A Symbol of Hope

        Symbol Trace sat there for minutes. To him it felt like entire days, maybe even a week. The tree stood there, glowing like a beacon. The light faded then intensified to a beat, like a large shining heart. It’s mere presence made Symbol feel warm and comfortable, though ridded of his fatigue from this morning. His stomach growled, and as an instant reaction a white fruit fell from the tree and rolled to his hooves. Symbol picked up the fruit and looked at it. It retained the pulsing glow, and filled the air with a sweet aroma. Is this how all edible fruits are, he thought as he gave it a sniff. It smelled… sweet, was the best word he could describe it. His mouth flooded with saliva. He opened his mouth and took a bit. The juices filled his mouth and overflowed through the corners of his mouth. The flesh was smoother than the youngest veal. The powerful flavor overtook his mouth with a strong wave, forcing him to swallow the bite of fruit. As it went down his throat, he felt his body filling with a rejuvenating power he’s never felt before. Symbol Trace closed his eyes and went into a trance. All he could feel was the flavor in his mouth and his soul filling back up. By the time he reopened his eyes, his hooves were empty and covered in juices and his stomach was full.

        Symbol blinked then looked back at the tree. He just had the first fruit of his entire life, and it was perfect. He stood up and approached the tree. He slowly touched it, expecting it to be cold and hard like the other trees. It was soft and warm like a living animal. How can this even exist, Symbol thought. A tree simply overflowing with the essence of life. He backed up when it suddenly began to shrivel. It went back into the dirt, then the dirt went back into the ground. The exchange symbol had disappeared beneath it, having expired in its worth. Symbol sighed and trotted out of the room with his head hung low. As he was walking outside, he heard a voice behind him. “Hey, is... something wrong?” The familiar voice said. Symbol turned around to see a red Diomede mare with a long, luscious purple mane. Her eyes were the color of sapphires and her mane the texture of silk. And she was Symbol’s childhood friend.

        “Oh, hello there Velvet Rednote.” Symbol said as he turned around towards her. “Nothing is wrong, I just…. have a lot on my mind.”

        Velvet blinked. “And what might that be?” She asked.

        “Nothing, just private matters.” Symbol said as he looked down.

        Velvet shook her head. “It doesn’t sound like nothing, but I won’t invade your privacy. Just, please, be alright.” She said.

        Symbol nodded. “I’ll make sure of that.” He said before continuing his way outside the Den. He looked at the clock on the library. It ticked away at 5:30 in the afternoon. Symbol shook his head in disbelief. ‘Did I really spend that much time in the Den?’ He thought to himself. He didn’t even feel it either. The white fruit made it feel like it was still noon.

He shook his head and trotted out towards the library. He stopped just before the door to read the sign. “Die Krone des Kaisers Bibliothek.” It said. It translated to The Kaiser’s Crown Library, named after the pony who paid for the library to be built. In fact, the entire town is his doing. He made it help bring a halt to the overpopulation issue that had been plaguing Schwarz Mane Wald for years now. He also commissioned a large library to be built in the under city to attract the curious, logical, and scholars. It worked, but within a year the town had been completely populated, and the overpopulation issue came back with it. It hadn’t stopped the overpopulation, just stalled it for a year. It was a hopeless situation. Food, space, and coin was running scarce in these lands, and no attempt to stop it has worked for long. It was inevitable. The limits of life these lands can support will bring chaos to the Diomedic Empire. It was a completely hopeless struggles.

And Symbol Trace was standing there with such thoughts in his head. Finally he shook his head as he came back into the world of the living. He opened the door and trotted inside. Inside where more glowing fungi in the walls and ceiling, illuminating the room well. There were bookshelves that towered like dragons. Inside the shelves were books upon books, each stored a bit of knowledge and history. ‘Rezepte für Gerste’ ‘Die Schlacht von Crystal River’ ‘Die Tyrannei des Kaisers Ebony Heart’. Symbol read the titles as he walked down the row of lowest books. This late in the day, the books were unorganized as ponies placed the books back in alphabetical order. ‘Die Kunst der Alchemie Trank Brewing’. There it was. Symbol pulled out the book and balanced it on his back. He then walked to an empty table to sit down at. The chair creaked loudly beneath his flank as if it was going to fall apart. The furniture here was as old as the building itself. He opened the book and skipped the pages he’d already read. He reached the page he recently finished and flipped to the next.

Symbol immediately saw a picture that engulfed the entire page with a detailed and colored drawing of a rose. Most pictures so far have not been an entire page in size and none had been colored. The rose had petals that were a dark crimson, almost black in color on the outside, however in the inside were a bright scarlet that seemed to glow with brightness. The stem was a deep forest green with black thorns. Symbol began to read its description. “The Blood Rose earns its name not for the color of its petals, but instead for why it’s so important. The petals can be picked from this rare plant, mashed, and distilled to make a bright red fluid. This bright red fluid can then mixed with other specific potions to make a thick, crimson liquid. This potion acts as a purifier that will clean the body of all poisons, toxins, and disease. It can also act as a blood substitute, replacing missing blood in a matter of seconds even if more blood is lost than the potion is given. This potion MUST be injected into the victim for it’s basic purpose. However, it has a much more powerful purpose. If used for exchange symbols, the symbol will get a high material value. The Blood Rose is already rare, never being found within a hundred miles of each other, are dangerous to find since they seem to refuse to grow in populated areas, and only come in small bushes of four to five. The potion extends this as it is hard to make. The potion they create is sterile and never coagulates, giving them an even more higher score in purity. Lastly, being a life saving essence, the potion is extremely useful. With a high rarity, purity, and usefulness, this potion gives what is probably the highest worth in material, higher than that of Konig blood. The recipe is as follows…”

Symbol read on and on, history and all, until the book had nothing more to say. He burnt the recipe into his mind. It was like a treasure for alchemists. The item with the most worth in the known world. He imagined all the things he could do with it, yet the value still surpassed his imagination. It was mind blowing. Such great power in a couple of petals. He read it again and again, a large smile engraved on his face. No matter how many times he read it, it still seemed just as amazing. All the things he would do for a hoof full of petals.

