Mostly fish I guess? Not much to really eat beyond fish and gems."

I know the Dragon Lands are a large peninsula mostly surrounded by the Celestial Sea, it's often called an island even though there is a land bridge that connects to the eastern continent. "Any land prey of interest?" I ask after writing down her words while casting a sound barrier around us for some privacy.

She raises a brow at my words but shakes her head. "I've seen a few large lizards and other stuff, none of it tastes good though. All too, stringy." I find it interesting that they primarily eat from the sea, but it makes sense as it's the closest source of food for them beyond gems.

I nod. "Agreed, is any fish in particular your preferred food? Or is it just whatever you can get?"

She looks at me oddly. "Ok, wait, explain first." I smile at that. Maybe she's just a particularly smart dragon, but she is far from stupid and the show didn't give them enough credit.

I take out some fish jerky and pass her a piece before snacking on one as well. "I'm one of the few ponies who actually likes meat. I can't tell you how many have given me that look." I chuckle at the face she has while sniffing the jerky and taking a bite.

She quickly eats the rest a moment later. "Huh, you are a really weird pony. Ya, we eat what we can catch really, I've seen some of the elders eat whales." She laughs at the memory and I continue to transcribe her words. "There are a few that can mess us up though, we just avoid those." It's not very detailed but I move on from that topic.

"Ok, you mentioned elders, how do you feel about them?" This is a curious point as she said that word with a little respect.

She takes another drink. "Umm, I don't know. They are big and strong, and know a bunch of useless stuff, you show some respect to not get in trouble or lectured." Seems I'll have better luck talking to an older dragon then. She groans a little, "They are also so boring, always sleeping and they barely pay attention."

Stereotypical dragons then, still best not to drop your guard around them. "Are there any gems you can't eat?"

That gets her to actually think for a moment. "No? None I've eaten at least, but a few ores and rocks can mess us up a bit."

That confuses me for a moment before it clicks. Dragons can't clean gems that well so eating the odd rock or piece or ore connected or embedded into a gem is inevitable.

"You eat rocks connected to gems?" She nods like it's a stupid question. "Any ore you do like eating? And does that mean you can eat metal?" I question further.

She nods after a moment. "I think I remember some dumbass trying when I was younger, he was fine I think, maybe I should try? Yes, a few ores, mostly, iron I think?" She seems to struggle to put a name to it. "Hgh! Doesn't matter to us, we know by taste, and don't use some stupid name, it's just called Crunch damn it!"

That is pretty interesting, and something to ask about if I ever visit. "Hmm, what's something you consider valuable for a horde," I ask after making my notes.

She smiles a little. "Finally something important! You are so boring when talking, I liked you more when you were hitting me." I take her words in good humor. "And it depends on how old the dragon is, I guess." She speaks with a little more interest and vigor. "A dragon like me wants gems, the cleaner and bigger the better. They are good eating and tell other dragons who's boss."

She takes another long drink and it seems she's starting to feel it a little after four mugs. "That's why I'm here actually, those elders trade." She hiccups a bit from her drinking. "Some good gems for gold." I pause as it implies several interesting things, mainly that dragons trade with each other, something heavily implied but never proven.

"For what? Sure gold looks nice but I doubt you have much use for it." I ask as they don't often trade with other races and certainly not enough to need any large amount of gold.

She huffs out a laugh. "Like I said I don't care about it, the elder dragonesses love the stuff though, it's how they gain an elder drake's attention. You really don't know shit about dragons do yooou?" She asks as she finishes another mug with a slight slur in her voice.

I know it can't be as simple as she said, but she's probably not wrong either. It makes me wonder what evolutionary trait caused them to develop in such a way, it could be an instinct they develop as they get older. I chose to avoid mating as a topic in case I crossed some taboo I didn't know about.

"So you were trading gems to bring back and trade for better gems." She gives me a slow nod and an annoyed look at the bar. "Got any left? I'm willing to trade fairly if you are?" She narrows her eyes despite the alcohol but nods again after a moment and places her bag on the counter.

She rummages around inside and dumps a few on the bar and most are rough gems like emerald and topaz, but two do catch my eye. One is a fire affinity gem, around three inches across on all sides. Those are hard to come by at the size and I'm definitely buying it, the other gems are something even better.

A roughly four-inch wide rounded gem with a greenish color very similar to emerald and a little dirt on it, it almost looks identical to emerald actually. Most wouldn't know what this is unless they were an expert but I could feel the life magic stored in the gem. It's a fucking life affinity gem, a Life gem, something beyond rare to find and worth a fortune.

