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Midnight Snack flopped down on the kitchen counter, bags under his eyes. The early morning light was streaming through the windows. The kitchen was clean and sparkling, and in front of him was -- finally! -- his finished recipe for the perfect lilac crunch soup. It had taken him the entire night, countless dishes, and countless desires to pull his hair out to complete. The color lilac fairly made him ill at this point.

He hadn't slept. But it was done. And now all he wanted to do was sleep.

Why, he wondered, did he spend so much time on this stupid stuff? Pink Lemonade praised his funny little cooking techniques, but would anyone else even care? Was it worth spending all night playing with recipes until he felt like a zombie at 6 a.m.?

Midnight groaned into his hooves.

"A barn? What about a bowl of lilac crunch soup?" said Midnight Snack, looking up from his hooves, his tired eyes still holding a glint of pride in them. Sunny Delight was aptly named. Midnight couldn't get over how his sister was always so ... so... so perky in the mornings, a time of day he usually slept through gladly. It was a trait he couldn't help but envy. He always felt like a zombie after rolling out of bed. Only after a few hours was his brain really into gear.

Except for the mornings he spent with her. Her bright disposition always managed to pull the best out of him.

"I think you'll like it," said Midnight, already sitting a bit straighter in his chair. "It's... cool. And purple."

"Here," said Midnight Snack, tapping the cold bowl forward with one hoof. "It's a cold soup, so maybe it'll be nice and refreshing during the mo--" he paused, suddenly yawning loudly, rubbing his eye with one hand. "... morning."

He sat up straighter as Sunny spoke to him, grinning as she giggled for no apparent reason that he could tell. He was fondest of Sunny of all his siblings; she was so bright and sweet and fun to be around. "Aw, well, it's nothing special. I guess I just can't not think of making them. You know, dad's a bottomless pit when it comes to food, and mom's always so interested in her D&D stuff, I dunno, I just sometimes think those things mixed all weird in me. I don't love snarfing food down willy-nilly, but I love everything else about it. How foods are textured. How they go together. How you can have a whole new, fun experience when you eat one thing but it doesn't taste like how you thought. I don't know -- I think about it a lot. I know a lot of people out there wanna feed other phonies, but me? I want to make 'em have an experience. I wanna make them something that later on they talk about to their friends, yanno? Something new."

He paused, realizing he was rambling. He twisted his mouth shut and then into a helpless smile -- Midnight Snack was not given to rambling, but there it was. Maybe it was easier to open up to his sister. Or maybe ... maybe he was just overtired.

"Does that make sense, Sunny D?" He propped his head up on his hooves. "Or am I being nutso? You've gotta have something like that, don't you?"

Midnight's expression brightened. "Aw, Sunny, I have a morning pick-me-up. Hanging around you is always a good morning pick-me-up." He straightened, feeling more alert, his features shining with a brightness of real interest in what his sister was saying. As she spoke, he found himself trying to follow, thinking hard about what it was she was really grasping for.

"You aren't bad in the kitchen," he mused. "You can always, well, you can handle yourself around kitchen appliances, you know...? And you are the most chipper person I know in the morning, you know? It's weird. When it's just me waking up late, I feel all groggy and grumpy. But when you're around and I have to be up early, it's a lot better. You're so sunshiney, and you make me really appreciate the morning instead of making me wanna go back to bed. It's refreshing!"

He paused, thinking. "You know, like... like, I don't know. Sometimes I feel like people would be a lot less grumpy if they could just have someone like you making sure they start their morning right. You make sure I eat, get a splash of coffee or a smoothie, make sure I take stock of how nice it is out instead of dwelling on grumpy stuff like whether I'm late or not and whether I wanna go back to bed. And it doesn't even seem like you try! It's more like just... how you are."

Midnight could not get enough of the expression on his sister's face. It seemed like everything was just dawning on her, that her talent didn't have to be in the kitchen to be incredibly useful. And then her words made something else dawn on Midnight: namely, just how they could help each other make all this talk come true.

"First of all," said Midnight with a laugh, "All-Nighter is tinkering with silly little things, waiting to feed his sister in the morning and see what she thinks. And I'll have you know, that soup is tasteriffic. It better be, at least. And, well... second of all, you know -- did you meet Pink Lemonade?"

He sucked in a breath, things becoming clearer in his head. "Well, Pink Lemonade is really good at business-stuff, even though she's a filly, and she's got this restaurant she really wants to open when she's big. She wants me to help out, so I can serve people all the funny food I make, and I was thinking -- what... what if you were a part of that stuff, Sunny D? What if you and me went into business together when we're big? I'll deal with the late nights and you perk people up in the morning. We could be a team!"

He smiled widely, prodding his sister in the ribs, teasing and bright. "Whaddya say, sis? Want to stick with me when we're older?"

Watching his younger sister leap up and down in amazement drew a deep laugh from Midnight, and he continued to laugh through her jumping exclamations until his sides hurt and his cheeks ached. But he did not fault what she said, no -- he relished it. Because it was perfect and fantastic and awesome and yes.

"Well then, that settles it," said Midnight at last, grinning brightly. "You and me, Sunny D. You and me."