A Symbol of Hope

There was fire taller than buildings, screaming resonating in the air, and death as far as the eye could see. And in the middle of it all was him. A cloaked Diomede. He looked Symbol directly in the eye like a statue. Symbol wanted to scream, but they stopped dead in his throat. The mysterious pony slowly began to open his mouth, and then darkness swallowed the world.

Symbol Trace reopened his eyes and found himself inside the same dull room. He looked to his left to see no one there. “Another night terror.” He said as he slowly crawled out of bed. He reopened his trunk and looked at its contents. Inside, along with his cuirass and cloak, were incense, a bag of coal powder, another with silver shavings, custom measuring tools, a chain with a golden rune attached, and a pouch of coins. There was also a sizable chest inside the trunk.

He put on his leather cuirass first. He didn’t need it actually, but these weren’t the safest lands in the world. Besides, he had attached theftproof pouches to the armor and those proved useful many times. He then wrapped his cloak around him and tied the string around his neck. The cloak was purely religious to alchemists.

Alchemy was an important part of Diomedic culture. While practiced by few, every settlement in Schwarz Mane Wald had one guild. This was necessary to keep spirits out that would destroy the buildings and kill everypony inhabiting them. They also had other perks as well.

Symbol then picked up the chest and balanced it on his back. Thanks to his measuring tools, the contents inside the chest had been almost exactly symmetrical. He then put his measuring tools in one of his pouches carefully. He then turned around to the door and left the room. He crossed room after room until coming to a table.

Symbol placed the chest on the table and sat next to it. He waited till another alchemist came by and placed a plate with a chunk of meat in front of him. “What is it today?” Symbol asked the server.

“Beats me.” The server said while pouring him a small cup of water that was also made of wood. The water was slightly cloudy as Symbol looked into it. All water in Hoffnung is mostly from a nearby creek. The water had been ran through a hessian filter, and then through a cotton filter. The problem was that these filters are six months expired and the town has yet to purchase another.

Symbol thought about this before sighing. He then looked up to see that the server had left by now and was serving other alchemists their free breakfasts. By Diomedic National Law, any Guild that requires their members live at their buildings for any extended periods of time must serve them a morning meal. However, since it only mentions the morning, lunch and dinner is not required. So, whatever it was, Symbol placed his hoof on the chunk of meat and enjoyed whatever it was. After the mystery meat, he drank his water which tasted of algae, picked up his chest, and left the Den.

Outside, in the undercity, ponies were waking up and bustling about to get to their jobs. Symbol ignored the commoners as he made his way to the staircase. He trotted slowly and carefully up the long ascent as to not drop the chest on his back before he could see the light peaking through the cracks in the trapdoor. He then slowly lifted the trapdoor and pushed it out of the way. The light bursted free and flooded his eyesight. He looked down while covering his face with his foreleg. Once his eyes adjusted, he looked into the morning sky.

As the sun slowly rose above the trees, griffons in brown leather jackets were moving clouds to their planned areas while bat ponies in black jackets of the same design were landing and finishing their nocturnal days with a morning dinner and drink. Griffons and bat ponies were important immigrants that have pledged to keep these forests secret to both Schwarz Mane Wald and their respective homelands. Only griffons born in The Griffon Empire were brought to Schwarz Mane Wald. The same was true for the bat ponies, as they needed to be born in The Crevice to be allowed into Schwarz Mane Wald. Their governments told nopony where it was, named, or even that the Diomedes lived in it until they agreed to immigrate. Weather workers were fed by the Diomedic Monarchy and given housing, but were not paid or granted citizenship until they had worked a certain amount of years, which at this point was twenty five years. Also, once they agreed to live in Schwarz Mane Wald, they were stuck and not allowed to leave. Attempting to leave is punishable by death, both here and back home. Once they worked their due, they may keep their current job or may seek another living until retirement.