My eyes widen while staring at it and I take out three bags from my saddlebags and move them over to her immediately. "I'm not sure where you got this, but that's fifteen hundred bits and I'm still underpaying you, deal?" I explain honestly and quickly while looking hopefully at her.

I could have tried to underpay her and lie but I'm not going to try and scam a dragon no matter how young. Her eyes widen comically at my words and she quickly peeks inside the bags before looking shell-shocked. She's sobered up a bit by my actions and looks up at me and the gems. "B- This is underpaying me? By how much?"

I keep my blunt but hopeful tone. "If you found the right buyer? So much more, but you'd need to find the right buyer and set everything up properly and legally." She grimaces a bit at that idea. "Look, I may not be offering the best price, far from it in fact, but I'll buy it now and I'll be honest about screwing you over here." I decided to just be blatantly honest and try to appeal to her nature.

She huffs a laugh after a moment. "From getting scammed to getting scammed knowingly. Fine, you got a fucking deal, this is more than I'd ever hoped for anyway." She smiles a bit and pushes the gems over to me while taking the bags. "Plus, I rather deal with you than some stuck-up asshole pony, it's not worth the headache." She jokes a bit and shows that we're on decent terms if nothing else.

I smile widely and quickly collect the gems. "Thanks for letting me scam you then. Seriously though, if we ever meet again I owe you one, I live in Canterlot, if you ever need something come find me." I say with a serious tone and she stares into my eyes for a long moment and seems to understand I'm serious before nodding with a little respect.

I still have a smaller bag of bits left and pass it to her. "That's for the tab and any other drink. I'd say it was a pleasure but you weren't very helpful, you chromatic little shit." I try to lighten things again with an insult, one she doesn't understand fully but she knows she is being insulted.

She laughs as I stand up, and she takes the smaller bag. "And you're a batshit insane pony who makes no damn sense, but you're not bad. Now fuck off so I can drink in peace finally." I chuckle and leave her alone while walking out of the inn. Not many ponies remained inside and most avoided looking at her too much so nopony probably noticed our trade.

I also don't think she'll be robbed, mostly because robbing a drunk dragon seems like a stupid fucking idea, and because I noticed a guard waiting outside the inn probably there in case Andra got violent. I quickly leave town and Entropy takes us home late into the night.

When I return I start to go through the gems in more detail and sort my notes a little. I did miss out on more information by cutting that conversation short, but she was only going to get more drunk and this single gem is worth it a thousand times over. I can not understate the value of this gem.

To give some context a Life gem is immensely valued because it is the only known way for anypony to manipulate life magic without a life magic affinity. It only lets you gather and release life magic but that is more than enough to justify the price. As an example, the last time I heard about this gem was when I was around ten or so.

Back then a one-inch cubed Life gem sold to a noble for over one hundred thousand bits! It's fucking absurd but the gems ability is worth it. This Life gem is rough but if cut correctly it could make a four-inch wide gem, although it can't be a cube cut as that would waste too much material.

I stare at the gem slightly transfixed and notice that the clarity is not perfect but still better than a lot of gems. I very carefully secure it inside of a spare box I have. This is a true treasure and even Celestia would have a very difficult time trying to buy one if she could even find one this big which I doubt. I spend a few more minutes enchanting a ruby to shield the box more.

After it is secure I place it on my desk with plans to leave it at Gaia's Eden as soon as Entropy is rested enough to make the trip. After a moment I take a deep breath and look through the other gems I bought in a rush. Most are normal uncut gems of various sizes and qualities.

The only other gem worth my attention is the Fire gem, it's larger than the one I have but looks a bit less clear on the inside. The other gems are thrown on a shelf and the Fire gem is placed next to the other one I have. After a few moments, I leave my workroom to make some dinner for me and Entropy.

time skip

JAN 30 Sunday.

I flip through another page and continue to take notes in the quiet library. After the excitement of yesterday I've made some quick plans.

After dinner last night I took the Life Gem to Gaia's Eden before quickly making a box from Golden Oak wood to block out life magic and placing the gem in it before hiding it in my shack. After that I finally got some sleep late at night, I struggled to contain my excitement while going about my morning routine before heading to the library.

It's been several hours now and what I've learned has just proven just how valuable my find really is. Turns out there is a spell that lets you connect a living thing to a Life gem, it only works on plants though, and explicitly says to never connect it to a living being made of flesh.

I'm not sure what would happen, but I don't fuck with Biomancy for a good reason. Anyway, this spell lets you directly feed gathered life magic into a plant, as you'd imagine the ability to grow any valuable plant faster is very much sought after. Even the Blood Leaf Tea could be farmed with a Life gem, although that would be horribly inefficient.

