It wasn't often that Tempora Strider was up before dawn. Normally, if somepony had suggested that she would be, she would have laughed like a madmare for at least a couple of minutes before wiping the tears of mirth from her eyes and saying something along the lines of "That's a good one! Me up before dawn?" before bursting into another fit of laughter.
But a screwed-up sleep schedule led her to be sitting in the kitchen and slowly eating cereal before the crack of dawn. And she was only slightly tired, fortunately.
Tempora idly stirred her spoon in the milk, watching the little pieces of cereal chase each other around in the cool liquid. She sighed, nudged a few of them onto her spoon with a touch of magic, and brought the spoon up to her muzzle.
A clopping of hooves sounded from the hallway and a half-asleep Firefall stepped into the kitchen. He shielded his eyes from the unexpected light and said drowsily, "Tem, what the hay are you doing up? It's four in the morning."
Tempora dropped her spoon and turned to regard her brother. "What? What am I doing? I was tired and had a nap yesterday afternoon...and evening...and this is when I woke up. What are you doing up?"
Firefall dragged himself to the refrigerator and opened it. "I couldn't sleep," he remarked simply, suppressing a yawn.
"Oh; well, that sucks," Tempora said, stirring her cereal again without thinking about it. "So how's your human project going? Have you figured out how to fix Patrick?"
Firefall did a double take, staring for a few seconds. "What are you talking about?"
"The--the human," Tempora said, blinking owlishly. "The human! Patrick something--no, Patrick Stanford Walker, yeah, that was his name! You were supposed to look after him or something for your project! And there was another one, too, Katherine something!"
Firefall huffed and turned back to the fridge. "Tem, I honestly have no idea what you're on about," he said as a jug of orange juice floated out and landed on the counter.
"We were talking about it just the other day!" protested Tempora.
"Maybe it was somepony else you're thinking of," Firefall said indifferently as he turned and opened a cabinet to get a glass.
Tempora frowned heavily and reached out with her magic, grabbing Firefall's body in her magic.
"What are you doing?" he protested as she lifted him an inch off the floor and turned him to face her.
"Okay, Firefall," she said through gritted teeth, "say that again...say that with a straight face."
"I have no idea what you're talking about when you mention these 'humans'," Firefall said with possibly the straightest face Tempora had ever seen on him. "Now let me go."
"Ugh!" Tempora scowled, throwing up her hooves and narrowly missing her cereal as she let him go. "What the hay, Fire? You never forget stuff like that, and I know I was talking to you about it! What, did you hit your head or something yesterday? I mean, anything coulda happened! I was asleep when you came home yesterday!"
A look of concern passed over Firefall's face. "Tem, are you okay?"
"I'm just peachy." Tempora jabbed a hoof in her brother's direction. "No, the question's 'are you okay', 'cause you never forget something like this. I've known you all my life, Firefall Strider, and I bet there's something wrong if you can't remember a project you spent the last few days on."
"I didn't spend the last few days on a human project," Firefall insisted. "I'm going to try to make some kind of fire that's safer to handle. That's what I'm working on."
Tempora stared for a long, long moment, then turned back to her cereal. "Sure, whatever," she said softly, rolling her eyes. She looked down at the last few bits of cereal in her bowl and her gaze hardened. Using her magic, she picked the pieces out of the milk, hovered them in the air briefly, and then inserted them directly into her mouth. Once she'd swallowed them, she levitated the bowl up to her muzzle, chugged the milk from it in seconds, and then levitated it into the sink, trying to finish as quickly as possible.
"Tempora, are you sure you're all right?" Firefall reiterated, looking at her concernedly.
Tempora hopped off of her stool. "Yes, I'm fine," she said, glancing briefly up at him with a careful neutral expression. Without another word, she turned, teal tail swishing carelessly, and left the kitchen to return upstairs.
Something's up with him, she thought to herself as she adjusted her hat, a look of determination passing over her face, and by Celestia, I'm going to figure out what it is.