Gems

Gems (ジェム, Jemu), or Jewels (ジュエル, Jueru), are the more prominently featured in several episodes of Legend of the Avenge Landers, the signature collectibles and can be found in nearly of every random-able locations. Gems mostly act as the currency. Unlike actual gemstones, gems in the series are found already cut and polished when extracted from the ground or from rocks. Gems are also eaten by certain species that are known or classified as gem-eaters, including Spike, which is odd since he is a dragon.

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 * —About the Gems.

Appearance
Cut gems are featured throughout the series on jewelry, cutie marks, clothing, and more. Rarity has a particular affinity towards gems: her cutie mark is three lozenge diamonds, and she uses a gem-finding spell in A Dog and Pony Show to get more gems for her gem-studded clothing, the same spell which triggered in The Cutie Mark Chronicles prior to her discovering a rock full of gems. Princess Celestia wears a jewel-studded crown and necklace, and the Elements of Harmony are studded with jewels that match the main ponies' cutie marks. In Sisterhooves Social, Sweetie Belle uses all of Rarity's baby blue sapphires to form the shape of a heart and glues them on a drawing. In Hearth's Warming Eve, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity, in the respective roles of Clover the Clever and Princess Platinum, find a mountainside encrusted with gems.

Spike's gem-eating diet is first introduced in The Ticket Master where he asks the waiter for rubies. He expresses his love of eating gems in several other episodes, and he's shown eating gems in A Dog and Pony Show, Over a Barrel, Owl's Well That Ends Well, Dragon Quest, Party of One, Secret of My Excess, Just for Sidekicks, and Princess Spike. Both the red dragon in Dragonshy and the green dragon in Owl's Well That Ends Well hoard gold and gems in their lairs.

In Just for Sidekicks, it is also shown that ponies can and will accept gems as an alternative form of currency in place of bits. Even one tiny, ruby-colored gem was enough for the Cutie Mark Crusaders to purchase a large, industrial-sized pet dryer. In the same episode, Zecora donates a gem to a Girl Scout-like charity, and Spike is forced to use several gems to pay a bribe, get onto a train, and as compensation for food the pets ate. In Rarity Takes Manehattan, Rarity tips a hotel bellhop with gems and insists that he keep the change.