Their eyes met

Their short walk ended as they entered the center of Shine's house where he left the mare to sit down on a pillow he quickly had fetched from his bed since he had no spare ones.
- Wait right here while I go get everything I need.
Shine reassuringly said to the mare as he began criss-crossing around his house, getting the forceps, a small bowl, a package of bandages and his second pillow from his bed to sit on.

He sat down on the mare's left side and began plucking all thorns he saw and every now and then putting a bandage on the spots he had to dig in a bit with the forceps to get the thorn out.

There were multiple clinking sounds when he put the plucked thorn in the bowl. He quickly had plucked a fair dozen of thorns when he asked the mare to stand up so that he could coax the last one out that was stuck on the mare's right flank.
- Hoo-we, there's the last one I think. But I need you to stand up so that I can more easily work on it.
The mare obediently stood up and turned her head to give Shine a quick look with a pouty face. Staring right into his eyes.
- Please be gentle.
Shine blushed slightly when he realized he had been staring at her flank for quite a whime. He eventually shook his head and focused on the little thorn stuck in the middle of the biggest bubble that made the grey mare's cutie mark.

Shine had to dig the forceps deeper into the flesh than before to get a grip on the slightly slippery thorn. It looked like the mare's body finally had begun reacting to the many punctuations the thorns had made as this final thorn was surrounded by pus.

He purposely shoved the tips of the forceps into the mare's flesh to get a grip of the thorn and quickly yanked the thorn out which was tagged along with a pained whimper from the mare. Shine quickly put the forceps and the last of the thorns in the little bowl and gently put on a bandage where the thorn was and walked up to the face of the mare.
- There we go, wasn't so bad, right?
The mare didn't answer. She didn't need to either. The lone tears slowly sliding down her cheeks said everything he needed to know.
- Oh, sorry. I guess I was too rough after all. Hm... what to do about that...?
Shine quickly pondered on what to do. He shortly shone up and walked up to a big cabinet he used as a pantry. He used his magic to pick up a plate with a single muffin standing on the edge of it.

He walked back to the mare and placed the plate in front of her. The sound the porcelain plate made to the wooden floor caught her attention as she slowly wiped her tears and just stared at the muffin before she looked up at Shine.

Shine sat down in front of her and smiled, pushing the plate closer to her.
- Here. The bandages might be able to patch up wounds but there's no better cure to sad feelings than a tasty treat. Go on, take it. I baked it yesterday with Pinkie Pie over at the Sugar Cube corner. This is the only pastry I really can do really well. I hope you like chocolate.

The grey mare bent down and smelled the brown muffin sitting on a white porcelain plate in front of her. It smelled really sweet. It looked very well made too, she could tell, from all the muffins she had made herself.

She nibbled a little on it and gave it a fair taste. She was amazed at the explosion of overwhelming flavor. She had never tasted something so rich in flavor. Nothing she had ever baked could match this sensation.

The mare sat there, silently staring blankly straight ahead of her for a moment. She came to her senses from the sound of Shine beginning to laugh loudly.
- Hahah, was it really THAT good, huh?
The mare finished chewing and swallowed with a significant nod before she stuffed her mouth full with the rest of the muffin, leaving only crumbles on the plate. She couldn't help it but she happily chewed the pastry with a blissful look on her face.

Seeing his pastry bring such happiness, Shine couldn't help it either but joined with a smiling face of his own.
- I take it my so-so muffin was to at least SOME delight, am I right?
The mailmare chewed some more before swallowing down a final time, ending her little meal with a delightful sigh.
- Yes, it was good, really good. Thank you, Shine Yellowsoul.
- You're welcome, you can just call me Shine, all my friends do. That reminds me, I don't think I know your name. May I ask what it could be?
The mare looked down, trying to hide a shameful expression.
- Oh... my name... I-i'm... eh...
She hesitate a lot before taking a deep breath, raised her head and looked straight into Shine's eyes.
- My name is Ditzy Doo. But you can call me, uhm... D-derpy... all my... f-f-friends do...
Derpy trailed out at the end, once again trying to hide the shame she felt.

Shine flinched when hearing the name of the earlier, to him, nameless mare.
- Ditzy Doo? YOU'RE Ditz- Oh, I'm sorry. So, YOU'RE Derpy?
- What? You have heard of me?
Derpy was shocked at knowing Shine knew about her. Shine's face changed to a rather serious expression as he looked out the open window, towards Cloudsdale.
- Yeah, some things. None pretty though. Remind me later that I gotta have a talk to a few ponies about spreading rumors.
- Will do.
Shine's face changed back to his old, far more jolly one, still with a hint of seriousness.
- Good, now then. What happened back there that made that stallion behave like that? It's alright if you don't wanna tell, I'm just curious.
- I... I really don't know. I was just doing what I was hired to do, deliver mail each and every day. But one day he kept meeting me as I delivered his mail every morning, asking for some kind of package.

