A Symbol of Hope

        Symbol Trace lurched upwards, screaming his lungs until they were completely emptied. He was back in his bed in the room. He looked to his left to see three empty beds. He sat there and let himself regain his bearings. “Had it really been two years ago? It still feels like yesterday.” He said as he slowly crawled out of bed, nearly falling down as fought to keep his balance. Ever since he saw a necromancer for the first time, his nights haven’t given him the same energy as they used to. Velvet told him about how he’d toss and turn almost every night, and he could feel it in his legs.

        He stumbled over to his trunk and pushed it open. Inside was his chest of potions, his cloak, his cuirass, and his rune necklace. The rest of the spaces were filled with emptiness. Symbol sighed as he began his morning routine of dressing up for the day. The leather straps of his cuirass almost fell apart as he secured the wearing armor to his chest and barrel. He then threw the hessian cloak over his shoulders. The cloth had began to unravel and holes had formed. He tied the small rope around his neck and looked at the necklace once again. It had a golden pendant with the Symbol of Creation engraved and painted with a sky blue paint that had forever stained the soft metal, like the one on his cutie mark.

        The Symbol of Creation was an eight sided star that meant that the four main elements, fire, water, air, and earth, were in perfect harmony and to ready to shape into solid materials such as flesh, life, plant, and metal. It was said that this is how the Creator had made Schwarz Mane Wald. He thought back to his early lessons on how the Creator first made the forest.

~~~~~~

The Creator walked through lands long and far. He saw many plants and animals. He saw cultures flourish and civilizations grow. But he could see far beyond our perception. He saw the lands for what they truly are. He could speak with them and hear them answer.

But then, he came upon a land of no water, no dirt, no plants, no animals, and no ponies. He saw the spirit of the land. The land weeped and cried. “Why do you cry?” Asked the Creator.

“Because I am lonely and have no one to share my land with.” She said. He began to ponder her situation. And then it came to pass that the Creator came to pity the spirit and her barren lands. He then thought of a way to fix her problem. Then it came to pass that a solution came to his mind

“Spirit, all living beings may only reap what they sow. This is the rule of life and existence. I have a key to your pain, but the price is heavy. I may forge you the necessary to force life to your lands. But you must pay the price.” He said to the Spirit.

“I promise that I will pay any price, no matter the cost!” The Spirit shouted, eager to be given the prize of life.

“Then you must promise eternal allegiance to me and any that come to me. To forever bear your fruit towards life and not death. In turn, anypony that comes for your fruit must pledge their allegiance to you.” The Creator said, offering the Spirit of the barren lands a hoof. “Do you accept these terms?”

“I do, and I will give you undying allegiance till the sun dies and time ends.” The Spirit said. She reached up and touched the Creator’s hoof, bowing her head to him. The Creator then pulled her up on all four of her legs.

“Very well then.” The Creator said as he brought a hoof upwards.

~~~~~~

        Symbol Trace shook his head, returning back to reality. He placed the rune necklace back in his trunk and closed it. He left the bedroom and entered the dining room. He sat at a table and waited until a server came to him, placing down a much smaller chunk of meat. “Cutting back again? This is the second time this month.” He said as the server filled his cup with water.

        “Quit the bitching and just eat!” The server angrily as he trotted off. Symbol sighed once again and looked into the cup. Like the meat, the water had also changed. The water was murkier than that fateful day. While there were plans to replace the filters, those plans were cancelled once money started to to become scarcer and scarcer. Nowadays, the water had become so dirty that ponies had began to boil their water before drinking it. Symbol brought his hoof down on the chunk of meat and began to eat it. When he was finished, he was still hungry.

He drank his water and left the dining room, entering the main room. In there was a brown diomede with a gray mane. His cloak, however, was made of cotton and had silver symbols sown into it. “Good morning, Mentor Dust Hoof.” Symbol said.

        Dust looked up and turned his head to Symbol. “Oh, good morning to you to, Apprentice Symbol Trace.” He said as he walked to him. “Are you ready for today’s lesson?”

        “Yes sir.” Symbol Trace said in a nod. Dust Hoof and Symbol Trace walked into an empty room. There were no curtains or decorations, just blue alchemical torches that dimly lit the room. The advantage to the torches is that they produced no carbon dioxide and stayed lit for long periods of time.

