Fluttershy trotted up to the bar, where an apron-clad Twilight Sparkle was busy behind an ice cream machine, hunched down with the maintenance door open, staring inside. Rarity was next, sitting down at the bar. She gave a polite cough.

A bang came from the ice cream machine. "Ow!" Twilight rubbed her head with her hoof as she extricated herself from the door and scrambled over to the counter. "Coming!"

Rarity frowned, circling her hoof on the counter as Twilight approached.
"The usual?"

Rarity nodded. "Yes… or, maybe, no?" She looked up at the menu. The backlight had gone out some weeks ago, leaving the faintly grease-spotted text and pictures of hayburgers barely visible. Not that it mattered much, as there were no visitors to read it. "Tell me, what do you usually have? No, what do you treat yourself to?"

Twilight, who was already halfway over to the salad bar, paused mid-trot. "A four-by-four, mustang style, with extra hay fries and a milkshake, please." The words slipped off her tongue easily. Too easily. Her brow furrowed.

"Then I--no, we--" Rarity looked over to Fluttershy, who nodded--"shall have that!"

Twilight nodded, before circling back to the burger station, out of view of the bar. "If I may ask, what's the occasion?" She called out, shouting just loud enough to be heard over the din of the ventilation and machinery. 

Hay fries floated into the basket, an army of haypatties into the warmers, buns into the toasters. (Of course she was cooking another set for herself--no point in wasting the food.)

"They're talking about closing," Rarity stated.

"Clothing? You talk about clothing all the time. What's so special-"

"No, dear," Rarity rolled her eyes. "Closing," she buzzed the 's'. "Termination, cessation, end of the line… going out of business."

"Oh." Onions out onto the grill. "Why's that?" Twilight peeked out from behind the ice cream machine -- she could get a bit of eye contact from here while getting a nice brown on her onions.

"Farponies don't *do *retail anymore," called Rarity over the sizzle of the grill. "They say it's the online market."

"Everypony's getting their products delivered straight to their teleboxes now," added Fluttershy.

"Even clothes?" The onions had turned glassy, and they grew a nice fringe of char. "I always figured you'd have to hoof-pick those." The spatula floated over, Twilight's magenta aura swirling over it. The onions came off the heat and crossed to the hayburger station. *Scrape down the grill.*

"Yes, even clothes," Rarity sighed. "Turns out everypony's *just fine* with ordering cheap clothes and just returning them, id est, *throwing them into an incinerator for credits*, if they *don't fit*," she nearly spat the last clause. "Ugh, honestly," she tapped her hoof on the counter.

Milkshakes, right--there were the cups… "Oh, and no ice cream."

Rarity gave a small smile. "Yes, darling. Better for our figures."

Twilight's ears perked as Fluttershy spoke next. "Well, pets are going out of fashion too. I guess you don't have to shop for pet food in pony, but…" the pegasus shivered. "Oh, I just don't know what's going to happen to the pets if Trotland closes."

"Or what's going to happen to us," Twilight muttered. Grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, sauce X. And hay fries out of the frier. 

There was a moment of quiet as Twilight arranged everything into quick-service packaging, then onto the trays. *Perhaps that was the wrong topic to broach*, she thought. *Even if it was the most obvious one.*

"Yes. There is *that* issue, I suppose." Rarity swallowed.

The trays floated over. Both patrons--well, long-term coworkers of a sort--were looking down at the counter.

"Order's up," said Twilight. She took a seat in front of them. No, it wasn't standard protocol to have seating at the register counter, but it's not like the management seemed to care at this point. She stared at the burger for a second before taking a bite. 

Rarity eyed the heft of hers--rotating it in her magic as though to find the best angle--before resolving to take a dainty bite from the top bun. Fluttershy's eyes darted away from Rarity as she did the same, holding the hayburger awkwardly between her hooves.

Twilight arched a brow. "What, are you gonna eat it like corn on a cob?" Her horn lit up, and a box of napkins floated before them. "Come on, it's a hayburger."

Fluttershy took a bigger bite this time. Rarity looked up for a second before she floated a plastic knife from the utensils box off on the side. And there went a cross-sectional segment of the burger, squishing in her magic before entering her mouth in a clean bite. "Mmm," she hummed. "All the elements of another wonderfully made hayburger."

Twilight returned her smile. It -did- feel greasier than Rarity's, but she was never one to dance around a hayburger so much as eat it. She took another big chunk out of hers.

"And of course, we mustn't forget the fries before we lose the…" crunch went one, as it snapped in Rarity's mouth. She *hmf*'ed through closed lips as she chewed, then swallowed.

"Ketchup?" Twilight floated the bottle over.