It lasted for about two weeks, same thing every day. I approached his mailbox, put his mail in it and just as I was about to leave, he always came out and checked his mail without emptying the mailbox. As he realized whatever he was waiting for hadn't come, he always yelled my way if he had any bigger mail he had to pick up. But the answer was always ''No''.

Then... then... then... the package finally arrived... a-and...
Tears began welling up in Derpy's eyes, causing difficulties for her to speak.
- There, there. Take a deep breath, gather your thoughts. Continue when you feel that you are ready.
Shine said with a soft tone, seeking her eyes' attention.

Derpy wiped her tears with her left front hoof and peeked with her right eye at Shine. When she realized he actually was looking back she quickly shut her eyelid and bent her head downwards and continued her story.
- The package arrived to the post office and it was on my to-do list to deliver it to him, but I... I...
- What happened?
Suddenly, Derpy lunged at Shine, tightly hugging him while she cried louder than ever before.
- I DELIVERED THE PACKAGE TO THE WRONG HOUSE!

As Shine recovered from the shock of being hugged so suddenly, he began feeling tears sliding along his back. One slowly sunk into his coat, tagged along by a second tear, keeping a third one in close company. All of a sudden there were too many tears to keep track of.

He hugged her back and slowly began rocking back and forth, left to right, gently humming a melody for a while before he quietly began singing in Derpy's ear, almost whispering;

''När trollmor har lagt de elva små trollen

och bundit fast dem i svansen

Då sjunger hon sakta för elva små trollen

de vackraste ord hon känner:

Ho aj aj aj aj buff

Ho aj aj aj aj buff

Ho aj aj aj aj buff buff

Ho aj aj aj aj buff''

Derpy quieted down upon hearing the calming melody ring in her ears as she slowly looked into Shine's eyes with her own disoriented eyes.
- Once more... please.. just one more time.
Derpy placed her chin on Shine's tear-soaked shoulder when he once again began rocking back and forth, humming the soothing melody.

Upon finishing the song for the second time, Shine gently stroke the grey mare on her back a few times and slowly pushed her so that she sat upright on her own. He reached a hoof and wiped away a tear that had stopped halfway down her left cheek.
- The song I just sang, it's a lullaby my mother used to sing for me when I was a baby. Sorry if you didn't understand it, I just felt that it would sound better if I sang it in it's original language, my first language.
Derpy yawned loudly while rubbing her eyes with her front hooves.
- It was beautiful, I don't know how long it was since the last time somepony sang for me, let alone a lullaby, thank you Shine. I really needed that.
The two ponies sat there for a while, just staring at each other. After a while, Shine began feeling a bit restless and got up to his hooves and walked up to his panty and rummaged through it for a while.

He returned to the mare sitting in the center of his house with a tray with two glasses of orange juice which he put down on top of the white porcelain plate next to Derpy.

Shine used his magic to levitate one of the glasses in front of his face as he took a sip of the juice.
- I'm glad you liked the lullaby. It's one of the few good memories I have from back home.
Derpy smiled at Shine before she also took a sip of her orange juice.

Another period of complete silence passed without much happening except the two ponies every now and then taking a sip from their drinks. Eventually, Shine emptied his glass, bottoms up, and put it down next to him.
- Sorry if I'm a bit stubborn Derpy, but, uhm... do you mind... continue telling me what happened when you accidentally delivered the package to the wrong house? Perhaps I can shed some light on the situation?
- Oh uh, OK then, it is the least I can do for all you have done for me.
Derpy momentarily put her hoof to her forehead and tried thinking how far she had gotten in her explanation of what she thinks caused the blue stallion to behave so poorly.
- Let's see... yeah, so, I accidentally delivered his package to the wrong house. When he found out, he said some very mean things about me.
Derpy was sounding somewhat gloomy, but she wasn't about to cry.
- What did he call you?
Shine was sounding somewhat demanding, filled up with anticipation.
- A lot of stuff. Names, accusations of me purposely delivering wrong mail and a lot of different insults, some I've never heard of and some I just downright didn't understand, maybe they were in a different language, I don't know.
Shine was just sitting there, shocked, stunned, dumbfounded. Anger began filling up as his limbs tensed up, twitching from all the frustration.
- WHAT!? How dare he? If he's so sure that it's such an easy job then he can do it himself! When I get my hands on him, I'll rip him to pieces.
Shine got up to his hooves and determined began walking towards his door, but was abruptly stopped when Derpy stepped on his tail.
- No, Shine! Please don't! I-I don't want to be accused of causing trouble to anypony. Please don't do anything rash.
Derpy pleaded to Shine who sighed as he tried to relax his body. He turned his head and looked at the mare standing on his tail, pressing it down to the wooden floor with both her front hooves.
- As you wish.
With a flick whip of his tail, Shine turned around and looked back into his house.
- Just, excuse me while I go nuts for a while.