“So… Ending, huh?” Scootaloo muttered, a mumbling of unenergetic affirmations going around the table. “Geez, that really came out of nowhere.”

Ahead of the impending ending to their branch’s regular expansions, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had begun to make plans. Plans at just what they’d do to celebrate the occasion. Sure, such a definable finale was going to be sad and melancholic, to say the very least, but they’d celebrate the happy times gone, as well as the eons yet to come.

Of course, these plans had somewhat relied on there being one more expansion left before the finale came around, even factoring in the delays brought on by the arrival of new loopers, great in and of itself, and the whole mess of the Crisis that came with them. So, when it had hit home that their supposed final two expansions had come in one neat bundle, the squad had been left… unprepared, barely into their arrangements.

Which had, of course, led them to their present situation. Rather than a big show of happiness, things had become a little more morose from the shock of how abruptly things had come to an end, and the six fillies were soon gathered around a table of non-alcoholic beverages in a dark corner of Mac’s bar, waiting for somepony to break the ice.

“Ya’ll ain’t kidding…” Apple Bloom sighed, eyelids drooped sluggishly. “Didn’t even have that retroactive party warhead Pinkie wanted to hit Tirek with ready…”

“Or the modified bomber to carry it.” Scootaloo retorted, eyes glancing wistfully at the altered super-heavy Tupolev Tu-160 parked neatly outside the barn, various panels missing due to in-progress bespoke tweaking.

“Or my alchemical cheese weaver…” Silver Spoon grumbled, glaring half-heartedly into her mug, then at the device in question, or more accurately the charred, half-missing remains of Attempt #153. She slammed her hoof against the table. “Just a few more loops, and I could’ve stopped it consuming itself.”

“Would’ve probably caused a loop crash, anyway.” Sweetie Belle hummed. “Not that it wouldn’t have been worth it to see unawake Chrysalis’ face, but… yeah…” she slumped. “Heartsong might’ve helped.”

“Loops of planning, wasted.” Diamond Tiara scowled upward at no Admin in particular, though there was no fire in the expression.

“Um…” Nyx Sparkle, perhaps the most upbeat pony at the table at the current point in time, her lack of true connection to Baseline dulling her reaction somewhat, coughed as she looked up from her book, glancing awkwardly from one friend to the next. “We… we can still just do all this later, right?”

“True, but birch knows it won’t feel the same.” Bloom rolled her eyes limply. “Guess it was just askin’ for the Tree to pull something like this, in the end.”

“Maybe, but…” Diamond shook her head, doing her best to wipe the frown from her face, though she only partially succeeded. “Nyx is right. We… we can definitely do this later still…” the resident leadership expert of the group faltered slightly. “…right?”

“I guess so…” Sweetie Belle nodded lightly. “I mean, we all wanted to get one last big thing in before we found out where we all ended up at the end of baseline, but… I guess three of us being teachers, which is actually kind of cool…” she cut into her own speech. “…doesn’t exactly stop us from doing what we normally do, looping or Baseline, and it’s not every loop, so…”

“And it’s not like I can’t fly outside of baseline now,” Scoots added, “so what Twilight said about my wings definitely being stunted in growth isn’t that bad.”

There was a moment’s pause, as five of the six came to similar conclusions.

“Is…” Silver Spoon blinked a few times. “Is it just me, or are we all actually just worried about the massive jump in time, rather than anything in the loops?”

“Maybe, but you and Tiara--”

“Don’t have anything beyond confirmation we’re alive and well, according to our Anchor, even if she has yet to tell us everything.” The alchemist hemmed. “If anything, that would make us more worried. So, yes.” she perked up. “We can definitely get over this.”

“And at the end of the day…” Diamond pulled several sheets from her pocket, mouth wide with a loaded smile. “At the end of the day, we can always use the Loops this does turn up in to experiment with much more long terms projects than we’re usually able to carry out.

“I did wonder about opening up another airport…” Scootaloo tendered quietly, turning the idea over in her head.

“Exactly!” DT persisted. “If anything, not only can we still do our end of baseline plan, given time, but we have some many more opportunities available to us now.”

Another round of affirmations, these decidedly more energetic for the most part, went around the gathering.

“Yeah, well…” Apple Bloom leant back in her seat, still appearing a little melancholy despite her smile. Slowly, she looked to the dark furred alicorn sat next to her, who’d quickly returned to her reading. “Not like all of us have a connection to begin with…”

“Hey, I care!” Nyx snapped slightly, though among such long-time friends it was clear she was putting it on, no offense truly taken, even if her slight smirk hadn’t given it away. “I just… I’m not as attached to the whole baseline.” She grinned. “Proud of Mom, though. Ruler of Equestria in Baseline.” The former Nightmare giggled. “About time, too. Pretty sure everyone saw that one coming, even before these expansions.”

“Well, yeah.” Sweetie laughed. “It’s kind of her thing, isn’t it?”

“Well, that and being the best.”

“I think you might be biased, Nyx.”

“Can’t be biased if it’s true.” The youngest member of the Sparkle clan stuck her tongue out.

“And I suppose Leman’s the best, too?”

“Only when he’s not sleeping on the couch.”

“A shame we all had to hear about of this second-hand, though.” Sweetie cut in, forcing the conversation rather bluntly back on track, both Sweetie Belle and Nyx tittering sheepishly. “Maybe we’ll get the full run this loop, but it would’ve been fun to get the expansion before Twilight told us…”

“Yeah, that definitely would have been a fun time working through.” Diamond agreed, though there was a hint of sarcasm in her tone. “Would have been even more of a shock, but…” the young filly paused, something not sitting right with her. Setting her papers down, she looked up, finding that, though four pairs of eyes had turned to her, one hadn’t instead looking away, a deep frown adorning the mouth beneath it. “Um… Apple Bloom?”

“Huh?” the engineer in question blinked out of her rather downcast daze, trying to hide the rather distressed expression she’d been touting. “Yeah?”

“Are you okay?”

“I… I…” Bloom tried, perhaps prepared to brush it off, but quickly, likely not wishing to outright lie, she caved. “No. Not okay. I…” she shivered. “I’ve been through the expansion. Once.”

There was a joint gasp around the table, but the resident Apple continued before anyone could speak over her.

“I… I didn’t want to say anything. Thought it’d bring the mood down, y’know?” she muttered, tiny teardrops coalescing in the corners of her eyes. “But, geez… Hit kinda hard…”

…

[…until Apple Bloom reveals why she’s particularly down, having been through the future once and experienced Goldie and Granny’s passing, not taking it as collectedly as AJ seems to have (she reveals this, to everyone’s shock, by unpocketing Goldie’s shawl directly onto her body). Have Mac come in with drinks at the end and tactfully semi-avoid discussing his son with Sugar Belle.]]