“We have had accusations of fraud regarding the gemstones that you have contracted to supply to the market,” the Minister for Natural Resources stated.
Smolder raised an eye ridge and gave the woman a skeptical look. “How so, Madame Minister?”
The minister was slightly unnerved facing the dragoness, but the situation was too sensitive to leave to an underling. She swallowed before replying, “Rio Tinto’s Australian operations are the suppliers of almost all pink diamonds in the world. Although not the rarest, those diamonds still command an enormous price. Red and blue diamonds are even more so. The DeBeers Company has joined with Rio Tinto in questioning the size, quality, and quantity of those you’ve said you can supply, not to mention the more common colorless ones.”
“I see. What would our motive be in committing this fraud?”
“They claim that you are trying to crash the market so that you can sell your offerings.”
Smolder gave an irritated sigh and a puff of smoke wafted from her nostrils. “In your world, diamonds are useful for only two things – industrial applications due to their hardness or for decorative purposes, whether that be on a garment or jewelry. Their inflated expense hurts both the industries that require their level of hardness and the pocketbooks of people who have been convinced that they don’t really love their fiancées unless they buy them the biggest diamond they can afford. Our colorless diamonds will bring down the cost for the ordinary citizen, but the colored ones are aimed at the rich. We’ll be undercutting your world’s diamond producers by a considerable margin, so of course they’re going to squeal. But that’s just supply and demand, not fraud.”
The minister swallowed. “It is if your gems do not live up to your claims of size and quality which, you must admit, are pretty outrageous.”
“Oh? We did show some samples to our buyers, but I suppose I’d better arrange a more public viewing to demonstrate the quality of our goods. Don’t you agree?” She smiled broadly.
The minister nodded, not daring to question that broad toothy grin.
Representatives from some of the biggest diamond producers in the world gathered in a large meeting room at Parliament House. Experts from Rio Tinto, Anglo-American, DeBeers, and Arctic Canadian Diamond Company were included besides the sharpest executives from each. They were disconcerted to find that, rather than the normal closed-door way of doing business that served them so well, this meeting was going to be public. In fact, it was a media circus. The world was still fascinated by every new revelation by the Equestrians and this would merit at least a couple of minutes on the evening news.
Protests that this meeting should be considered “Commercial in Confidence” fell on deaf ears though. With the Equestrians quite willing and ready to defend their claims, the consortium was left with no alternative than to go ahead and try to prove them false. Smolder brought along a couple of experts of her own from both Equus and her customers’ companies to keep the consortium honest. She doubted they would be needed.
“Shall we look at the colored diamonds first?” the dragoness asked. “We have been accused of inflating our claims of their size and quality. So, to be sure that we are comparing ours to yours accurately, can I see your samples?”
One of the executives who had a very sturdy briefcase handcuffed to his wrist laid it on the table and unlocked it. Opening it revealed a black velvet lining in which were inlaid several diamonds each of the red, blue, pink, fancy yellow, and colorless varieties.
“Each of these is the finest in cut and clarity in their respective colors. They range in size from about six to fifteen carats. This is the standard that you claim to match at an absurdly low price.”
“Ooh! They are quite lovely!” Smolder exclaimed. “Absolutely delicious, I might expect.”
The consortium members looked at each other, wondering about that turn of phrase. The gathered crowd chuckled, partly at the suited men’s discomfort and partly at Smolder’s nonchalance when faced with what were supposed to be overwhelming riches. The dragoness lifted a briefcase of her own.
“Now, before I show you our samples, I will point out that we are not selling finished gemstones like those. Our customers will be cutting and polishing them. We will be supplying diamonds that are only roughly faceted, but they have been graded using the 4 C’s system that you use. They are all flawless and of the finest color of their type.” She took out a cloth bag from the briefcase and emptied its contents onto the table. Half a dozen pink diamonds at least quadruple the size of the consortium’s samples were revealed. As the experts gaped, Smolder brought out more bags that contained similarly sized diamonds in blue, fancy yellow, and red.
Upon being given permission to handle them, the experts began examining the diamonds. They took their time testing the stones, trying their best to find something wrong with them, but eventually, they had to concede that they were genuine.
