The consequences of your actions

“Your paperwork seems to be in order.” The guard said as he came out of the little guard house. Ivy was glad; it had taken them the entire night, though she suspected they had just gone to sleep. No one was allowed to cross the breach at night anyway.
“I’m glad to hear that.” Ivy replied, taking her papers back from the guard. She checked if everything was complete and put them back in her bag.

“Please, do not linger on the bridge. Stay in the middle and keep walking until you reach the other side. Do not look down. Hand this form to the guard in the west.”
“Yes. I know. Thank you.” Ivy answered while she took the form from the guard.
He stepped aside, allowing her to step on the bridge. She slowly walked on, refusing to look at the deep void below her. After a few steps though, she felt more at ease. She had crossed the breach several times before; she was perfectly safe.

A strange feeling of loneliness always came over her whenever she was on this bridge. There was nothing here; nothing below her, nothing above her. Nothing, and no one. Would there be any other place on this earth where everything was so empty? Well, it wouldn’t do to linger on what was below her; she’d only want to look down, and that was the one thing you should not do while on this bridge.

So instead, Ivy thought of her journey so far. Everything had gone so smooth; she had never made the journey from the Friendship Lands to the breach in such a short time. The early spring weather had been perfect- the sun had been shining every day and the one night there was raid she had been able to sleep in an inn. The roads had not suffered too badly from the autumn and winter weather, and there were no companions this time to hold her up.

Her passing of the breach went faster than she had anticipated as well; she reached the opposite side before she had realized she was halfway. She stepped off the bridge and was relieved to feel solid ground below her. She took the form out of her bad to hand to the guard, but she noticed the guardhouse was empty.

Odd. The guardhouses were never empty; the breach was always watched. Once when they had crossed the breach and they had to wait because of strong winds, the guards had explained to her it was a most honorable task and only the best guards were allowed to be stationed here, although it were usually guards growing too old for active duty; it wasn’t like anything happened here. Still, serving your last days at the breach was an honorable task and no one would dream of abandoning their post suddenly.

Ivy looked around, but the entire settlement was abandoned. The doors of the large inn were open, but she didn’t hear any sounds coming from inside. The house where the guards lived looked empty, too, though the doors there were closed. Where was everyone? Carefully, Ivy walked on.
“Hello?” She called, but she did not get any reply.

Ivy walked around the home of the guards, but she saw no one, so she decided to check the inn. She cautiously walked inside, but there was no one there either; everything was abandoned as if ponies had rushed out. There were still half-eaten sandwiches on the tables and half-full cups of milk and orange juice. Ivy stepped out again, feeling like a trespasser in the abandoned inn.

When she was outside, she heard someone yelling from behind the inn, so she quickly trotted around the garden to the back of the inn. She saw four ponies standing at the edge of the breach, staring down. She recognized the guard colors on the hat of one of them, so she walked towards them hoping the guard would stamp her form so that she could move on. This had cost her too much time already.

“Uhm, excuse me!” She yelled as she walked over to where the ponies were standing.
“Yes?” The guard heard her and turned to her.
“I just passed the breach from the other side and I would like to get my form stamped so I can move on.” Ivy said while the guard once again glanced at the breach.
“You… you crossed it?” He asked.
“Well, yes.” Ivy answered, slightly annoyed.
“Just now?”
“Yes… So could you please sign the form?”

All four ponies were staring at her now, and Ivy wondered whether she had done something to upset them.
“Is there something wrong?” She asked when they continued staring at her.
“Did you feel anything?” The lady asked who Ivy recognized as the innkeeper.
“Uhm… no? Nothing out of the ordinary anyway. Why? What is wrong? Was I supposed to feel something?”

“Earlier this morning… a large rock broke off the wall of the breach and fell down.” The guard said. Ivy still didn’t get why everyone was so upset.
“Well, uhm, it’s a rather steep wall, isn’t it? I’m sure rocks break off all the time?” The ponies looked at her as if she suggested floods happened because rain came out of the ground instead of the air.

“Oh, you probably are not from around, aren’t you?” The innkeeper asked.
“Well, no.” Ivy admitted.
“The breach… it has never been broken.” The guard said.
“Never?” Ivy asked.
“Never. This place is strong enough to divide the powers of east and west. Surely it has kept itself together. Until now. It’s falling apart.”

Ivy almost jumped up when she heard the loud crack coming from a little further on. Together with the four ponies she stared a little north, where another large rock suddenly broke off the wall of the breach. With a deafening noise the rock broke off and fell into the depths, but they never heard it touch the ground.

Only a few moments later, they heard the same noise, but this time it came from the other side of the breach. Another part had broken off, Ivy was sure.
“Are you sure this has never happened before?” She asked.
“Absolutely certain. The breach has not changed in thousands and thousands of years.” The guard said.
“Then this…”
“The Breach… whatever held it together is gone.”

Ruki had never run this fast in her life before, ever. But she feared it was still not fast enough. Her mother urged her on while her lungs were about to burst and her legs were close to giving away. It hurt. But she had no choice; above her, the pillar had started to collapse. If she waited even for a second, she would surely not make it out in time. So she had to keep running.

Right when she thought she would surely collapse, when she hoped the pillar would fall down on top of her so that at least the hurting would stop, she saw the light ahead of her. A faint red glow of the morning sun through a small opening she never thought she’d see again, but it was definitely there. Somehow, she found the strength to keep running.

