//------------------------------//
// Needs Exit Music 
// Story: Innavedr 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	"Somepony..."  Bellesmith's lips murmured breathily into the cold night air.  She lay with her eyes shut and her body curled in a soft heap against the furthest corner of the concrete alcove.  "Somepony tell me..."  Her hooves squirmed as her lungs expanded and contracted.  "...what's going on?"  She hissed through her teeth while her golden brow furrowed.  "Blessed Spark, I'm dying..."

The building above them groaned.  Concrete slabs slid apart, pouring starlight onto the mare's sleeping figure.  With a blue pulse of light, a petite figure rushed into the niche, her hooves forming a cacophonous pitter-patter against the mildew stained floor of the hiding spot.

"Belle!  Belle!" Kera stammered, leaning over the mare and speaking hoarsely, "Crud has hit the fan!  We gotta move!  We gotta move now!"

"Nnngh... I-I'm going someplace," Belle whimpered, her body curling into a tighter fetal position.  "I-I don't know where!"

"Belle, wake up!"

"The singing!  It's d-deafening!"

"Belle, you're dreaming!"  Kera reached in and viciously shook her shoulder.  "Wake up!"

Belle winced.  Her chestnut brown eyes fluttered open.  She gazed in confusion at the starlight wafting in all around them.  "You... you opened the hiding place..."

"Yes!" Kera nodded, her glowing horn waving around.  "I know!"

"But... but why?"

"Look, it's my fault!  I went out to find some grub for breakfast 'cuz I couldn't sleep, right?"

"Er..."

"Right, and I-I think I may have accidentally let an enforcer or two see me.  Whatever.  It's all bad news, Belle!  We gotta get out!"

"Wait... wait..."  Belle sat up, rubbing a hoof over her shaved mane.  "I... I don't understand..."

'What part did you not flippin' understand?!" Kera exclaimed, motioning emphatically out the exposed air of the alcove.  "There are enforcers all over the streets of Blue Nova, looking for a 'mare with a shaved mane and a strange book!'"

"Huh?!"  Belle stood up, her eyes gaining strength as the shock of the moment gradually woke her.  "But... but how?!  The last time we ever ran into enforcers was the day before yesterday, and they barely got a good look at us!"

"Look, I don't know how it happened, but there are wanted posters and crap all over town with your face on it!"  Kera exclaimed, her voice squeaking in fitful breaths.  "Whatever cover we may have had; it's blown!  We gotta make like the wind, girl!"

"I-I think we should stay right here where it's safe from other ponies' eyes—"

"That's what I'm trying t tell you, Belle!  I was listening in on a pack of these beret-wearing bozos and they spotted me!  I tried running away, but I think they saw me!  They'll not stop searching these slums until they've found us!  You know that!"

"This... this is all happening so fast..."  Belle gazed out the alcove, her coat sweating profusely.  "How'd they even connect you with me?"

"There are posters with m-my face as well," Kera said, her head hanging in shame.  "I bet it was Nightshade.  She must have gotten pictures of us while we were in her tower and gave them to the enforcers."

"They... they must be investigating her," Belle thought aloud.

"Anyways, we gotta move, Belle!  I'm not kidding!"  Kera tugged and tugged on Belle's forelimb.  "Please!  I don't want them to put me back in Nightshade's tower!"

"Right... right... let me just... let me just grab my things..."  Belle trotted over to her saddlebag.  She paused, reeling dizzily.  "Nnnngh..."  She rubbed her head and grumbled, "I think I-I'm coming down with something..."

"Belllllle!"  Kera stammered, hopping worriedly up and down before the exit.  "Come onnnnn!  We gotta move!"

"Right, Kera... I'm coming..."  Bellesmith shuddered as she slid on Princess Luna's satchel and fastened it around her figure.  She reexamined the pockets to make sure the old tome and the rest of Rainbow Dash's things were still there.  She wasn't disappointed.  "I'm coming, alright?"  She briskly trotted over to Kera's side.  "There's no reason to be scared..."

Without warning, Kera clung to Belle's forelimb, trembling, burying her face in the mare's shoulder.

Belle blinked.  Her mouth fell agape as she brushed a hoof over the foal's bushy mane.  "By the Spark, you really are frightened, aren't you?"

"Please..."  Kera stifled a whimper, clinging tighter to the adult pony.  "I just don't want to go back.  I've seen what it's like, and I don't wanna go.  I don't wanna..."

Belle smiled softly.  She leaned in and nuzzled Kera.  "Don't worry.  Just stay next to me.  We'll get out of here and find a place to hide."

Kera sniffled.  She gazed up at Belle, the starlight glinting off her moist eyes.  "But what if we don't?"

"We will," Belle insisted.  "I promise you.  Just stay close, and keep within the shadows."  Belle turned to face the exit from the alcove.  Her heart skipped coldly upon hearing the shuffle of hooves beyond the nearby alleyways, followed by distant shouts.  "Your horn ready to open stuff?"

"Y-yes, Belle.  I'm ready..."

"Good."  Clenching her jaw, Belle galloped straight out into the moonlight of Blue Nova.  "Let's make like the wind."