"Hey, you brat! Stop right there!" Was heard, shouted by an earth pony mare in the distance. Running away from her was a young unicorn mare, barely in her teens, trying to get as far away from the older mare as possible.
"Are you underestimating me―your mother―because I'm drunk? Huh?" The older mare questioned as she was chasing her.
The young mare began weaving between old and run down buildings―most of them abandoned or condemned―trying to get away from her abusive mother. Looking back, she couldn't see her anymore. But she could still hear her.
"You're dead when I catch you!" She heard from what sounded like two blocks away.
Taking it as a sign that the older mare had given up, she slowed down and stopped in the middle of the street. Panting heavily with her head down, she looked at the ground as red drops of blood began falling. Her muzzle was hurt and her nose had begun dripping blood onto the street. She tried to hinder it with her left hoof while leaning her head backwards, looking into the sky while doing so.
"In my childhood, the adults always told me..."
The stars in the sky were all shining brightly. None of them shining any less because of what was going on down below.
"That if you wished on a falling star, your wish would come true..."
The young unicorn lowered her hoof, no more blood running from her nose and ruining her dirty coat even further. She looked up at the sky.While still looking at the sky, she thought to herself.
"Good joke," she thought, remembering the smiles they all dared to show her while talking about wishes.
"Stupid liars..." She grumbled, narrowing her eyes while looking at the stars with a hateful glare, meant for the ponies who told her lies and not the actual stars.
"There's no way a wish will be granted just like that, right?" She asked herself. The world wasn't fair like that.
"Even if there's a ton of stars out there, nothing ever changes," she thought, beginning to lower her head. Tears beginning to appear in the corners of her eyes as she closed them. Shaking slightly in frustration and despair.
"..."
"If someone ever granted me my wish. Wouldn't that be great?" She thought hopefully, calming down a little. Smiling she began thinking of her dream, to one day bec-
"Got you now! You stupid little..." Her mother’s voice suddenly came from right behind her.
Opening her eyes in surprise, she didn't even have time to turn around before she felt hooves grabbing her mane and dragging her backwards.
Forcing her to turn around by pulling on her mane, she looked the younger pony straight in the eyes with an angry snarl.
"You dare run away from me? Do you want to end up like your father? Huh?!" she growled before pulling harder, pulling the unicorn of the ground.
"Ahh!! Let me go! Let go of me!" She whined, struggling to get free as tears streamed down the sides of her face. Looking at her mother with fearful eyes she tried to make a pleading face to get to the mare's inner angle.
"Huh? Did you just glare at me? Did you?" The mare shouted, seeing the change in her daughter's eyes but but not their nature.
"You little punk, you have no manners at all!" She shouted just as the younger unicorn mare noticed something different in the night sky. High above, one of the lights had begun to shine brighter.
"Look at me!" Shouted her mother as she noticed her daughter’s eyes averting towards the night sky where the light was still becoming bigger and brighter.
"... a shooting star?" The young mare thought to herself and found just the tiniest sense of hope. Maybe, just maybe it would work this time.
"You wanna challenge me, is that it?!" The older mare bellowed loudly, not noticing the bright light of the star.
Raising her other hoof to give her daughter a throughout beating she smiled a little. Her child began raising her own forearms to protect herself, yet her eyes were still pinned at something behind the older mare. Something that reflected in the young ones eyes and made the mare slightly curious. But before she could do anything, a loud *Fwwwoooshh!* sounded, followed immediately by an even louder *Crash*.
In her surprise, the mare lost hold of the younger pony as well as her foothold and fell.
Making contact with the ground, the thought that she was free came forth and she quickly began getting up and set off in a gallop.
Not having yet recovered, the other mare just blinked owlishly before asking herself:
"Wh- what was that just now?" She managed to get out before noticing the unicorn getting up.
"Huh? Hey!" She shouted after her before beginning to get up herself and running after her daughter.
The young unicorn, however, was running for her life once again. Some part of her mind decided to head for the fallen star. It had just saved her. Perhaps, it would do so again. And with the belief, she set off towards the light shining from not too far from their position.
"In my childhood, the adults told me... that if you wished on a falling star, your wish would come true..."
The unicorn finally arrived at the crash site. Stepping out from behind the corner of a house, she stepped into the light coming from the crater.
"I made fun of what they said but,"
The crater was set just where a house had stood before. There was close to no evidence that a house had even existed there before, instead...
"it seems they were speaking the truth."
Trying to figure out where the light was coming from, she tried shielding her eyes with her right forearm while blinking several times in quick succession.
"It was just that..."
As her eyes adjusted, she couldn't believe her eyes. Lowering her forearm, she took a step forward.
"the way my wish was granted, was a little different."
As she took another step, she felt her hoof touch something on the ground that didn't really belong. Looking down, she saw a small, blue, six sided dice. Bowing down, she picked it up.
"It was granted through..."
Having picked the dice up, she stared at it for a while, not quite understanding. What was this, what was it doing here?
Looking past the die she had picked up, she saw several more, all of them in different sizes, all of them reflecting the light. However, the light itself came from the inside of the mass of die.
DICE
