The good thing about being a dragon was that he had absolutely nothing to fear when it came to finding a grip on a sheer rock face of a cliff. His claws could bury themselves just enough into the rock if necessary, giving him an extra edge in terms of grip and leverage. He had plenty of experience digging gems out of solid stone to attest to his confidence. At a certain point, his claws were just more useful than any pick, and faster than Rarity’s finely honed but otherwise weak magical potential. The job usually got done faster when he just started digging them out of the walls where she found them.