I guess it's good bye

Chapter 3: Night one

Iris looked upward into a dark yet beautiful, starry sky with a bright and enormous full moon, giving off a silver light. "It must have been a good day for Princess Luna." She thought with a small smile on her face. She was happy with her assumption, of what a joyful day the Princess she admired the most might have had.

It seemed like the grimness of her situation and the beautiful day she had, had reflected in the sky. The sky looked like billions of little gems floating in a sea of darkness. The moon looked way bigger than usual and the town square was flooded with a comforting, kind and pure silver light.

Iris had always been one of the few earth ponies who actually cared to stare at the beauty of the night sky and feel happy about night’s arrival. She had always stayed up a bit later than most ponies (except Twilight in one of her studying sessions) in order to appreciate the soft coolness of the night's breeze and the safety of home. She drank tea mostly to keep warm and keep her mind in a calm state while she thought deeply of what life was. Nights were the perfect setting for such habit, no noise was heard, the wind blew softly and its cries were like lullabies.

Rain and mist were a rare occasion in Ponyville, especially at night. Once again, Iris loved these two, on the contrary to many other ponies (regardless of the type). She loved to see rain. The sound it made. The sound the rain made on her roof and the outside was like every droplet that fell had a note to play in a great orchestra. Sometimes mist happened to appear in the scheduled rains and the mist silenced all noise and muffled the roars of the rain. Mist's humid and chilly nature felt like a soft, white blanket enveloping the air. These occurrences brought the upmost joy to Iris. I hope I can enjoy one of those settings before I leave. Iris thought sadly while looking back to her living room.

Death itself was in her house, for no purpose more than sipping tea and having a chat. It was very strange for Iris to have forgotten an appointment to have tea with someone, a tea appointment with someone... more like a tea appointment with something she thought, both grimly and sarcastically as she remembered the skeletal body of Death. *Whistle*. "The water for the tea is ready." Iris said out loud. Death answered "I've heard you brew the best tea in town, and I've just been dying to try a cup of it" Death let out chuckle as she finished both her compliment and her terrible joke. Iris felt both flattered by the comment on her tea brewing skills, and unsettled by the joke Death pulled out.

Iris took both steaming cups of black tea to the table, and then returned with her dinner and a box full of "Toppings" for the tea. Iris dressed her salad with vinegar and lemon juice, also she put a pair of mint leafs in to give more flavor to the tea. Death mimicked her choice of toppings. Iris looked at her tea; it seemed to be almost as dark as Death's cloak.

Death opened in conversation: "I've seen you've had quite a busy day, my dear. I'm glad you took my advice." Death said. Iris then looked at Death and asked: "I still remember what you told me, that the actions I do in these next five days (well four... now), will affect how long I live in my next life. I still don't understand, what is it that you want me to do!" Death looked at Iris and answered. "What you have to do I can't tell you, but I can tell you this much. Had you done it before THIS, you would have died instantly instead of dragging it out for 5 days". Death seemed to be absolutely serious about her previous statement. Iris then asked another question. "If I manage to do what I'm supposed to, will I die?" Death laughed. "My dear if you do, you won't die on the spot, your time of death has been settled, also if you manage in less than... 4 days? I'll give you those to enjoy what you just recently acquired, I'm not going to take you away when you have found that which makes your remaining life worth living. I might be Death itself, but I'm not a monster my dear. In all this death talk in the night, I forgot to tell you. Your affliction makes it so you require little to no sleep. Oh... I got to go. A bit of a tip: leave no dream unfulfilled." Iris looked down and thought deeply in the words of Death. When she looked up, she saw no one, Death was gone again.

Iris looked at the sky through her window. She thought deeply in the words, "that which makes your life worthy." The lack of sleep caught up to her. Iris went to bed.

In her dreams she vaguely remembered the faces of those nice fillies and colts that had once been her friends. Most of the images were blurred and she heard muffled noises. There was the faint sound of laughter. Iris tried to remember why the occasion was so merry and why everypony was in one place. She remembered the house, she felt comfortable, warm and safe. Iris tried hard to recall, then like lightning, it struck her. It was the best birthday she had ever had. Still most of the faces were blurred and much of the occasion was missing in her mind. Iris thought: What ever happened to those days?

A tar black shadow fell upon her mind, everything got cold. Iris knew better, it was Death, but who's? She knew her death would come in four days now. Why would death be appearing in her mind. Death this time looked differently; it actually had skin, and no scythe wings. Death signaled Iris to follow her. Iris asked "Why are you here?!” Death then answered boldly: “You asked, and I quote *What ever happened to those days?* so I'm taking you to your answer." Iris was astonished to see that death actually helped her. She followed the tar black pony with the pure white eyes, into some sort of a scene.

It seemed to be very late at night when she looked at a house on fire. Iris was surprised to see such a scene. She didn't remember herself ever being in such a scene. Then she rushed into the flames to see the actual scene occurring. For a dream, the flames seemed real, the heat was scorching. Iris stood before a very young light blue filly with a yellow mane, and deep blue eyes. She examined the young pony and realized. "IT'S ME!!” In shock she looked at the unconscious filly on the floor. The smoke had knocked her out.

The vibrant red and yellow flames kept growing as if they wanted to breach the heavens above. Iris was in a panic, thinking this might have been some sort of trap or joke played by Death.

She saw an indigo colored figure with tears in its eyes rush by. Iris could do nothing but watch the horror that lay before her, she cried, as she recognized the indigo stallion. It was her father.

Her father, with all his might, took Iris from the floor and put her on his back, then rushed to the door. His eyes still filled with tears, while the flames had turned a nice home into an inferno. The whole house was in a fiery red glow, the flames ate everything in its path, leaving nothing but smoke. The structure crackled and snapped, it was clear it could not hold its own weight anymore. The flaming house started to fall down, as her father took her to the door. Just a few steps before the door a flaming wooden beam fell before her father. The stallion tripped against the beam, launching Iris a few steps away to safety. Her father tried to get up, fighting the smoke he had inhaled and the heat. He managed to get up on his hooves, when another blazing beam fell across his back, crushing every bone in his body delivering a quick death. Iris woke up screaming: "Dad!", then started to hyperventilate. Her heart was rushing and she was sweating. Iris tried to calm down and stared at the dark ceiling of her room.

Iris then remembered a very dark patch in her life. She remembered that when she was about 15 she was an orphan. Nopony would ever dare explain how she became one, or what had happened to her parents. They all just stared at her with pity. She hated the constant: "I'm so sorry dear." Spiel, it was like a constant reminder to her of how powerless she was. It's not like they had anything to do with their deaths, what the heck did they apologize for? Iris remembered how aggravating it was to be powerless. Iris then remembered the day she became independent. She took her life into her own hooves and abandoned school and all her friends. Iris looked for a job that would accept her, most of them didn't, but she still found a job as a waitress and with the little she got paid, she rented an apartment from a very generous old mare. Iris lived on her own in that apartment for the longest of time. (That is until she got promoted to assistant manager, and she bought herself a home in ponyville two years ago)

Iris woke up again. This time she was a lot calmer. She looked outside the window to see that it was still dark outside. It was all dark now; the moon was lower in the sky and it’s comforting light was no longer visible. Iris turned on the lights and looked at the clock. It was 3:42 a.m. Still, she felt like as she had slept a whole day.

Iris realized that she needed to do something today. Iris thought deeply: So I left those old days because of the incident... Iris had an epiphany. "I GOT IT!" she shouted. Then she realized what time it was and lowered herself to a whisper: "I better pack up."