One of the scowling executives got up from his chair, leaned over the table, and asked with a snarl, “Have you trotted out all your biggest diamonds just to impress us?”
“Oh, no. Those are just samples of the smallest ones we will be selling. We won’t be bothering with the little stuff. We have other uses for them.”
The executive sat down with a thump, aghast at the news. Smolder began gathering up the gems and putting them back in their pouches. When it came to the blue diamonds though, she frowned.
“One of these is missing. Did you drop it?” she asked the experts. When they shook their heads, Smolder asked them to stand up and look beneath them. The audience chuckled as they frantically tried to find the errant diamond.
“Perhaps it fell into the pocket of one of the executives?” she suggested to loud laughter from the onlookers. After she got irate glares in response, especially from the bigwigs, Smolder waved her hand dismissively. "Never mind – we've got plenty more.”
The representative from Anglo-American angrily said, “You have shown us plenty of the colored stones, but what of the Class D colorless diamonds you claim you can supply by the thousands?”
“Right, I left those out, didn’t I?” She picked up a large sack from her briefcase and spilled its contents in front of him. Hundreds of colorless diamonds of about three or four carats each glittered in the lights as the audience oohed and aahed. “Every one of those is Class D. Go ahead – pick any you wish and test them.”
The experts almost desperately started doing so, aware that their bosses were counting on them to discredit the dragon. However, one by one, they gave up and declared the diamonds to be exactly what she claimed.
The executive from the De Beers Group slammed his fist on the table. “You must be manufacturing them somehow!” he accused in his South African accent. “But even you could not match the wonder of a natural diamond of a size you cannot hope to replicate!” He placed a small briefcase on the table and unlocked it. Inside was just one very large gemstone. “This is the Millennium Star Diamond weighing 777 carats. It is worth two billion Rand. This is true beauty! This is a true treasure! Could your factory-made stones ever hope to match such as this?”
Smolder pursed her lips in disapproval. “I didn’t know we were having a cock-waving competition. I came woefully unequipped.” She paused as laughter came from the spectators. “Anyway, while we have rock farms for many gems, we don’t make them in factories. We dragons do like nice big diamonds or rubies though. I have one with me, in fact.” She reached into her handbag and pulled out an enormous colorless diamond with the simplest of facets. She held it up for everyone to see clearly. “Two thousand, three hundred and seven carats, I’m informed. Feel free to inspect this one as well.” She passed it to the nearest expert.
The man examined it before giving it to a colleague who did the same. All the experts wanted to have a good look at the incredible stone. After consulting with one another, the lead expert stated that the rough faceting prevented a full evaluation of clarity but it rated at least VVS1 with the possibility of only very slight inclusions. Likewise, the color rated at worst as G – Nearly Colorless.
The man finished saying, “I would like to work on the diamond’s facets to provide a more definitive evaluation. I promise that I will not need to remove more than twenty percent of the stone to do so.” He handed it back to her, with a disbelieving shake of his head. “That gem, even if slightly imperfect, is absolutely amazing.”
Smolder grinned. “You call it amazing. I call it lunch.” She lifted it to her maw and took a bite out of it. Crunch!
Cries of horror came from the experts and one fainted. The consortium executives gaped like stunned fish. The silence from the equally flabbergasted audience was only broken by the sound of Smolder chewing her meal and the chuckles of her Equestrian guards.
Smolder looked around and smiled apologetically. “Sorry, I was getting a bit hungry because these guys took so long.” She then took another multi-million-dollar bite.
NEW RECORD SET IN WORLD’S MOST EXPENSIVE MEAL
Smolder put down the newspaper next to the large pile of others from around the world with a similar theme. She smacked her lips then shrugged. “Eh, I’ve had better.”
# # # # # # # # #
"Did we neglect to mention that Equestrian dragons eat gemstones of all kinds? Whoops."
How many gem and diamond companies are soon gonna have their profits leave a crater when the Equestrians get done with them?
11802936
11802924
Well considering that such enterprises managed to hoodwink the whole of humanity into believing such things not only have immense value but are a rarity, I can't imagine most of us shedding much of tear if those fuck sticks got the old heave ho.
Though gryphons might be making notes from them as they get chucked out the window.