Symbol trotted over to a stand that had a aged and warped wood with a torn cloth providing a bit of shade. Symbol put his chest on the counter and opened it to reveal rows of vials full of potions, each properly labeled. He then stepped inside and proudly read a brass plate that had a license engraved on it. It read:

Hoffnung Stand License

Symbol's Alchemical Potions and Remedies

Property of Symbol Trace

Illegal and unlicensed use of a stand is punishable by law

Symbol thought that regulating stands in the Hoffnung market was just slightly odd, but being punished with time in jail, which wasn’t stated on the license, was just plain absurd. He knew that the Court Representative of the town was the son of a highly successful merchant, but trying to control who does and doesn’t make business in the Hoffnung market made life a lot harder, especially since how judgemental he was. Symbol Trace is the first alchemist in the town to own a stand in the market, the reason being that Gilded Quill, the Court Representative of Hoffnung, viewed alchemists as wasteful pests that, due to the spirits of the forest, were forced upon the Diomedes. Symbol had to do Gilded quite a few favors, give him free potions, bribe him, and then still had to beg him to give him the paper that granted him permission to afford the license. Symbol had been barrel deep in debt by then, but being the only potion seller in the market quickly got him back on his hooves.

He sat on a rickety stool behind the counter and waited as other merchants and salesponies did the same. He was between a mare who sold wildflowers that only grew outside of settled areas and a stallion who sold decorated wooden statuettes. The florist gave the area a nice aromatic smell. Nearby he heard an accordion begin playing folk music. Tune Struck was a well known accordion player in Hoffnung. He started as a young colt, and his music was rather skippable, but now that he is a full grown stallion, he has mastered the instrument and plays it every day, making life in the market much more enjoyable. He spent the rest of the day selling goods to anypony who didn’t simply turn their head away and trot off. Despite being a licensed stand owner, not many ponies wanted to have anything to do with an alchemist, and a reminder as to why would soon ring out.

The town clock had read as half an hour past noon, and this would be burnt into Symbol’s memory. The town square bell rang out, calling everypony to its court. Symbol followed the forming herd to the nearby location to be shocked. Four ponies had been at the announcement platform. Gilded Quill, his secretary, a pony draped completely in black robes, although everypony knew it was the local butcher,, and a Diomede wearing an alchemist’s black cloak. However, his cloak was covered in red symbols that related to death, making him none other than a necromancer.

Necromancers are alchemists that, in order to gain knowledge, resort to a banned practice in Schwarz Mane Wald and the Alchemist’s Guild, communication with the dead. While it seems harmless enough, talking with the dead destroys a ponies sanity at an increasingly fast rate. This then leads the alchemist to mutilate themselves, kill other ponies, use carcasses to fuel their alchemy, and eventually begin reanimating the dead to commit more atrocities.

Gilded Quill was talking now, but Symbol trace didn’t hear him. Even though he was well within hearing range, something was else drowning out the noise while still being completely silent. The necromancer was looking directly at Symbol Trace. The necromancer’s face was mutilated with chunks being ripped off and symbols carved onto it. He looked like a carcass that had been partially devoured by scavengers. But underneath all of this, he could still make out that face. A smile of cracked and bloody teeth that was so big it seemed to outgrow his face. Eyes bloodshot and dilated, constantly shaking with insanity and likely illusions.

The necromancer was forced downwards onto the block. The butcher raised his ax high, the robes falling down to reveal his relatively strong legs that held the ax even though he lacked any indents on his hooves. He aimed directly for the neck of the foul scum, and struck it down with all his might. The head popped off with a large spurt of crimson blood and rolled to the very edge of platform. All would have ended there, but the decapitated necromancer was still smiling wickedly with motionless eyes, and he was still looking at Symbol Trace as the world melted into nothingness.

Symbol stared at the head for an hour. Then the necromancer began crying blood right before shooting directly at Symbol. He screamed louder than he ever had as everything faded to black.