"What do they do, she said! What are their occupations, she said!" Derpy was muttering to herself, annoyed at her mother's habits of learning each and every detail about everybody and demanding doing the same from other people. Yes, maybe Mrs. Hooves was a busybody, but her daughters weren't. "I know that they are good guys, especially Time, with whom I study together. And that is all! Yes, Mummy, perhaps I'm cross-eyed, but that doesn't make me blind!"

As they say, after the hurricane comes the rainbow. But this time after the argument (one-sided) came the answer - Derpy spotted a white-winged figure in beige clothing with red accents soaring in front of the third floor of the closest apartment block. After some moments' hesitation the girl unfurled her wings and hovered up, curiosity overtaking wariness and dread. This time she didn't hit or break anything while reaching her target.

Upon closer look the wall appeared to be covered with the web of pencil-drawn sketches.

"Hi Derpy", Tenderheart Turner greeted her, having finished them on the farther side of the wall. "Why are you so enraged?"

"Nothing. A bit of argument with mother... What are you doing?"

"Accomplishing my order", Tenderheart explained, reached out to the wooden box full of small paint jars, poured some orange and brown paint onto the board he was holding and began mixing them with a brush. "I've got an order to paint this wall. Just to make it attractive, because is it pleasant to look at this?" He moved his free hand over the wall covered with scaled plaster.

"Is that... your official work?" Derpy asked in excitement.

"Mm-hmm".

"Cool!" The next words flew out on their own, against the girl's will. "Canyouteachmehowtodoit?"

"What?"

"Can you teach me?.."

After two (or slightly more) hours of soaring in front of the wall Derpy made sure that Tenderheart earned his bread and butter not for nothing. Yes, drawing and painting was fun when it was your personal deal, but when it was about public display of such size... Derpy regretted for a thousandth time that she had got glued to this. But at least she could spend much time away from her mother and all the lectures.

"How much time does it take you to paint such a pic?" she asked after having reached compromise in colors - she was filling the lines forming the picture of an airplane with brownish red paint, while Tenderheart was busy adding small details at the background (which was the city landscape with all fires and details).

"Don't know. At least three days. After the paint gets dried, I have to check out for adding more details", he explained. "Sometimes even brushes cannot help".

"Anything can?"

"Yes". Tenderheart pulled a feather from his wing and dived its upper tip in the black paint. "Delicate lines. An additional perk from being winged".

"HEYAA! ANYBODY NEEDS HELP UP THERE?!"

Derpy performed a somersault with surprise (thank goodness that she was wearing a narrow skirt, not the deadly wide one with gathers), having hardly managed not to get spotted with paint and not to waste it all. The source of this yell appeared to be a youngster one or two years older than her, leaning on a tree nearby with his arms crossed. He was dressed in a black business suit (or a private school uniform - who knows?) which made his short hair of flaming ginger color even brighter.

However, Tenderheart recognized him immediately.

"Where did you appear from?" he asked the kid, lowering closer to the ground. "I did not see you coming".

"No wonder, you got too involved... Found a helper?" After Derpy also almost landed (not as slowly and steadily as Tenderheart - there was a half-fall on her way, but at least one, not three of them), she saw the mage's bump on the youngster's forehead, hardly covered with red short locks. "You always found sense in everyone, Tenderheart... Name's Gingersnap".

"I'm Derpy".

Gingersnap squinted at her - at first Derpy thought that his lips could only stay in straight position instead of curling into a smile. Or at most they could form an evil-like grin.

"Never quite got it how you're able to make everyone useful", he mused.

"And I never got how you're able to appear after a single thought about you", Tenderheart replied.

Gingersnap's brows jumped up:

"Oh, really? You were thinking about me?"

"I was thinking about your works of artistry", Tenderheart admitted.

"Flatterer", Gingersnap smirked. "Or no. You're unable to butter anybody up... Anyway, fancy seeing what I can do? We three could finish this much faster. Perhaps I'm unable to fly, but I can perform a different thingy".

"If you insist..." Tenderheart shrugged. Gingersnap rubbed his chin in content, examining the surroundings, and grinned upon the sight of broken chairs placed next to the rubbish bin nearby:

"Just what I needed!"

Hardly had Derpy or Tenderheart blinked when the planks and sticks, obeying Gingersnap, dashed from their "required place" directly to the wall (both got nearly pinned to it with them) and in a moment were put together in a fine and firm ladder.

"There", Gingersnap summed up, satisfied, and looked down upon them two. "Now I can correct all your faults..."

"Wow", Derpy exhaled. "But you... you had..."

"Ha! You gotta have this", Gingersnap pointed at his mage's bump, "and a bit of imagination, and you can transform anything without touching the material. Fancy a prank? I learned how to do this while babysitting two more carrot-tops like me!"

Judging by Tenderheart's bewildered gaze to the side, this was the least thing he expected.

"Well, at least now mother won't complain about my supposed not going out with friends", Derpy beamed, taking a sip of her chocolate milkshake - she, Tenderheart and Gingersnap were sitting in a cafe, because the second one had insisted on "giving them a reward for help". The painting had been totally finished - no wonder, with three pairs of hands instead of just one!

"Never mind, Cross-Eyes", Gingersnap assured her. "Believe me, each and every parent is able to find a fault about a kid. My elders thought I went crazy when I showed them this way of building things!"

"I think now I'm going to go crazy..." Tenderheart mumbled, watching someone on the outside. Derpy followed his look and spotted a dark-topped winged man in black clothing with silver accents, accompanied by younger twin boys, one also dark-headed, the other blond, and dressed differently, but sharing the same physical features. It wasn't seen if they were ordinary or mages, but surely not winged. And Tenderheart surely knew who those were.

"Uh-oh", Gingersnap muttered. "Something's telling me it's not gonna be fine!"

A/N: Gingersnap is the counterpart of Turlough in this AU. And guess who's going to come to dinner...