My Little Pony XXXV: The Thread Everypony Should Know

[Draconi Redfir]

Please tell me about the wonders of a massive reptile surviving on minerals with no nutritinal value, please.

It is simple really, A dragons scales, bones, and other bony-parts are all made out of fairly strong minerals, and what else is made out of fairly strong minerals? Correct, Gemstones. BUT! Consider the fact that this world is seemingly LITTERED in gemstones; they must have come from somewhere right?

I propose, that perhaps the crystals are formed in a way much similar to fossilization in our world, that is, dead animals from the past. Except this time, various proteins and other nutrients are preserved within the crystals as they are formed. Perhaps there is a type of bacteria or other small life form which eats things such as stone and rotting corpses and produces crystal minerals as a waste product, keep in mind that Spike said he had been "growing" his heart-gem in his growth-spurt episode. By eating the gemstones, Dragons are also eating the waste of the microscopic creatures, and quite possibly thousands of the creatures themselves (Keep in mind crystals are found deep within stone, perhaps these microbes crawl into small cracks or pockets of stone and being eating the stone itself, leaving crystal-waste behind in the pocket they leave, and as time passes, they reproduce in the thousands, spreading to other small pockets and producing even more gemstones, all while being sealed off from the outside would by the passing creating even more stone via volcanic activity and such.) These microbes provide protein for the dragons to devour, the microbes themselves having produced it using only the base elements they find within the stone they eat, different stone eaten by the microbes produces different gems, and dragons must eat various different gems to provide a balanced diet. (One gem for protein, another for calcium for example.)


Alternatively, the Dragons still-hunt and eat meat, but view gemstones (still providing the minerals for scales bones and teeth and such) as sweets, which they collect many of as they have a really large sweet-tooth.


edit: And/or any of the above examples.