Their eyes met

The next day, Shine was very anxious, pacing back and forth while waiting for his one and only guest.
- What's the clock? 2:48, good. All set? Let's see, cake? Check. Punch? Check.
- ''Unnecessary anxiety and worry over meeting a new friend?''
- Absolutely, check!
Shine took a deep breath. He sat down in the middle of his house and shut his eyes.
- ''Easy now! You've met her countless times in the morning. Why so nervous NOW all of a sudden?''
- I'd say it's because now it's OFFICIAL and PLANNED. You know I want it casual. Why aren't YOU nervous about it?
- ''Pffth! Why should I? I'm not the one having to face her.''
- You DO know that I am you and you are me, right? So whatever I have to do, SO, DO, YOU.
- ''Well thanks for that! Now I'm just as nervous as an anxious hedgehog in a balloon factory''
- You're welc-
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
- Well, here goes, tough guy? You ready?
- ''NO! I'm not!''
- Me neither...

Shine opened the door with a big smile to greet the grey mare.
- Hello Derpy! Nice to see you! Come in, come in!
- Thank you, Shine. It's nice to see you again, too.
Derpy took a step forward and quickly looked around the empty house.
- Where are all the guests?
Derpy said standing just outside Shine's house.
- They are, or should I say, she is, standing right in front of me. Please, do come inside.
Shine stepped aside and held up the door in a chivalrous manner.
- How come you have only invited me Shine? I remember clearly you have talked about numerous friends every now and then when I deliver your mail.
Derpy asked as she stepped over the threshold.
- Well to put it simple, if I would invite them, which would include Pinkie Pie, things would have become rather noisy, and I like to enjoy peace and quiet.
Shine flashed his normal carefree smile.
- Besides, Pinkie Pie insisted on hosting my birthday party which I convinced her was NEXT Saturday and...
Shine trailed out at the end as he looked outside with a worried look on his face.
- Oh no, this is bad!
- What is bad?
Derpy turned her head to see three stallions march towards her and Shine. The first one in the middle leading the charge was the familiar blue earth pony stallion. To his sides were a red coated angry looking pegasus and a black coated diabolic looking unicorn.

They barged into Shine's house, tackling them both to the center of the large room. Despite being knocked to the floor, Shine was surprisingly quick at getting up again, positioning him between the three ruffians and Derpy.

- GET OUT!
Shine yelled at the three stallions with a growl-like voice. Ignoring the threatening order, the blue stallion took a step forward.
- Well, well, well. Having a little celebration are we? What's the occasion and why didn't we get invited.
- I don't tend to invite the likes I pair together with a slow, agonizing death. Now, get out of my house!
The black stallion chuckled as he stepped up, next to the blue stallion.
- What makes you think you're such a hot-shot that you can boss US around?
The black stallion began channeling magic into his horn. Almost impulsively, Shine transformed to his human form and dashed at the black stallion, grabbing his horn with his right hand. Shine glared into the terrified eyes of the black stallion
- This makes me think that!
With those words, yellow energy erupted from Shine's right shoulder, traveling along his arm and finally gathering up in the back of his hand before he let all energy out in one massive burst, right into the head of the black stallion which let out a blood chilling scream.

The black stallion collapsed and as his horn slipped out of Shine's grip, the red energy previously enveloping the horn now seemed to have stuck to Shine's palm instead.

Shine looked at his own hand and seemed to play around with the magical substance, shaping it into a small red ball.
- What the heck did you do to him? You freak!
The red stallion snarled at Shine.

Without turning to the red stallion, Shine responded as he toyed with the red little ball.
- Magic leech, very effective against other magical abilities. Who would have known I would have use for such a spell? THINK FAST!
Without the slightest of warning, Shine threw the red ball in the face of the red stallion which also fell to the floor.
- SHINE! HELP!
Derpy yelled across the room as she was cornered against a wall and a bookcase by the blue stallion. She watched in terror at the grinning face of the blue stallion as he slowly walked closer to the trembling grey mare.

