//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: The Stolen Gem 
// by MrAskAPirate 
//------------------------------//

Dear Princess Celestia,

I don't know if you will ever receive this letter. In fact, I think the chances of you reading these words some day are minuscule at best. You're probably the one person who already knows most--if not all--of what I'm about to say, but something is compelling me to write to you nonetheless. Maybe I just want there to be a record of everything that's happened to Equestria, written in the hand of someone who was there to see it. Maybe I just don't want people to forget the sacrifices that have been made.

The world has changed so much in the past few years, and it's all so... complicated. I'm honestly not quite sure where to begin. Pinkie would probably say something like 'just start at the beginning, sillypants'. I find myself thinking about her a lot these days; her and all my friends. I miss them terribly.

Perhaps that's the real reason I've suddenly had the urge to write all this down. Maybe part of me wants to remember the time we spent together, both the good and the bad. I don't think our lives were quite what any of us expected them to be, but the more I look back the more I realize the truth: I wouldn't want it any other way, and I don't think they would either. In a million years, I could never have asked for a better set of friends.

The irony isn't lost on me. Today, friendship is the single most important thing in my life; in all our lives, when you think about it... but back before any of this started, I thought friends were just one more thing that took time away from my studying. I couldn't have cared less, and I couldn't have been more wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things back then. In fact, that's exactly where this all started, wasn't it? With me being wrong. Yes, I believe that's the perfect place to start.

Contained in these pages are the exploits of a group of young women without equal. We met under the most unlikely of circumstances, and together we weathered many hardships. We stood side by side in the face of impossible odds, and traveled the length and breadth of the world in each others' company. We laughed and we cried, we shared with one another our dreams and our fears... but no matter how lost we sometimes felt, or how hopeless the battle seemed to be, we clung desperately to a single, immutable ideal... that Friendship is Magic. 

This is our story.

This... is our Legend.