//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: The Start of a New Age 
// by Lord-Luzar 
//------------------------------//

	
The Start of A New Age


By Lord-Luzar




* 989 A.N.M., June 17, 6:32 P.M.*
The lush jungle had been silent for the longest of times, with no sign of wildlife from where the dirt path led inside. So as Stormchaser stood at the very edge of the Zebrican jungle he couldn’t help but feel that he shouldn’t've never come. Yet a burning passion erupted inside of him, one that called for adventure, one that reminded him as to why he kept travelling all this way. In search of one thing, and one thing only...the Lost Temple of the Mayhans! 
Such a find was something only an archaeologist could dream of, yet an average-day stallion found some incriminating evidence of where to find the Lost Temple. Just an average piece of paper the brown-coated, black-maned, blue-eyed pegasus found in a small box when he was mining that held the location of said Temple. Sure, it didn’t really sound believable but he had to try, right?
Shaking his head, and letting his unruly small mane fall onto his forehead, Stormchaser stepped forwards and began his trek to find the Temple. After making his way through, the only light he used to see in front was the Moon’s beautiful glow. While the jungle had been very lush in vegetation, its trees were actually very widely spaced and let a copious amount of light inside the jungle. Using the light to guide his path and read the map was something Stormchaser found easy after doing it for a couple of months prior. 
The winding path soon stopped, however, much to the stallion’s dismay. He frowned when he also realized that the trees had become much closer to each other and the leaves had become denser. Everything was going downhill fast but Stormchaser merely muttered a curse, took a last good look of the map, and trekked onwards. After minutes of walking and still no sign of wildlife, the leaves became so dense that Stormchaser could barely see two hooves in front of him and after stumbling around a bit, he knocked into a tree.
Feeling dazed and utterly blind, Stormchaser continued to stumble about until he lost his hoofing and tumbled down what felt to be a large hill. Unconsciousness was a new feeling to Stormchaser, but he welcomed it all the same. 
After waking up and realizing he could still barely see, Stormchaser did a 360 degree rotation, trying to find source of light. And luckily, his tactic had worked and he now faced a large pillar of moonlight that shone through the dense upper foliage. Checking for the map, Stormchaser found it securely inside of his saddlebag that adorned his left side. Trotting quickly over to the spot of light, Stormchaser looked up and was surprised by what he saw. 
Hanging at the cliffside of a large rock formation was an odd entrance to a structure embedded inside it. Stormchaser’s jaw unhinged for a moment before he placed it back and looked at the beginning of the structure in awe. It was designed in such an odd way, with a form of brick he had never even seen before. It was a dark-brown, as if it had been wood, yet it was clearly stone bricks. They had strange carvings into every single brick, nearly each one different than the last.
Flapping his wings, Stormchaser eagerly climbed through the air quickly and reached the entrance that sat in front of him. It was slightly eroded, with greenery growing all over it. Some of the bricks were cracked and others were on the floor or completely gone. It was mysterious to the stallion who had only ever existed in Equestria until a few days ago, when his stallionhood had been challenged. Standing at the entrance to the reinvigorated him but he soon realized he would need a source of light.
Thinking hard for a good minute Stormchaser facehoofed after remembering that he had a talisman in his bag brought exactly for this occasion. Setting down his saddlebag and rummaging through it, Stormchaser found it. It was an orange color and after tapping it with the tip of his hoof it turned on, making him fall back.
The talisman hit the ground hard and slide across the evenly placed stone bricks, yet it did not break, much to his relief. Grabbing it was a slight struggle but he managed, and now he held it in his muzzle, having to turn his head wherever he wanted to see. Traversing down the corridor was calming to him in a way, as the silence let Stormchaser think, yet it also let him truly admire the crasftmareship that was the Mayhan’s work. 
And as Stormchaser silently admired the walls and engravings in the bricks, he didn’t notice large holes in the ones up ahead, or that his front right hoof sank just a smidge. 
*Fwoop*
*Fwoop*
*Fwoop*
Darts began to fly everywhere, causing Stormchaser to sprint away from the trap, yet a dart hit true as it landed in his right flank. He cried out lightly, and pulled it out before looking back at the small wound with the talisman still in his mouth. A small red dot was there but it didn’t look that serious, yet it would add on to the bruises he earlier received by falling down the hill. 
Checking his saddlebag, Stormchaser realized that the map had been hit as well, and he frowned for a long time. After pulling the dart out of the paper, Stormchaser saw something that intrigued him. Looking at where the dart had pierced the paper he saw small darker spots, and with widened eyes his eyes trained back to the darts metal tip. Looking closer than before Stormchaser spotted a green liquid on the tip of the dart.  
Sticking the map back inside his saddlebag and then quickly placing it over his barrel, Stormchaser began to run through the corridors, not minding the intersection he had passed ten hooves behind. Hoping to not run into another trap, Stormchaser hugged the wall and watched out for any suspicious looking holes in the bricks. 