All of a sudden, Shine appears behind the blue stallion and hooks his right arm around the blue stallion's neck, squeezing tightly which caught the blue stallion by surprise as he began struggling and making choked gurgling.
- Give me ONE good reason I shouldn't snap your neck right this instant.
- Aaargh... let... me go... shrimp...
The blue stallion could hardly talk from the choking grip Shine got around his neck. With a grunt of his own, Shine swung around 180 degrees, flinging the blue stallion out through the wide open door causing him to tumble a distance on the ground. Shine used his magic to throw out the other two stallions. Shortly after, Shine stood on the door's threshold, gazing out on the pile of stallions with a look in his eyes that showed the raw lust for blood-shed.
- Bully me all you want, but if you EVER even dare look Derpy's ways and I hear about it, I'll hunt you all down to the deepest reaches of hell, even if it kills me.
With these words, Shine went inside his house and slammed the door shut and sank down to the floor.

- Shine! Are you OK? You are trembling!
- Y-yeah... i-it's just from all the adrenaline... ugh... I had forgotten... h-how it felt...
Shine looked at his shaking hands. He tried to relax, but they would stop trembling.
- I-I’ll be fine... just lemme... rest a little.
Shine huddled up with his back to the door, wrapping his arms around his knees, putting his forehead resting on top of them.

Derpy tilted her head, looking at the strange creature that for the second time now helped her without her ever asking.

Even though it felt strange to be so close to a creature she knew nothing of, it didn't feel wrong. Thoughts like these swarmed her mind as she approached Shine and sat down to huddle up along with him. She sat down on his left side, leaning her head towards him and stretching her wing out and gently rubbing him on his back, just as if she was trying to keep him warm. She leaned closer to his ear and whispered.
- Thank you.
- Hm?
Shine turned his head and looked into Derpy's eyes. One of her eyes were looking at him while the other had wandered of, looking somewhere else.
- Thank you.
Derpy repeated.
- Thank you for helping me.
Shine smiled at her in response. They kept looking into each others eyes for a while.

After almost a full minute Shine broke the silence.
- Wanna know something awesome?
- Yeah sure, what is it?
Derpy sounded quite excited.
- Look into my eyes again.
Derpy looked closely. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
- What is it Shine? I can't see anything- OH SWEET CELESTIA!
Derpy got frantic out of surprise so see what Shine wanted her to see.
- H-h-how can you do that? How can you move your eye like that?
Shine laughed a little as he put his hand on Derpy's back to calm her down.
- Easy now. I can do that with my eye because... well... I was born with it.
- What? You were born with that ability?
Shine slowly shook his head at Derpy's conclusion.
- Ability? Nah. Ailment? Yes. If it wasn't for the magic lenses I have around my eyes, I would be wearing glasses. When I was a little kid, it was a great disability since I couldn't control my eyes with or without glasses. But eventually I learned to control it so that it looked normal, provided I wanted it too, as I just showed.
Derpy was clapping her hooves in excitement at learning there was another with an eye disorder.
- Oh, Shine, I feel so happy I just want to... I just want to... mmh!
Derpy's emotions grew too strong and took hold of her as she opened up to fathom Shine, giving him a long and passionate kiss on the mouth.

The short moment the kiss lasted felt like forever. Eventually, Derpy stepped back as she realized what she was doing. Her face was a burning red color when she began looking down, poking the wooden floor with her hoof.
- I just wanted to... show... uhm... h-how happy I felt.
- Point taken!
Shine rapidly responded as he himself had trouble understanding he just got kissed. He stood up on his feet, stumbling a bit before he recalibrate his balance. Yellow energy slowly seeped out of his eyes as he changed shape to his pony form.
- So, now that we've taken care of that, uhm... how about we get on with the partying? I mean, that was why I invited you in the first place, right?
Shine had his normal sarcastic tone in his speech, feeling everything is as it should, despite everything that had happened.
- Oh, yeah, yeah! I-i would like to have a slice of that delicious looking cake.
Derpy also was pretty shook up from the afternoon's events but tried to not look bothered by them.
- Dibs on the first slice, I AM the birthday boy after all.
Shine said as he approached the simple green marzipan cake he had picked up from Sugar Cube corner, without Pinkie Pie knowing, of course.

The afternoon went on with Shine and Derpy partying together. Doing all sorts of things ranging from silly guessing games to singing songs all the way to Shine reading a few poems he had written himself.