Rarity shrank back slightly. "I'm afraid it doesn't comport with my coat, darling."

Fluttershy's head perked. "I'll have some ketchup, um, please."

"Here you go." Twilight squirted a dollop of red into the corner of Fluttershy's fry box, and some for herself.

"So what are your plans for this evening?" Rarity leaned forward, setting the burger down on her tray. "Going to spend all night working with the innards of that infernal ice cream instrument?" 

Twilight swallowed her latest bite, one last chunk of the burger floating slightly to her mouth before holding. "Mmm. Infernal and ice cream don't mix." She blinked, frowning. "Actually, I know the problem. Well, two problems, one of which I can fix."

"Do tell." Rarity nodded, sticking another fry in her mouth.

"Number one is the thermal expansion of the o-ring for the strawberry beater…" she mimed with her hooves, gesturing outward. "Which shouldn't have been a problem if the gasket housing had been aligned in the first place." She blinked and shook her head. "I guess that's three problems. Anyways, it adds friction, which somehow overloads the motor until the overcurrent protection trips. Now, all the o-rings we have left are sitting in the maintenance closet, and they're all the same material, so replacing them is a wash--and believe me, I've tried." 

Twilight clopped her hooves together. "In theory, I don't have the proper instruments to align the gasket housing. But in practice… I have wires." She floated a bundle of bent wires of all different colors, with the ends stripped off.

"I didn't know you were into making wire figures." Rarity tapped her chin.

"Feeler gauges. Of different gauges!" Twilight gave a cheeky smile as the wires spun like an industrial-colored fan. "Combined with a little bit of trigonometry." Her horn lit up and floated a clipboard, displaying the sketched diagram of the gasket housing and beater shaft--and around it, the page seemed to have been shaded in with numbers, equations, and matrices.

Fluttershy nodded at the clipboard. She was about halfway through her hayburger.

"Impressive." Rarity looked at it, eyes narrowing as though attempting to decipher it for a second. "Dear me. In another place, in another time, I think you might have made a great engineer."

Twilight gave a smile, a faint blush warming her cheeks. "Technician," she corrected. "But thanks.*

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Darling, haven't I told you about compliments? Besides," another fry floated up in her blue magic. "Well, actually, that's besides the point. What *matters* is that brilliant mind of yours." It tilted towards Twilight -- almost tutting at her -- before floating into her mouth. Another swallow. "Not everypony can decipher the innards of an ice cream machine so easily." Her knife floated to the burger again, cutting another surgical chunk.

They continued for a few moments with no sound but the hum of the kitchen machinery, the sipping of the milkshakes, and the crunch of the hayfries. A few times mid-chew, Fluttershy would look at Rarity expectantly, who would look back quizzically--"oh, hm." Rarity covered her mouth with her hoof. "We have plans for past closing. Or at least, Rainbow Dash does."

"I hope they don't involve toboggans and escalators?" Twilight frowned, raising a brow. "Or flight obstacle courses?"

"Oh, no, dear!" Rarity giggled. "I think the managers got it quite well into her head last week that setting up flaming hoops on the second floor balcony is quite off-limits."

"I'd certainly hope so," Twilight muttered. "Cleaning those burnt t-shirts up took forever." She snorted. "So what is it, if not property destruction?"

"Karaoke night!" Rarity threw a hoof up dramatically.

"At the arcade," Fluttershy added.

"Seems like a Pinkie idea." Twilight munched on the last of her fries.

"Oh, it was," Rarity nodded. "But Rainbow added a *dash *of competitive flair."

Fluttershy sipped her milkshake, setting the cup down gently. "We play games to get song picks."

Rarity pointed another fry at Twilight conspiratorially. "And by *we*, we're wondering if that also means you. If you're so inclined…?"

Twilight's eyes darted to the ice cream machine behind her. "Well…"

"*Twilight."* Rarity chided. "Really, darling. We know you *can* fix the ice cream machine."

"*Can* I? I mean, probably. I've just been so involved…"

"Consider whether you *should*," Rarity raised her hoof. "In a few weeks' time, it might not matter."

"I know, just… but what if the customers-"

"You have two satisfied customers right here, don't you?" said Rarity.

Fluttershy nodded with that. "They'll be understanding."

Rarity continued. "And if anypony asks, well, it's quite simple, really- " she shifted her voice to a more sing-song one- "The ice cream machine is always broken."

"The ice cream machine is always broken?" Twilight looked down at her greasy wrappers, now mostly emptied of food.

"Precisely." Rarity grinned.

  
  

Twilight let a peek of a smile through as she repeated the words. "The ice cream machine is always broken."