Hugging the wall seemed to do the trick until he hit another switch and quickly reacted as fire spewed from the holes open. Sliding under the blazing inferno, and grimacing as his fur became dirtied along with the pain that ensued from placing pressure on the bruises he received from falling down the hill, Stormchaser valiantly continued.  
Now he ran with a limp, and it hindered his time greatly, yet Stormchaser was a very determined stallion and kept moving. He felt numbing in his right flank and soon began to dread what the liquid would do to his body. Coming across two pathways, Stormchaser stopped and looked between the two. From the left he heard an odd noise whispering into his long ears, and from the right it stayed as silent as before.
While the noise intensely worried him, Stormchaser started to run to the left instead and soon dreaded his choice. Stepping on another plate that fell with his weight, he ducked expecting more darts yet heard the slamming of a large weight that made him jump in surprise. Looking behind, there now sat a large wall were the original corridor once stood, and Stormchaser sighed before continuing. 
With every step it felt as if the whispering was growing even louder than before, and soon it was like a speaker had been straight in front of his ears and was on high. Pushing through the pain in his eardrums, Stormchaser became surprised when the pathway abruptly ended. He became wide-eyed when another slamming noise came from behind him and after turning he saw a large boulder threatening to splatter him on the wall. 
Thinking quickly, Stormchaser fit into the edge of the wall where the sphere did not fit, yet realized his saddlebag wouldn’t let him fit. Struggling with the strap made his heart beat by one more every second as the boulder neared, and with a strong tug, Stormchaser got the strap to rip and threw it with all his might. Quickly pulling his hoof back, Stormchaser felt the end of his hoof graze the sphere for a millisecond before it crashed into the wall.
Going into a violent coughing fit due to the dust that rose from the impact, Stormchaser was surprised to see moonlight peaking through the destroyed wall. The boulder was nowhere to be found, but Stormchaser quickly found the reason. A green cliffedge started immediately after the now-broken wall, and beneath it was a small pond with large ripples rushing to the edges and spilling over onto the grass.
Gulping slightly, Stormchaser prayed to Celestia that he wouldn’t get crushed in the fall. Looking back to search for anything else, Stormchaser beamed widely when he saw that his saddlebag had landed at the other edge of the pathway, narrowly avoiding the boulder as well. Knowing that no breakables were inside his saddlebag at the time, Stormchaser tossed it over the edge and watched it land on the grass in front of the pond. Yet Stormchaser let his eyes wander over the smooth grass to look at where the moonlight shone. 
It pointed at a large oval mirror, that was inside of a large metallic band, while a small metallic rectangular base held up the mirror. Recognising sapphires dotted around the metallic edge, Stormchaser raised a curious brow. Why was a large oval mirror in the middle of a circular room filled with grass that had a hole in the roof of the cave where moonlight shone through. 
The vines that snaked down the side of the cave eased Stormchaser ever so slightly, but he still felt slightly tense about jumping into the pond approximately 50 hooves below. Stormchaser only knew how to doggy-paddle and his knowledge would probably be the one thing to save him. So taking a deep breath, he clumsily leapt from the edge but lost his grip. Now twirling through the air, he cursed his luck before roughly hitting the pond, and his breath immediately was pushed from his lungs.
In an intense effort to breath, Stormchaser thrashed about, somehow pushing himself above the surface and took in as much air as he could before he submerged once more. Opening his eyes, he immediately began to doggy-paddle his way to the small incline that was 40 hooves away. It was simple and he used his wings as an extra push before tucking them at his side, having a slight understanding of physics. Making it over to the small incline, Stormchaser used his wings once more and began to push off the incline as his breath threatened to fade away. 
He surfaced and greedily sucked up the air while having his barrel resting on the beginning of the dry surface while behind his barrel everything else waited in the cold water. After minutes of resting, Stormchaser pulled himself up from the small bank and onto the small amount of  grass. Now he realized that he could’ve used his wings to simply hover over and fly downwards, but instead he jumped into the cold water and nearly drowned. And after cursing his idiotic mind once more, Stormchaser grabbed his saddlebag and dragged it over to the mirror. 
Up close Stormchaser realized that it was actually quite big, approximately 24 hooves. Tapping the mirror was when Stormchaser saw ripples start to come alive across the mirror as if it were like the pond behind him. Yet he stepped up to get a better look and it suddenly erupted into a violent surge that smacked him across the muzzle. It dazed him and now Stormchaser realized that the liquid had reached his hind legs, and now he couldn’t move them.
As the mirror violently surged the cave around him rumbled and rocks began falling from the ceiling. So in a last ditch effort to go to the mirror, he tried gripping the grass beneath him with his hooves. It slipped from his hooves easily, and after that a large rock nailed him on his head, yet just before he went unconscious he could’ve sworn he saw figures piling out of the mirror.