//------------------------------//
// The Other Middle 
// Story: Why Maids Don't Date the Guards 
// by Lunarus Solaris Nexus 
//------------------------------//

	"DAMN IT!" I shout in rage looking at A.L.I.S.' screen.
Today is the deadline! She'll be here any minute now and I won't be able to fix it. The green lines of the calendar thankfully survived the night but as I switch between all of the months and half of the damn dates were MISSING! I knew I typed them in. I know Mom and Dad's dates were the first I put in and they're gone. Princess Luna's was missing damn it! Given she liked to forget exactly how old she was but I liked getting on her nerves with her age. But damn it! I have no time to put anything back in! It takes about an hour, maybe thirty minutes if I put everything I had into it, for just one date. One date! I got lucky dealing with two weeks but stuffing all of that into two minutes was preposterous!
Then the knock came. Maybe I could lie and say it was only suppose to have a calendar with four birthdays? No, her birthday was missing too… I light my horn and open the door. On the other side, Dust stood uncomfortably. In her hoofs she held the covered canvas she'd been painting on all this time. I don't understand why she's so nervous.



Why does he look so nervous? I'm the one who's not done with the painting. Honestly Swift and Martini don't think so. They think it's more than done and beautiful but the nose is a bit long, the background isn't done at all because I got bored and decided to go out with the girls last night. I hate that I got so distracted. Um…Dust you're still sitting here just staring into the room, get up. I put my painting on my back and walk into his room.
"So… A.L.I.S. finished?" I ask wanting him to answer first.
"Uh… Well…" he sighed and looked anywhere but at me. "I got the calendar up."
"Oh good… Mind if I see?" I asked walking up to the bench. I leant the painting on the left side, away from Nexus.
"Sure… Just… Let me set it for display." He lightly pushed me to the side and quickly typed a few things into it. The screen flashed and the grid of January came up. "Just hit the buttons with the arrows to go up and down."
"Okay…." I sit down in from of the screen and remember I'm shorter than Nexus. I could see the screen just fine but the keys were hard to see. I stand and look over the mass of buttons looking for arrows. "Where are they?"
"Bottom right." he said almost instantly.
I look to the bottom right corner and see the arrows he was talking about. There were four. He said up and down so I put my right hoof on the down arrow. The grid vanished for a split second and came back with February. Admirably I know nothing of computers so I have no idea how hard this actually was but I was very impressed. It looked like it was working.
"Is this this year?" I asked.
"Yeah." He said quickly.
"Okay…" I read through the month and something very obvious was missing. "Where's my birthday?"
"Hm?" He said clearly knowing what I said.
"My Birthday it's not here. February twenty-first, you wrote it down."
"I-I did. And something went wrong with the memory."
"You lost all of the birthdays?"
"Not all. But a bit less than half."
"So does that mean I win?"
"Not yet, let's see the painting." He said holding out his hoof.
I sat back on my haunches and sighed. I knew I wasn't finished, but would he notice? I could just say it was finished couldn't I? He did say he wasn't an artist so maybe he wouldn't know? No… He could've done something like that to me. Memory space or something. I reach over and turn my canvas around against my chest. It was still covered by another sheet of canvas.
"Well?" He asked motioning to the bottom.
I lift the canvas cover and hold my breath.



Well I'm certainly surprised. She hadn't painted in years from what she said but this was impressive. The work bench looked detailed, even a little line of smoke was coming from the soldering iron. The metal on my hoofs looked good and some nice detailing on my mane and coat was very nice. My face was what really surprised me. It may have been slightly long but that wasn't what surprised me, it was my expression. I expected it was me looking down at the board as I soldered with my trademarked focused stare but I was looking up and ahead, my eyes wide and my mouth agape with a massive smile on my face.
"I call it Eureka." Dust said somewhat nervously. "I thought you looked better happy."
"Well you got that right."
"It's not finished. I needed to bring back your muzzle a bit and add a bit more to the table. The board's not detailed enough I got the… pen thing wrong it's just not done."
"Well in my honest opinion you should've stuck with art school. It looks amazing. I didn't think I looked that young but you did a great job."
"Well I'm still not done though. S-" I put up a hoof to stop her before she puts herself down anymore.
"You're done. That means you win Dust."
"What? But you finished the computer."
"I got it finished but it didn't work right. That was the bet."
"You admit I won?"
"Yup. May I sweeten the deal?"
"How exactly?"
"I'll buy desert if you let me keep this."
"You want to keep a picture of yourself? Kind of egotistical isn't it?"
"More for my parents. They don't have a lot of pictures of me as it is so I think a painting would be great. Deal?" I hold out my hoof and she smiles.
"I'll agree if you let me hug you for this."
"A hug? Why?"
"Because I want to hug something out of joy and you're the closest thing. Now come here!" Dust put the painting down and opened her hoofs.
She didn't give me a choice in the matter after that. She wrapped her hoofs around my chest and pulled me in. I put my right around her shoulders. She squeezed me tight and even let out a gleeful squeak.
She let go and hopped up and down a little. "You're really cold you know."
"I let you hug me. That's about as warm and fuzzy as I get."
"No mean your metal. It's actually really cold."
"Well that's not my fault. I can't fix that."
"Somepony as smart as you could probably figure it out. Now, tomorrow, eight o'clock, Chic Aliment, wear something nice." Dust said now cocky.
I roll my eyes and motion for her to leave. She just giggles at me and gave me one more hug before leaving. I look back at the painting and levitate it into view again. I don't care what she thought of it, this was incredible. I look to the corners and find her signature. Her sloppy, sloppy signature. My cousin would like her if he weren't seventeen.