An Unexpected Find (Attn: Gerrard)

[Lux]

"Ah, at last I made it," Diamond Cut said as he gazed upon the unforgiving landscape of the Dragonlands. The jeweler/ explorer Crystal pony recently heard from visitors to the Empire about the Dragonlands, how they're the site of the Great Migration and otherwise not a place where ponies would want to visit. At first Diamond was uninterested in visiting a place, but then he heard about the fact that with dragons there was a great horde of gems to be found, many of which in the rich jewel filled mountains! So with his thirst for adventure and treasure for his shop on his mind, the stallion made his journey there. 

The pony looked around the area to find it empty of any dragons. Still the caves on the mountainsides worried him, thinking that there would be a resident there. If her was caught trying to extract a gem, well that could be the end of his adventuring days! Dragons weren't known to play nice with intruders, at least to his knowledge. 

"Guess here is as good as any place to start," Diamond said as he took a shovel from the cart he brought with him and began digging. No sooner had he brought up a few shovel-fulls of dirt, the pony saw it, something red and crystalline in the soil. With a few digs around the gem, Diamond pulled it up from the dirt. It was a perfect oval red gem, as he inspected it. 

"Ah, a sublime gem for a necklace! Why I can picture this surrounded by gold filigree!" 

[Gerrard]

Ember had just recently acquired her scepter, the object marking her as the new dragon lord. The weary dragonness had just finished dealing with the whiny demands of her many subjects. Apparently many younger dragons thought it was up to her to settle all the petty squabbles over rocks, and her friendship lessons from Spike could only carry her limited patience so far. Regardless, she was finally free of their needy grasp and was hoping to enjoy some time off from their demands. Before she could even sit down though, the mumbling of another 'dragon' entered her ears as her eyes rolled visibly. She sauntered over and peered off her rocky ledge, seeing a very foolish pony digging in the dragon territory.

 

The young flyer swooped down and landed behind the pony with a loud clank befitting a heavily scaled creature. His presence might cause more than a few headaches for her so Ember had to clear her throat and coax this pony into a safer hobby or career. "Hello stranger, I didn't know you had a permit to dig here. I have heard that some dragons aren't so friendly to ponies who start digging around for their food! Maybe we should have a little chat. I am Ember, Dragon Lord, what's your name stranger," she commented casually, making up the idea of a permit since nopony had ever been bold enough to dig so boldly before. She hoped that the tiniest tinge of fear entered his mind as her mind raced over ways to avoid an international incident with one of her subjects trying to eat the first pony to visit during her reign! Hopefully she could start relations in a positive, or at least neutral manner. She could picture her dad nagging her for giving this pony a break, but only giggled, knowing that there was some value to friendship!

[Lux]

With his first treasure safely in his cart, Diamond Cut started searching for his next gem. He was about to start digging for where he thought would be another jewel, when he heard a loud thud behind him! He turned around and to his horror saw a dragon. Although he never saw a dragon other than a certain baby dragon in the Crystal Empire, this one didn't fit his mental image of one. Dragons were big and dangerous looking and would eat a pony without even saying hello, but this dragon wasn't anything like this! In fact this one was... friendly? But what really terrified him was her title: Dragon Lord. It didn't take a genius to know that she ran this place that he now trespassed upon. 

"Oh I'm so sorry! I wasn't meaning to deprive you of your food. I didn't even believe that dragons were still here after the Great Migration and..."

He paused realizing that the dragon asked him a question before saying, "Err...right... my name. I'm Diamond Cut."