Personally I think they should have kept their mouth shut unless they had hard proof considering believing something and knowing it are two different things and you want to argue about the value of gems from another world.
Very neat chapter little surprised the men from De Beers aren't screaming more. of course how would those representatives react if they could see videos or pictures of some of the hordes in the Dragon Lands. I'm sure even if Goldfur doesn't write about it there will be plenty of those in the background screaming it was faked everything from the gems shown to Smolder eating one of them.
Most expensive meal ever theres a record that Smolder can break anytime she wants. Wonder how pricey the meal would be if they got to watch just Smolder and Spike taking a break together
11802949
11802945
Don't you know whats happening? First are ponies helping humans, giving them a fair deal.But once their wounds are healed, their stomachs filled, and man is secure, questions will begin to crop up. The peasants deep digging into ones wallet questions. Burning in effigy questions. Pointing fingers at the politicians and kicking down the town hall door sort of questions. The tides been pulling out for ages and we're due for a ten alarm fuck me its a sharknado and some cunts chucked some great white spanish fly and they're giving our board members I is feeling romantical look sort of questions.
Fun times ahead for the powers that be in this story
Couldn't happen to a nicer oligarchy
11802955
I get they are worried but they aren't going to be keeping their blessings if they just accused anyone without hard evidence of anything. The ponies are helping them and if they expect that they will never be ask risk of losing those blessings considering the Equestria side controls the portal and can easily cut off access to point of never getting anything they might want to be able to back up their claims before they kill the golden goose.
A couple years ago there was a Guide ToDeBeers or something and they showed One warehouse that contained normal diamonds? All the bits left over from the sifting process f the ore that they hadnt got round to being able to procesess for sale yet?
says much when industrial produced diamond dust is so cheap it ends up on a dollar store cutting disk. Unless thats extra fraud and the shiny stuff was quartz.
11802955 The biggest positive to me out of this will be the end of 'Blood Diamonds" Well if not the end hurt their market seriously. As to what De Beer's and other have done with diamonds that's been known for decades
Though recently the largest office building in the world switched from the Pentagon to an office in India primarily for cutting and selling diamonds the Surat Diamond Bourse 660,000 square metres (7,104,181sq feet)
11803025
Now we just have to deal with the inter tribal slaughter, child soldiering, rape, lack of infrastructure, resistance against employing such infrastructure because it supposed submission to foreign influence or angers the spirits or some such, corruption, and just overall misery of those parts of the world.
And before the down vote brigade dive bombs my pms, im not diminishing such a things influence, merely saying such issues existed before and would continue, albeit perhaps in a much deminished state, regardless.
Welcome to Earth. God's away on business, but Lucifer can take your call
I oft wonder how folks don't read the writing on the wall in stuff like this. Of course then again most will never see or even benefit from such a thing in my country and such things are for our betters, so perhaps that might explain matters
11803037 never meant to imply the end of Blood diamonds would fix things only that it would be a change. Seen various authors handle how common gems are in Equestria compared to Earth in a number of ways not counting the fact rock farmer can readily grow them
11803046
Apologies. Ive brought matters like this before (barely in passing I might add, as Im doing here) and peoples reaction was uniformly vitriolic and has caused me to often be rather knee jerk in my defensiveness. That a fan site that began, of all places, 4chan manages to have people be relatively civil...
I don't recall the title, but I do remember a story on this site where Kirk's Enterprise found Equestria, and they found that Dilithium crystals were considered weeds by Rock Farmers. The sensor readings of all that dilithium is what drew the Enterprise and a Klingon vessel to Equestria, as (in that story) the system was inside the Neutral Zone.
Smolder trolling the greedy oligarchs, absolutely lovely. TROLLder!
To anyone from Equestria this amount of security for a few diamonds would no doubt seem absolutely ridiculous
I suppose that's another way to put your money where your mouth is :)
Read a Star Trek crossover here some few years ago. The Pie family commented on being tired of getting rid of dilithium crystal weeds on their rock farm.
Yeah. Equestrian gemstones are going to upend the gemstone market like a Honda getting "pushed" off the mainline by a 12000 ton freight train doing 55 mph.
I know something like that would happen, quite the priceless joke and high priced meal in human standards.
