Gems

are the premium currency in  My Little Pony, these are by far the most difficult to obtain and as a result are the most valuable!

Obtaining gems
Gems can be obtained through:
 * Attaining new levels (, depending on the level)Frequent-buyer-gem-card.jpg
 * Purchase through the in-game store for real money. After so many purchases, you receive a bonus amount of free gems (see photo showing "Thank you for your purchase!" at left).
 * Received through watching ads in the in-game store or promotion actions from Tapjoy (depends on OS used)
 * Received from daily rewards if you play every day (Day 4 rewards, Day 5, )
 * Found in Balloon Pop games in small, random amounts. (Prior to the Lord Tirek update, they could only be found in the non-free games.)
 * Dropped occasionally by Derpy when she is tapped. (The sooner you find her the better the chance she'll drop a gem.)
 * Rewarded through some quests (more common in the Canterlot quests)
 * Dropped randomly from defeated pests such as Parasprites, Vampire Fruit Bats, or Changelings.
 * Spending Element Shards on an activated Harmony Stone can result in a Gem.
 * As a reward from the Crystal Mine game.
 * When offline for a few days.

Uses
Gems have a variety of uses including:
 * Instantly completing timers for shops, buildings, obstacles, playing with ponies etc.
 * Purchasing special characters, decor and buildings (prices vary heavily)
 * Skipping certain quests/tasks
 * Playing the Balloon Pop game for  (also buying additional pops in each version of Balloon Pop).
 * Playing the pony minigames with the highest experience modifier (5 )
 * Purchasing the highest percentage increase in the Equestria Girls minigame (additional 8% bonus for 2 ), also resulting in the most transformed look for the selected Mane Six pony.
 * Alternative option for buying expansions instead of bits (price increases for each expansion regardless)

Characters and items obtainable via gems:
 * A.K. Yearling
 * Aloe
 * Aunt Orange
 * Banana Bliss
 * Cherry Berry
 * Cherry Fizzy
 * Diamond Tiara
 * DJ Pon-3 (Canterlot version)
 * Elite Pony
 * Emerald Gem
 * Fancypants
 * Featherweight
 * Filthy Rich
 * Flam
 * Jet Set
 * Lotus Blossom
 * Lovestruck
 * Lyra Heartstrings
 * Mr. Breezy
 * Parish Nandermane
 * Pipsqueak
 * Prim Hemline
 * Prince Blueblood
 * Princess Cadance
 * Princess Celestia
 * Princess Luna's Royal Guard
 * Rainbow Dash
 * Rarity
 * Shining Armor
 * Silver Spoon
 * Soarin
 * Suri Polomare
 * Sweetie Belle
 * Twinkleshine
 * Canterlot Decoration Station
 * Corn Stand
 * Observatory
 * Quills and Sofas
 * Restaurant
 * Town Hall
 * Toy Shop
 * Bubble Mill
 * Celestia Statue
 * Chocolate Fountain
 * Diamond Banner
 * Discord Statue
 * Festive Lantern
 * Giant Egg
 * Giant Equestria Snowglobe
 * Heart Fountain
 * Heart Pillar
 * Heart Shrub
 * Huge Train Set
 * Large Christmas Tree
 * Large Clock Tower
 * Large Romantic Vase
 * Lucky Bridge
 * Nightmare Night Market
 * Nightmare Night Statue
 * Phonograph
 * Planet Fountain
 * Pot of Gold
 * Presents
 * Pumpkin Catapult
 * Purple Banner
 * Purple Wedding Flowers
 * Pyramid-Shaped Temple
 * Red Heart Flags
 * Romantic Gazebo
 * Sun and Moon Statue
 * Triple Heart Shaped Tree
 * Twilight's Chariot
 * Twilight's Crown
 * Unicorn Statue
 * Water Tower
 * Waterfall Tower
 * Windmill
 * Wonderbolt Statue
 * Any pony obtainable only through the Balloon Pop game

Tips/advice

 * A small quantity of gems can be saved towards the beginning of the game by ignoring Spike's demand to be fed a gem to speed up building times. After the timer completes, this message will go away and you will still have those hard earned gems!
 * Do not buy decorations such as water towers, windmill, statues, etc.; the second tier of the Balloon Pop game will reward them in vast (unusable [there isn't much room or reason to have 10X water towers]) quantities later on in the game.
 * Many tasks which require an item to be purchased for gems can instead be skipped for fewer gems than the item(s) would cost. For example, Fancypants costs, but skipping all quest tasks related to him only costs  total, and the Wonderbolts Statue costs  while skipping related tasks only costs .
 * Skipping costs for timers or tasks do not change at all no matter the progress. If you want to pay that cost for something, do it early. An exception is in the Equestria Girls mini-game; the cost to restart a song decreases in relation to the wait time left.
 * Changelings provide a nearly consistent chance of receiving Gems when defeated. Thus it is recommended that if possible to create a Gem Farm.
 * If you're good at the Equestria Girls mini-game, don't use Gems to buy any of the ponies you can win from it. It will take a while to get them all, but it's cheaper in the long run. Whenever possible, use Bits to buy the non-Gem ponies you can win to better your chances at getting a Gem pony.