She burst out into the snow and almost immediately collapsed.
“Not here Ruki!” her mother yelled and dragged her to her hooves again, forcing her to move away from the pillar.
“Taira! Ruki!” Hikary yelled. Ruki saw they had set up camp a little away from the pillar, but she wondered if it was far enough.
“Run, Hikary!” Taira screamed, and Hikary and Yuuro dashed away from the pillar as well.

Once they were at a safe distance from the pillar, Ruki was finally allowed to rest. Still holding on to the stone, Ruki sat down on the ice, completely out of breath. She felt dizzy and hot; cold and completely exhausted, still not believing entirely that they had made it out. But here she was, under the morning sky while it was probably already afternoon, breathing in the fresh air that only dawn can bring.

“What happened?” Hikary cried.
“Did you find the stone?” As Taira wanted to answer, she was interrupted by a deafening sound. Ruki looked up and saw that the top of the pillar broke off and fell down into the pillar. Soon, other parts followed. It made so much noise there was no way they could have talked, so instead they all watched as the pillar completely collapsed and disappeared from the landscape.

“Watch out!” Taira yelled as they saw a large cloud of dust and stones coming their way rapidly.
“Don’t run!” Ruki yelled as she closed her eyes. She focused her mind and managed to find whatever prana there was on this deserted part of the planet to create a barrier made of mind powers and prana, which kept the cloud away from them.

For a few moments they saw absolutely nothing but dust around them, but thankfully Ruki’s barrier was able to keep it all out.
“This is amazing…” Yuuro gasped, but Ruki tried to ignore him. It wouldn’t do to be distracted now; she was already so tired and she knew none of the others could take over. Thankfully after a few moments the dust dissolved and a little while later the air was clean enough for Ruki to lift her barrier again.

“What the…” Hikary whispered as they watched the last pieces break off and fall down.
“What on earth happened!”
“I…” Taira started but soon fell silent again. Ruki held the stone tight, suddenly realizing what the stone had meant when it had asked them if they were willing to face the consequences of their actions. This all happened because we took the stone away. It all happened because we thought we needed it.

“The stone… is that it?” Hikary asked. Ruki nodded, not yet capable of getting up.
“Are you okay?” Yuuro asked as he sat down beside her.
“Here, drink some water. It’ll do you good.” He said as he handed her a bottle.
“Thanks.” She smiled gratefully as she took the bottle from him and drank the cold water. It burned her throat, but it was not a bad feeling.

“Yes, this is the stone.” Ruki finally answered after she had emptied the entire bottle.
“Her name is Saule.”
“Her name?” Hikary gasped.
“Yes, her name. This one… is still so much stronger than the others. She talked to us.” Ruki added. She remained silent for a few moments, waiting for Saule to speak up, but nothing happened.
“Saule?” Ruki said, but nothing happened. Everything remained silent.

“Why isn’t she speaking?” Taira asked.
“I don’t know. Saule, don’t you want to meet Hikary whom we told you about?” Ruki asked. But there was no reply. Saule did not speak; she did not even speak in their minds. Ruki noticed the light from the stone had all but disappeared as well.
“What on earth?” Ruki gasped, holding up the stone.

“Maybe… maybe she could only speak inside the pillar. Maybe it was a special place because it was the beginning of the Breach… maybe now that it is out here it lost the ability to speak to us.” Taira theorized.
“That might be… maybe the pillar and the stone were depending on each other. Maybe the pillar collapsed because we took the stone away, and now that the pillar is gone the stone lost most of its strength.” Hikary added.

“Maybe you can try to reach out to it with your mind?” Hikary proposed to Ruki.
“Huh?”
“I don’t know, I’m just guessing, but maybe you can use your powers to touch upon the stone’s consciousness somehow?” Hikary theorized.
Well, it was an option, Ruki had to admit. It had not worked on the other stones, but this one might still be stronger… it was worth a try. Ruki rested some more to make sure she had recovered some strength, and then tried to reach out to the stone.

Slowly, she felt around the stone, and she was taken aback by what she felt. A consciousness so enormous… she couldn’t even grasp how strong it truly was.
“Take me to my sisters Ruki…” Saule whispered and Ruki was sure she was the only one who heard that. Then a powerful force pushed her away, releasing Ruki’s mind and forcing it back. “She… She is okay…” Ruki gasped.

“She is? Good.” Taira sighed with relief.
“She told me to take her to her sisters.” Ruki added. “Then she kicked me out.”
 “Well, she hasn’t…” Hikary started, but instead ended up gasping.
“What? What is it now?” Taira sighed.
“We are in the west.” It took Ruki a few moments to understand what Hikary was saying.

Yes, they were on western soil; and yet, Ruki had just used her mind powers without any trouble.
“But… that doesn’t mean anything, I mean, I could use them in ZoroAster too, and I could summon prana in the Friendship Lands.” She added.
“No. I can use them too.” Hikary said, and she summoned a small force field to demonstrate.

“Maybe… maybe up here, it doesn’t count anymore? After all, the breach ended here.” Yuuro theorized.
“Yea… That might be. Let’s move south quickly, and see.” Taira said, and everyone agreed. But Ruki was not so sure. Maybe something really had changed. What if the pillar was not the only thing that had collapsed? What if… this stone had been the entire essence of the breach?