Derpy glanced at the clouds as she trotted out of the post office. No way she’d make it home before the downpour started. Had Dinky remembered her umbrella today? If not, Derpy would have to head over and walk her home from school.

No, wait, she did. Derpy recalled rolling up Dinky’s green raincoat and stuffing it in her saddlebag. It always had that little collapsible umbrella in the pocket—no problems. Dinky would do fine. Derpy would just go home and get dinner started so she’d have it ready when her daughter arrived.

They had kind of an empty house this week, since Carrot Top had gone to visit her mother, so Derpy had to remember to…

She’d forgotten. Nobody home, the door locked, and Derpy had neglected to bring her key. She never needed that thing, and the one time…

She stomped a hoof in the dirt. And right then, the first fat raindrops landed on her forelock. Within seconds, they’d plastered it against the side of her head. Perfect. She’d have to camp out on the front stoop until Dinky got home with her key. Late, too—she had a club meeting after school.

“Awwww…” someone said behind her. She turned around, and there stood one of Dinky’s classmates—Twist, right?—beating on her front door. “C’mon!” she said. “Ugh, Mom’th not home for awhile thtill.”

Derpy gave a wry smile. “Forgot your key?”

“Yeth—yesss,” Twist answered, looking at the ground.

Might as well stay. Derpy sighed. “Here. I’ll wait with you.” Twist glanced up with a half-smile. “I’m Dinky’s mom,” she added, and Twist’s stiff posture relaxed.

Derpy held up a wing to shelter Twist from the rain. “Thank you, but… how’ll you keep dry?”

With a shrug, Derpy replied, “I’m already wet. No need for you to be, though.”

“Loser!”

Derpy whipped her head around to see two fillies pointing and laughing from beneath their very frilly, very expensive parasols. Were they talking to that poor…? No, they were looking directly at her. To speak to an adult that way…

“Wow, you two just look great together,” the one with glasses said. “Get soaked much?”

“Thorry,” Twist said, and a tic shot through her cheek. “I mean, sssorry. That you have to be seen with me. You could just go home.”

“I don’t mind,” Derpy said. She squinted after the two rude children. “Don’t listen to them, by the way. You’ll find ponies like that all your life. They never change. But you will.”

Beside her, Twist pursed her lips. “I hope th—so. I’m always so… awkward.” She picked a hoof at the mud. “And sorry for… Mom’s got me in thpeech—ssspeech therapy. I know it bugs ponies to listen to me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Derpy answered, flicking a hoof toward her. And flicking the rain running off it toward her as well. Stupid. “Sorry. I didn’t mean…”

Twist took off her glasses, wiped the water away, and replaced them. “You don’t worry about it, either. You stopped to help me because you were nice. I won’t complain.”

“Still,” Derpy said. “I just…” She looked away. “I just do stuff like that sometimes. I don’t think, or… I can’t help it. I mess things up.”

“Oh.” Twist squinted at her and cocked her head. “I’ve never heard Dinky say anything about that. She just smiles and says how much she likes your muffins or how you help her with her homework.”

A tingle ran through Derpy’s chest, like when she’d take that first step off a cloud, the little buzz that’d run through her body until she snapped her wings out. “Th-thanks,” she said.

“For what?”

“Never m—here comes your mom!” Derpy waved to Bon Bon, who raised an eyebrow at her daughter.

“You… okay?” Bon Bon said.

Twist nodded. “Yeah. Mith Derpy wath—was just waiting with me. I-I forgot my key again.”

Bon Bon only tousled Twist’s mane. “No harm done. And thanks, Derpy. Can I offer you my umbrella?”

“No,” Derpy replied, already shifting her weight toward the road, “I’ll manage.”

But she felt a little tug on her leg. “Miss Derpy?” Twist whispered. “Does it get any better?”

Derpy grinned and crouched down to the filly’s level. “Yes. Some things you grow out of, and some things you don’t. But they make you who you are, and—” Muffins and homework. Heh. “I wouldn’t change a single thing.”

She waved good-bye and trotted off through the driving rain to wait for Dinky to unlock the door.