The rain was coming down hard now.
Typical, she thought to herself. What had she done to deserve this? What great injustice had she caused that lead the karmic backlash she was receiving now? Whatever it was, she was sure she didn't deserve it. She never did. She was The Great and Powerful Trixie after all. Everypony else was beneath her, mere insects in her eyes. Insects that existed only to be squashed beneath her hoof. So, why then? Why has she been bested by that upstart mare? Why?
She pondered this, sitting alone under the only cover she could find in this Celestia-forsaken wilderness. As she did her best avoid the rain beneath the branches of the lone pine tree she had found, she again questioned why her fortune had turned on her so much. Before she had come to the accursed town that had robbed her of both her dignity and her personal effects, she had traveled far and wide across Equestria. She had performed in dozens of towns, and in each of them she had experienced nothing but admiration from the audience. This was the first time someone had questioned her greatness. She had been able to defeat several challengers, quite easily in fact. They stood naught a chance against her magical prowess, and they had crumbled before her like foals.
She had even refused to challenge her, saying that she was "nopony special." So why then? Why had she been able to defeat that Ursa Minor, when Trixie herself could not? She didn't understand. What made them so different? What did that mare have that The Great and Powerful Trixie did not?
She couldn't answer her own question. She simply lacked something, something that clearly gave that purple unicorn an edge that Trixie did not possess.
---
The rain was coming down hard now.
The air was stale in this city. There were buildings everywhere. It was a mean, dirty city. But it was their home. They had known no other their entire lives, but it was no place for her. They had to get her out of the city. Take her somewhere she could be cared for, and not have to live in this putrid place.
Two unicorns carried between them a basket. In it, slept a little blue baby unicorn. The filly had just been born mere hours before. Not in a hospital, no those cost bits. The couldn't possibly afford to pay medical bills when they couldn't even afford to pay the rent on their tiny one bedroom apartment. Nor could they afford to pay off the loan sharks that were now hunting them down. He had acquired quite a hefty debt from his gambling, and she had to pay for her addiction somehow. Drugs cost bits, bits she didn't have.
All of this and more led them to decide that they shouldn't be the ones to raise their foal. What kind of parents would they make? Certainly not ones that could provide their foal with the things she would need. No, it was better this way. Even if she didn't understand at first, in time she would come to thank them for saving her from a life of misery and pain. It was better this way.
They trotted along the dark streets, always wary of any dangers that might lurk in the dank alleyways. Their hooffalls echoed in the night. Each step leading them further and further from the heart of the city. Lights flickered above them. With each flicker the rain filled streets became illuminated, and for a brief moment the filth of the city could be seen flowing into the gutters. The muck of thousands of ponies washed along the trenches on each side of the street.
They passed a diner with a single waitress serving a lone customer. He sat at a booth near the window, drinking his coffee and reading the newspaper from that day. He didn't even notice the two haggard unicorns pass by, they were of no consequence to him. So unimportant were they to the general public, yet so singularly important to one filly. They had no way of knowing how much they would affect her life, despite trying to keep themselves out of it. It was a futile effort. Everypony wants to know their parents, and they will go to great lengths to discover their origins.
The two unicorns hurried along, they were nearing the edge of the city now. Soon they would be out of this dank, evil place. Or, at least she would be. But that was all that mattered. They would free her from the city's cruel bondage before it had even begun to take hold. That would be their gift to her. A "birthday present" from mom and dad. Freedom.
The rain was beginning to let up now, not by much, but enough to make a difference. They would soon leave the grime and dirt of the city behind, bound for greener pastures.
"Take a left here," he said.
She nodded.
With the huge skyscrapers now behind them, and only a little ways left to go before they reached the city limits. They set their sights on a narrow road that diverged from the main vein, right at the city's end.
"Nearly there," she said, raising a hoof to point further down the road.
The street lamp's end marked the beginning of their foal's new life. Once she left the city she would be free to make something of herself, to do anything. She wouldn't have to be held back by her parents, nor the city.
The sound of their hooves clopping on concrete suddenly stopped as they stepped off the highway, and on to the gravel road. They passed a sign, "Fillydelphia City Limits" it stated, in big white letters. They couldn't take her very far from the city, they simply didn't have the means to. They would have to settle for a tiny orphanage situated just outside the city. It was still pitch black outside, and without the street lamps to help them see, it was slow going.
She lit up her horn, emitting a faint glow to illuminate their path. The dirt crunched beneath their hooves as they trotted along. A cool wind blew in their faces, and leaves rustled around them. The moon above them was obscured, hidden by the clouds blown in by the wind. There were no tall buildings around to shield them from the wind, but they could at least protect her from it's biting cold. They couldn't do much, but they could at least use their bodies to ward off as much as they could. Though that didn't prevent the pervading cold from surrounding them or their foal.
By now they had walked nearly a mile up the road, saying not a word to each other. They both knew what they had to do. Even if they didn't like it, they knew it was best thing for her.