        “Symbol Trace, you have been studying familiars for weeks now. Can you tell me what you’ve learned?” Dust asked, opening a large hessian bag.

        “Once we are born into the world of the living, a spirit is born in the spirit dimension. This is a familiar, and always is parallel with you in the spirit dimension. Where you go, it goes. When you die, it dies and joins your soul in the afterlife.” Symbol said as Dust poured coal dust onto the floor.

        “Correct, today you will now begin to summon your familiar with an exchange symbol.” Dust said. Symbol’s mouth dropped open.

        “But I don’t even know what basic symbol represents me!” Symbol said in a small panic.

        “Calm down now,” Dust said, “it’s not really as cryptic as you think. I’ve seen you work long and hard on your skills at alchemy since you were a little foal. With alchemy in general being your talent, I think I know exactly what your alchemical symbol is.” Dust pointed at Symbol’s cutie mark, but more specifically the Symbol of Creation that was behind the vial.

        “But, nopony in history has ever had the Symbol of Creation as a representing symbol since the Creator himself!” Symbol said, not calming down one bit since his last outburst.

        “Don’t worry, we have all the time in the world.” Dust said as he sat in the corner. “Besides, there’s a first for everything.”

        Symbol sighed and looked at the coal dust. Instantly the mathematical process of alchemy shot into his head. First was defining the worth of the material being used. The product of Rarity times Purity is then multiplied by the power of Use equals Worth. (RxP)U=W in a more simple form. Coal dust was moderate in rarity, high in purity, and moderate in use, making it’s worth standard. Symbol then began making an exchange symbol. The next equation, which decided the worth of the symbol, was the product of Fineness times Difficulty is then multiplied by the Material equals Worth. (FxD)M=W for short.

        Symbol kept this formula in mind as he continued to make complicated exchange symbols again and again. Minutes passed, then hours, but it felt like days to Symbol. He was getting frustrated. Every form of exchange symbol seemed to fail. He was getting desperate. Eventually he came to one last exchange symbol. Symbol Trace carefully touched the exchange symbol’s borders with his hooves. He connected his soul with the symbol. Slowly the symbol began to glow sky blue, the Symbol of Creation glowing the brightest. The symbol slowly collapsed on itself and formed a small pile. The pile then began growing until it slowly faded into a small mound of dirt.

        Symbol raised an eyebrow at the dirt until something odd happened. A small golden sparkle appeared from the very tip of it. It then began to grow, until it was a golden sapling. Blue leaves sprouted from its branches as it grew even bigger. The sapling grew into a full sized tree with a huge bushel of leaves at its top. From these leaves sprouted red flowers. Some of those flowers puffed up and became white fruit. From between the leaves, long green vines lowered to the ground and stretched out lazily. This all happened in around half a minute.

        Symbol blinked, it was there. He blinked again, and it was still there. Then rage built up in his chest. It climbed up his throat and exited his mouth. “WHAT!?” He shouted out in rage. “My familiar is a damned tree!”

        He looked towards Dust Hoof, but he was staring in shock. “Sweet Silver… Do you know what this is?” He said as he walked to it slowly and touched it. Symbol blinked at him confused, but then the story came to mind.

~~~~~~

The Creator spat a seed into his hoof, burying into the sand. Then it came to pass that this seed sprouted into a sapling, then into a tree in a short amount of time. This tree grew red flowers that allured insects and birds to these lands. It grew fruit that spreaded seeds among the land and attracted other animals. It lowered vines into the ground that spreaded a far amount of water to the ground.

Within days the barren lands became a luscious forest with many plants, flowers, and animals. And these lands could support many creatures. Then came ponies that had sworn themselves to the Creator and the land. They made a promise sworn in stone.

And all of this was possible because of the Creator’s gift.

~~~~~~

        Symbol’s eyes widened as realization struck him. “But… How can it… How is a Tree of Life my familiar?” He said as he turned towards Dust.

        “I don’t know, but one hasn’t been seen since the first era. We have to notify the philosophers about this immediately.” Dust said as he trotted out the room. “There is much to be done!”