//------------------------------//
// Afterparty 
// Story: Beanery 
// by TCC56 
//------------------------------//

"I have never been late to a party before," Pinkie Pie stated between sniffles. She was trying to sound firm and resolute, but her despair was undermining it faster than Maud clearing out an annoying vein of siltstone in an otherwise useful bed of shale. "There's been parties I couldn't get to or had to choose between, but I've never said I would be at one and been late before."

The start of further fuming came to her lips and then died. She knew the truth of it and sank back to her haunches. "Maybe it was the time change? I thought I could show up an hour early and get lots and lots and lots of time to set up! Then everything would be perfect before anypony got here. And, I mean, isn't that the best present a party guest can give to somepony who's throwing a party? To help them with the work so they can enjoy the party too?"

A glance to the clock on the wall - a dour-looking grandfather clock, cast in dark wood. It ticked away as the brass pendulum swung back and forth. The stately size and serious demeanor of it was countered by a spray of bright streamers dangling from it: pink and yellow and blue. The clock itself was perfectly on time - a slightly neurotic Twilight Sparkle had adjusted it from being a minute and a half slow when she arrived - and it was clear that Pinkie's claim to try showing up early was false.

"It had to have been the time change," Pinkie insisted, mostly to herself. She nodded with great assurance and confidence… and then sighed heavily. "It wasn't the time change. I'm just late. And that means I let everypony down."

She had very obviously missed the party by more than an hour. What once had been a riot of laughter and cheer was now quiet as a graveyard. All the guests had gone home, leaving behind the standard detritus of a good time. A mostly empty punch bowl, surrounded by used cups and filled with slowly melting ice. A pile of dirty paper plates and forks mounding out of the trash can. A piece of cardboard with exactly three pieces of cake left from an oversized sheet. Photos and books and mementoes which had been shared by the partygoers scattered around, left for somepony to clean up afterwards.

Steeling herself, Pinkie straightened her back and decided that she would be that somepony. "Well, I might have missed the party and wasn't here to help get it started, but the least I can do is help clean up! Everypony will appreciate that, at least!"

She took one step forward - just one - before her companion put a hoof on her shoulder to stop her. She looked back to him - and to his shake of the head.

Pinkie frowned. "I can't help? Not even that little bit?"

He shook his head again.

She pouted. "But I wanna help. They need--"

He shook his head again.

Pinkie corrected herself. "Alright, maybe they don't need my help, but they deserve my help. They're my friends, after all. What kind of a friend would I be if I didn't help them?" She paused, looking between her companion and the messy remains of the party. "It's the least I can do for not being here on time."

"PINKIE PIE, ONLY YOU WOULD WANT TO PUT OFF THE GREAT BEYOND TO CLEAN UP AFTER A PARTY." Death sighed, reaching out to take her hoof again. "COME. YOU WERE LATE TO YOUR OWN FUNERAL - LET'S NOT HAVE YOU BE LATE TO THE AFTERLIFE."

Reluctantly (and knowing she had no choice in the end), Pinkie took the offered hoof. Together, they slowly started away from the remains of her final party in Equestria. "So, do you know how long it's going to be before I see my friends again?"

"EVENTUALLY," Death intoned.

"I hope it's not for a long time. I'll be impatient, but the waiting's for a good reason." Pinkie paused as they reached the threshold of the doorway, looking back one last time. "It was a good party. All of it. Even the parts I missed."

And then she stepped through.