The sun burned brightly in the sky overhead. Strong, vibrant, and energetic as it ever was. Skies were clear; rain wasn't a likelihood for a while. While the crossbreeze was a bit cool at times, the warmth and radiance of the sun made this nearly a comfortable, perfect day by many regards.
Scootaloo watched her foal scamper in the grass, smiling as she watched her play with a friend. They had been having more regular outings to this location on the edge of town lately; it was wide open, the view was to die for, and there were rarely any other ponies around causing disturbances. In other terms, the perfect place for a mother to spend time with her child in peace. She had to remember to thank Apple Bloom for suggesting this place to her, thinking about it now.
How did she end up here, the adult pegasus wondered? Even after everything that she had been put through, after the losses that she suffered, despite all of her hardship... she still persevered. She found safety. She found love. And now here she was, a wife to her husband, and a mother to her filly. She honestly couldn't be any happier than she was at this moment. If only her father could have seen her now...
"Tag!" her foal cheered, having tapped the colt she was playing with on the flank. "You're it!"
"Heeey, no fair! You cheated!" the colt whined, to which the filly giggled in response.
Innocence. Carefree fun, and innocence. Something that she herself recalled having many years ago, Scootaloo mused. That was, until the Dark Times struck, many years ago; almost twenty, to be exact. But those past times of hardship have long since waned, and the outlook of the future was beginning to looking bright again.
She gazed up into the sky, marveling at the orb of fire that now moved through the sky on its own accord. Celestia herself, becoming one with the giver of life... An amazing concept. She had been spellbound when Twilight told them all. To think, that the goddesses themselves were looking down on them at all times now! While it might have scared more than a few children into behaving themselves (hers included, of course), it was one of those miracles that fully showed what the powers of a goddess are capable of.
And one day, they just might even return to them, as Twilight predicted...
Scootaloo was suddenly distracted from her inner thoughts by her filly, whom had galloped over to her in a flash. "Mommy, mommy!" she cried, not so much upset as she was extremely excited by something. "Roller had to go home, but he asked me to ask you if I could go over to his house sometime! Can I pleeeeease go? Pleeeeeease?"
The filly's exuberance provoked a gentle laugh from her; she loved to see her foal so happy, so carefree. So innocent. "As long as he's okay with it, and as long as you're okay with it, then I don't see why you can't!" replied Scootaloo, lovingly tousling her filly's mane. "Just make sure you have the whole "food" thing worked out before staying too long, alright? Wouldn't want your father to have to spoon-feed you later, right?"
"Eww, no!" the foal whined, sticking out her tongue. "Daddy's food is so yucky!"
"Aw, he's not that bad. Just needs a lot of practice, is all."
"Yeah! A LOT of practice, right mommy?"
Scootaloo laughed, and nodded her head. "Yep... That's your father for you," she remarked, smirking as she recalled her husband's rather unimpressive cooking skills. To be fair, she wasn't all that used to cooking in the past either; practice eventually did paid off, however, even if it ended up having nothing to do with her cutie mark.
Once she gathered herself again, the pegasus noticed that her filly seemed to have stopped, and was looking up into the sky with a curious, insightful expression. Following her gaze, Scootaloo could see that her filly had again taken an interest in that large oddity in the sky: the Red Moon. No longer an oddity, she supposed; everypony knew about it, and everypony accepted its presence.
It still creeped her out a bit, though.
"I think it looks pretty," the filly commented, seeming awed and amazed by the blood-colored moon. Hypnotized, almost, by its color and size.
Scootaloo herself could hardly refer to it as 'pretty', though it did have a certain 'air' about it. She wasn't even fully certain of what emotion she should have been feeling whenever she gazed at that moon. Her child was young, and naive; she didn't understand the taboo that surrounded it. Much less what happened in the years well before she was born.
There will come a day for that story to be told, but it wouldn't be today.
After a few moments of quiet contemplation, the mother could only manage a half-hearted nod. "It... certainly adds something, at least," she quietly commented. She stood up, and nudged her daughter's side. "Now then, wanna get going to visit your friend?"
The filly's eyes instantly moved from the moon to her mother, wide with excitement. "Do I?! Yeah, yeah! Let's go!" she cheered, immediately zooming off across the field while flapping her infantile wings in vain. Scootaloo grinned and followed after her, being forced to run briskly just to catch up with the foal. It was a good life. Even if the Red Moon stubbornly insisted on remaining there in the sky, she wouldn't allow it to ruin her life again. And nor would anypony else, really.
As the two of them left the field, neither of them noticed a certain draconequus materialize into existence on the other side of the field, chuckling the whole time. He looked at the scenery around him, as if casually admiring it, and then held out his hand to the side. A small, golden coin landed squarely on it from above.
"Aaaaaand the bit drops," Discord remarked, flipping the coin he had just caught into a purse he conjured up, before letting it vanish back into the ether again. With a final glance towards the Red Moon, and another self-indulgent cackle, the Lord of Chaos snapped his fingers and vanished from sight once again.
"For there will come a day..."
THE END