Then a hoof tapped him on the back. He looked back to see the librarian looking at him. “While I enjoy your enthusiasm in reading, I’m afraid the library closes at eight o’clock PM.” She said.

“Eight o’clock!? Has it really been that long!?” Symbol said in surprise.

“Yes.” She said. “You can just leave the book there, I’ll put it back.”

“Okay.” Symbol said, putting the book down to stand back up. He trotted out of the library and into the late under city. Since it was an underground city, there was no change in light, the foals had been put to bed and the adults either going home or going to pubs. He agreed on the latter and left to go to his favorite pub. Well, it was more of just a bar. He trotted into the opened building and looked around inside. Just a couple of diomedes sitting around and drinking. Symbol sat on a wooden stool right in front of the bar. A gray diomede mare came to him as if on cue.

“Hello there, Symbol Trace. How may I serve Hoffnung’s greatest potion brewer?” The mare said.

“Stein Server, I told you that I’m just a normal potion brewer.” Symbol said.

“If so, then that makes all the other alchemists here terrible at it.” Server said. “Now, before we continue to argue about how great you are, what can I help you with?” She asked.

“I’ll have a poor pony’s beer.” Symbol said. Real beer made from barley was expensive, especially in towns that didn’t farm the grain, distant from others that did, and were so close to the edge of the forest. While every other plant was inedible, barley was, for some unknown reason, edible. Some believe that when the forests turned poison, they were a gift to the diomedes to help them sustain large civilizations. It was native to these toxic lands, after all, and the rest of the world still had yet to taste its glory as it refused to grow in other countries, or so the griffins and bat ponies say.

Stein Server came back with a steel stein and placed it in front of Symbol. He looked into the metal mug. Inside was a watery liquid of watery barley beer. Symbol had never had pure barley beer, and he was sure that nopony else here had any either. The other choices were schnapps and jagermeister, but Symbol needed to walk back home and he wanted to enjoy the flavor of his beer before needing to stop drinking. He put the right number of coins on the table and let Server scoop them up. She then left to serve the other ponies. She was a nice mare from the capital city, Steinherz. She was one of the first ponies to leave the capital and settle in Hoffnung when it first finished construction. She had came with her husband, who later died of disease, but not before becoming impregnated with her first child. Her son would become the first natural born pony in Hoffnung. Dust Hoof said Symbol Trace would have taken that spotlight, however he was found as a foal deep in the forest a month after the construction of Hoffnung. It was a really odd circumstance that even Symbol didn’t know everything about.

Symbol thought about this as he drank his watery beers, just a couple of steins and he was done. He had emptied his money pouch and was borderline drunk. He stood up shakily, his long, thin legs making it harder for him stand up straight in such a situation as compared to other races of ponies. He thanked Stein Server and stumbled out of the bar. He managed to make it back to the den without falling over. Inside, almost everypony had gone to sleep, and Symbol was planning on joining them. He struggled to his room and crawled into his respective bed. Everypony else was already asleep. Symbol stared at the stone ceiling shortly before closing his eyes. The fruit had worn off by now and he felt exhausted.

Within seconds, Symbol Trace reopened his eyes. The stone ceiling was now hessian. He looked at his left to see more, then to his right to see the same thing. He looked at the ground to see a blanket he was laying on sprawled against the ground. He was in a tent. He stood up and stretched before walking out the tent. Outside was forest, and lots of it. there was a campfire still on fire with a blaze exchange symbol keeping it well fueled. Next to it was a large wooden stake with an active ward exchange symbol to keep away mystical dangers from him. He looked up to see a dark sky filled with stars and a bright full moon. Symbol thought about how he heard that a princess from a far away land moved the moon and its night sky full of stars. How was that possible, he thought.

Memories then came back to his head. He had left Hoffnung for Steinherz, stopping at towns he came across if needed. He was about to come to another town within a day’s worth travel. Once he reached the capital city, he was to go to the Council of High Philosophers at once. Dust Hoof had to stay and run the Alchemist’s Guild. None of the others wanted to brave the forest. Symbol was alone and completely responsible in his quest. He shook his head at such thoughts and looked up at the moon again. Its bright beauty, looking over him like a guardian spirit.

“Had it already been three weeks?” Symbol asked out loud into the nothingness. He sighed then walked back into his tent, laying on the blanket. For once, he truly felt alone, in a place he’d never been to before. And he wondered what would happen once, if, he made it to the capital. He sighed once again, closing his eyes. He decided that he would cross that road once he came to it. There was much to happen, and Symbol felt like destiny’s pawn. But then, aren’t we all, Symbol thought as he drifted off to sleep.