1) I personally hold to dragons being immortal as when was the last time you actually saw a dragon die of old age? Pff, nah; they've got a 100% adventurer casualty rate. (Or "I have no idea thats cheesy sir"
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2) Your DM is wrong. Things that reduce metamagic costs are not applied after the metamagic is applied to a spell. Its not [Prep Fireball in 3rd slot] -> [Apply Maximize, changing to 6th slot] -> [Apply metamagic reduction down to 4th slot].
The reduction in increased spell level for metamagic is constant whether the metamagic is applied to a spell or not. The reduction ability is not modifying the spell after metamagic is applied to it, it is modifying the actual metamagic feat so that a feat that added +3 to a spell's level will only add, say, +1 instead. You're not adding then subtracting and having the total effective spell level bouncing around like that.
3) Epic spells do not fall into any spell level. They simply require having the epic feat and making the spellcraft DCs/exp/gold requirements of crafting them and then the spellcraft DCs to cast them. Thus, you can't apply metamagic to them either.
There is an Epic feat that lets you unlock 10th level and higher spell slots, but those spell level slots are used simply for either prepping more lower level spells or for when you apply enough metamagic that you need slots above 9th for the spell(s).