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// Prologue/Introduction 
// Story: The Shadow of My Father 
// by Sketch-Pad 
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My name is Gemstone, though most of my friends call me Gem. I'm sixteen years old, if that has to do with anything. I don't think it completely matters how old I am. I'm not a full grown mare yet, but I'm not at all still a foal. 

I was born one stormy night, to my mother, Starstream. She's a very beautiful young mare, or at least by my standards. Her pelt is a soft, delicate lavender color, and her mane was a deep purple that was streaked with a warm shade blue. She has beautiful, pink eyes, and I've actually only ever seen one other pony with pink eyes like that. I think It's cool. She is a crystal pony, as am I and my father. There aren't a lot of ponies like her around - both personality wise and appearance wise.

Her cutie mark is of a large, five-pointed star with a spiraling, pink tail behind it. She works in the library - probably one of the biggest libraries around. She knows a lot about folklore - how we crystal ponies came to be, as well our kingdom and our rulers. There are a lot of different stories, though my favorite is probably the one where an alicorn prince carved himself a love out of pure crystals - and gradually just populated. It's a very cute story. 

My father's name is Sombra. He's a very tall, bluish-gray colored fellow with a dark blue mane. His eyes are this eerie emerald green, but it's a very cool and pretty looking green as well. He's a big strong stallion - especially since he works in the mines. When my friends met him for the first time, it was quite a good reaction. They were surprised by how big and muscular he was. My dad has told me that he's thinking of growing side-burns, but I said that it wouldn't work on him. Still, he didn't listen to me, and he has little ones that extend to just the very tip of his jawline. 

His cutie mark is of a red crystal - why it's red, I'm not quite sure. It honestly reminds me of a ruby, though the shape is not like a ruby at all. He works in the mines, as I mentioned earlier. It might not seem like a great job, but my dad works in probably the best mine in the Crystal Empire. It has so much safety equipment, its ridiculous. It's also surprisingly a very well paid job. There are a lot of things that are found in his mine almost every day that there is enough to go around for him and the other thirty-four workers in his mine. 

Another thing you should know about my father is that he is a unicorn. His father was a unicorn from land south of here called Equestria, but his mother was a crystal pony just like us. It's weird to be the daughter of one of the few crystal unicorns in the empire who wasn't a guard, but it makes me proud, too. 

You might be wondering how my parents met, actually, since my mother was a librarian and my father a miner. Typically, neither of them would meet each other, except maybe at a crystal fair. They met one day when my father was on lunch break. He had forgotten his lunch that day so he went to go to the cafe just in front of the Library. While he was eating his lunch, the library doors burst open, and a thief ran through them, carrying a book. My mother ran out after him, yelling "Thief! Thief!" My father swept into action, chasing after the criminal and retrieving the book. He returned it just before the guard came and arrested the thief. My father returned the book, then invited the mare to lunch, 

Both of my parents tell me that's what happened, so of course, I believe them. It does make a lot of sense. After a while, they had more lunches together and started doing things on their own time. They fell in love, and got married, then had me. 

Oh yeah, what do I look like? Well, I have the same lavender coat color as my mother, though mine is a little bit duller and paler than hers. My mane is two shades of blue - A dark color that I got from my father and a light purple-blue that I got from my mother. Every now and then I'll wear my mane up in a ponytail, but for the most part I just sweep my bangs to the left side of my face and leave my mane down. I also have the same, bright green eyes as my father does. Oh, and I'm a unicorn too. 

What's my cutie mark? Well, it's of a light blue crystal, actually. It's shaped like a diamond - not the typical stone you see but the long thin kind with four sides. There are little white stars around it like it's meant to be shiny or something. I got it after finding a diamond while I was playing around outside when I was little. I shared it with my friends who wanted it, breaking it into four pieces.

Speaking of my friends, would you like to know their names?  

The first is a mare named Spritz. Nice name, for a crystal pony, I know. She's the oldest in my group of friends at 18. She has an orange coat and a pale pink mane that she cut short. She loves to race and joust and do things that you would usually see only the stallions doing. She's been runner up in the jousting competition for the past 2 years, and this year, I think she intends to beat her rival for good. Her cutie mark is of three fireworks.  

My second friend is a stallion named Bangle. He's a gold-colored pony, with a two-shaded red mane. He's really good with music, and he's one of the few ponies I know that can successfully play the flugelhorn. He's also really good with drums and harps as well, though his cutiemark is a bell. I'm not really sure why it's a bell, but it is. He's 17 years old.

My third and final friend you should know about is another stallion named Moon Glow. Spritz always teases me that I like him and have a crush on him or whatever, but I don't. I won't deny that he's attractive though. He has a white coat and a blue mane, that is also two-hued. His orange eyes are captivating - ahem. His cutie mark is of - what else - the moon! He said that he wants to do what my mom does, or something similar to it. She's offered to mentor him and teach him, though he usually does things by himself. I'm kind of thankful for that. I can't imagine him having lessons from my mom. 

Well, I guess that's all you really need to know about me, I guess, or at least until I tell my story. If I forgot to explain something, then I'm sure I can just explain it in the middle of my story, though I don't know if it makes for good storytelling. I promise you that I will try to do my best, no matter what happens!