But this is where the downsides come in, mainly the rarity of the gem. Only one or two are found every few decades and the largest one currently known about is three inches cubed. Another downside is the simple fact that gathering life magic in the gem is painfully slow.

The only places with good amounts of ambient life magic are old deep forests, so charging a Life gem can be a very tedious thing. This is also why anypony with a Life gem can't just use it at will as much as they'd like, instead, it's used on very specific plants or to heal rare plants that are dying.

On top of the rarity, the gem is also highly contested when found, many might kill for it in fact. It's also the reason I left so quickly after buying it, I'm not risking shit like that and the Life gem needed to be secured as quickly as possible.

Now, another related upside that I skipped over is a bit more difficult to explain and it involves how affinities work. When I absorb neutral magic it changes to become unique to me, like it's been tainted with part of myself in some way, this is also why you can't just pull magic from a gem into your body and use it, your body needs time to make it its own.

But when you have an affinity it is already a unique type of magic and your body holds a reserve of it and its ability to gather that magic affinity is only really limited by the amount around you. So, let's take Celestia's solar affinity as an example of how this works.

She could dump some of her solar magic reserves into the Sunstone to charge it, but she can also take solar magic from the Sunstone and absorb it into her magical reserves directly. That's right, you can swap them back and forth at will, now think about that with the life affinity I have.

The efficiency of this transfer is based on your personal conversion ratio, so it's not a massive cheat and you inevitably lose some of the gathered magic in the process. But the simple opportunity to expand my reserves of life magic is worth every bit I own.

But even after all of my research one big problem remains, I need the Life gem to properly be cut into shape. Without being properly cut it's far less useful and efficient, so I need to have it cut into a shape before doing anything with it. As you'd imagine something with such immense value could tempt even professional ponies to betray their morals, and the fact I bought it from an unknown source doesn't help.

I sit in the library and close the book after a moment before picking everything up and walking around to place the books back where they belong. After it's all sorted I start to walk out of the library but stop as I see Blaz doing the same. I walk up to him as we leave. "So, working overtime for your retirement?"

He smiles at me and nods in greeting. "At least I work hard for my bits instead of getting lucky, I bet you blew it all already." He jabs back as we walk outside.

I laugh at that. "If you'll remember I'm not the one who can't stop betting on every little thing. What are you even doing here on your day off?" Blaz has Sundays and Wednesdays off and he's not often the type to do anything but relax and play games on his days off.

He huffs and stops outside the library's steps. "I decided to do some woodworking, taking classes and reading up on it." I raise a brow as he doesn't change that often and picking up a new hobby suddenly is not like him. "Don't give me that look, Colt, unlike you I'm an adult and can do what I want."

I just keep my brow raised and he sighs after a moment before getting this look of slight pride. "My son's foals are getting older and I want to make them some toys ok." He shows some pride in his words but also some hesitation at giving me more ammo.

I don't joke about that as it's just an adorable and kind thing for him to do. I take out my notebook and write down a few book names that should prove helpful in his quest. I rip out the page and pass it to him, "Those should help, and if you need some help I'm always free."

He smiles at me and looks a little proud. "Always the helpful one, thanks Colt. I got to get going, but we're still on for next Sunday right?" I nod as that is our next planned game night. "Good, I'll bring something then, keep out of trouble Colt." He bids me farewell.

"You too, you lovey dovey grampa." I tease him a bit and walk off with a laugh. Having friends is always nice, even if they can be complicated and even annoying at times. My mood has been high all the way and still is as I walk home to finish something I was working on.

When I arrive home Entropy leaves my shadow like normal, by screaming out. "Freedom!" before deciding to ride on my back as I sit down and continue my work from yesterday. The Heat Retention spell has its groundwork done and it would only take me a few days to optimize it some more and in a week or so I'll be able to send it off.

As my mind wanders to my current conundrum a thought strikes me. I've been reminded by Celestia a few times that I'm not alone, and I think this is a case where I could use a little help. If some random pony tried to have a gem cutter cut a Life gem I'm likely to get robbed, but if The Celestia orders it.

Hmm, that might actually work, it's not like she'd steal it from me and she could get it done with far fewer questions while being way more lowkey. After a moment I think about our next meeting time, more than a week from now, and it would be perfect to ask in private.

I smile at the mental image of her face when she finds out what I found and where I found it, this should be fun.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :D
Current year is 995

I decided to extend this one for another chapter as I've wanted Shade to fine a Life gem for a while now and this fit pretty well by complete accident.

Also, the dragon lands are said to be an island, but Spike went there without wings so I changed a few things, I'll probably have to make up some more stuff when we eventually end up there.

I hope you enjoyed it.