They probably now understand why Gems are so common, they are like Strawberries or Apples to dragons
1.
Mark Wells and his fellow immortals and their uncorruptable leadership in the future?
2.
Probably their long term goals.
3.
Every old human leadership wanting to bring back war and competition for selfish reason, rather than the greater goal.
I suspect that Smolder is going to get a lot of teasing from her husband over this.
“Oh, my wife has such a refined and EXPENSIVE palate that it’s hard to afford even a simple lunch! I’ve tried offering her rare vintages of wine, cheese from a distant village made by monks, and meat from endangered creatures, and yet she demands DIAMONDS!”
“Oh, shut it!”
Something I thought about recently was when, not if, Smolder and the crown would have to deal with climate scientists and conservationists pleading for asylum in Equestria.
Fact of the matter is that we’re doomed. Earth is dying, nobody in power cares, and the people causing the pollution seem to be ACTIVELY working on killing Earth. I could see bitter and hopeless scientists who have warned humanity for years deciding to try saving themselves and their families from the coming apocalypse, and offering their knowledge and expertise to Equestria in return in order to spare them the same fate.
Damn, ran out of chapters
11803630
I keep pressing the space where the next chapter button is. Clearly further offerings are needed to fuel The Bernard.
11803662
Offerings eh?
Does wood count?
11803713
I've offered pocket lit and childrens laughter the sacred chakat body pillow, but I'm not hearing the blessed digeridoos and koala screams. I guess substituting midgets for the little bastards was a poor choice then.
Why am I hearing the wail of ambulance sirens heading to diamond merchant's offices the world over when video of this goes viral?
I mean, diamond merchants looking at their high-priced wares and thinking THIS does not even make up a dragon's LUNCH!?!?!?
said scream followed by the thump of bodies hitting floor
I am mark hamill jiker laughing right now at that ending
Wait until they learn of all the immortals in Equestria, in theirs and others.
Their minds will blow up or something...
camo.fimfiction.net/NLCm5uqyF5w-yUyUmc28_crZlcjQNEYOE8_GEVVNL6E?url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F68%2F73%2Fa3%2F6873a30c83d41a4dc3c304396becc7d6.jpg
Just wait until the ponies and other races show their medical knowledge and science surrounding it.
It- will - be - glorious !
camo.fimfiction.net/Jt6vnkGf4HT3j4-cVdbbti22USDbnCPu1iQSyMIf--0?url=http%3A%2F%2Forig05.deviantart.net%2Feb60%2Ff%2F2013%2F046%2F4%2F9%2Fim_going_to_saw_through_your_bones__tf2_medic_pony_by_awl60-d5v1ubg.jpg
11808083
https://m.America be like
Aussies:
Yeah we're pretty much dirt and porking the ball and chain, so name wise we decided to go with the ways that kept them from nagging us the rest of the time. Course them being women couldn't pick even after we narrowed it down to the most homoerotic, so went with em all.
WOO FINALLY CAUGHT UP IN THE SERIES TO BEGIN READING WHAT SPIKED MY CURIOSITY IN THE FIRST PLACE
11809303
That's a lot of catching up!
Well, technically wouldn't a gem grown on a rock farm be considered a Produced gem? (Not natural)
Diamon manufacturing is a thing - interesting stuff
11803238
Especially for what amounts to a bunch of shit sprinkles that would likely go on one of Spike's cupcakes.
11803037
Yeah, once diamonds are reduced to pennies for the ton, they'll just have to go back to growing acres of poppies and coca to get cash to fund their wars--unless Mark & Co. can provide some sort of cure for various drug addictions. Hopefully, cut out every route for such thugs to make a buck, they won't have any other choice than to start earning an honest living for a change.
11803778
Hey! More like de Beers execs practicing skydiving out their office windows.
11815124
oh, one of my other favorite FimFiction authors, Estee, came up with idea that "Rock Farmers" really DO create gems, by transforming regular rocks into gems with their secret Earth magic.
why do they keep it a secret?
because it's Traditional to keep it secret!
And to think their advisors very likely told them "you don't want to mess with a dragon in matters of wealth...." 😂😅🙃
11842345
All Earth magic is secret in their universe and traitors are dealt with. This rised problem of alicorns in original book.