"Come out to face the punishment for your crimes! If you refuse, we shall break down these doors and remove you ourselves!"
Belle was panting, hyperventilating. She gulped and slid back against the blood-drenched wall beneath the mana bullet. Her forelimbs pulled Rainbow Dash with her, so that the unicorn was sitting with the limp pegasus lying in her lap.
As the guards on the other side shouted again, she bit her lip. Her chestnut eyes darted back and forth, watering with each progressive thought of Pilate and what Shell might be doing to him. She thought of Dalton, of the fate of his grandfoals. Then she thought of Grinder, and how the heroic soul had been reduced to a pile of meat in less than a second.
She choked on a sob, bringing a hoof up to her face and gritting her teeth as the tears flowed.
She became aware once more of the warm body lying against her like a sleeping infant. Belle's moist eyes opened as she gazed down at Rainbow Dash's peaceful form. The pegasus' head was lying against her shoulder, her prismatic mane impossibly bright and silky, like a curtain of light scattered to spectral beams between them.
Belle blinked, and in those flashes of darkness she saw bright faces, emerald vistas, sapphire skies—so many beautiful things that she was at a loss to comprehend them ending so bleakly. She was also, for a moment at least, at a loss to comprehend if they belonged to her or the peaceful relic in her embrace.
Perhaps they belonged to them both.
The soldiers shouted again, their tasers humming with threatening vigor. Belle gasped, sniffling as the tears streamed down her cheeks. With a grimacing sob, she reached down and nuzzled Rainbow Dash dearly.
"I... I-I don't know if you can hear me, or if you know who I am... what I've been through..."
More shouts. More humming.
Belle bit her lip, squeaked, and continued, "But I know a thing or two about you. I know how awesome you are. I know all of the trials and adventures you've been through to get here. I have no doubt now that you are the pony to save this world. I don't know how... but you're her; you're the one."
A few painful shudders went through Belle's body. She hugged Rainbow Dash tighter and buried her face in the pegasus' shoulder, stroking her hair as she cried.
"I ask of you... I-I beg of you..." She gnashed her teeth and stammered, "Save us too. Please save Pilate. Please help me rescue m-my beloved."
The guards were pounding against the elevator at this point. The world echoed with madness and chaos.
"Please..." Belle whimpered, sniffling and hiding her tears in Rainbow's coat. "I believe in you," she said. She whispered. "I b-believe in you..."
Rainbow Dash was still.
The pounding increased.
Rainbow Dash's ears twitched.
Another roll of thunder.
Rainbow's lids stirred left, right, then opened to reveal ruby red eyes, brimming with tears.