//------------------------------// // Third Day: He's An Artistic Servant? // Story: And He Silently Painted A Rainbow // by WritingSpirit //------------------------------// "Tassen... Tassel... Tacier..." Rainbow groaned for the zillionth time at the papers in her hoof, having forgotten how to pronounce the stallion's name midway in her reading. She wanted to laugh at herself for not knowing on how to say his name when she assigned herself to be his guardian yesterday. That's right. The athletic, fast-flying daredevil had signed up to be the bleached colt's guardian the day before, though she told his supervising doctor she did it only to change his personality and help him with his social issues and whatsoever. Plus, it might be interesting to see him pai- Wait, she caught her wandering thoughts. What the heck was she thinking? "Snap out of it," she hissed at herself, rubbing her forehead harshly with both hooves whilst clenching her eyes shut, trying to divert her mind towards her plans for today. She had planned to stop by at the library for a reading session with Twilight, despite having her new colt to babysit. Twilight might know what made him... 'special'... from other ponies, seeing how her egghead friend knows about everything, or at least that's how she sees it. A group of nurses soon descended from the stairs, with them their extremely reclusive patient: the one she had been waiting for. Doctor Martingale was right beside the pale pegasus, softly muttering a few relieving sentences, though Rainbow could make it out once they reached the bottom. "... follow what she says and you'll be fine. Look who's adopting you!" Adopting? Does he have a bad choice of words or what? The cyan mare rose from her seat with an unsure wave of her hoof, yet her tranquil patient's blank gaze remained dead straight towards the floor, not even bothering to get a glimpse of his future guardian. "Here are his daily meds," the doctor said, handing her a plastic bag of bottles before passing her a box. "And here are his art tools and paintings, all inside." "Got it," she answered with a salute, placing them to the side as she turned towards Taciturn, who shirked behind Doctor Martingale. "Hey, Tassee," she called out to him. "I'm your new guardian. Rainbow Dash, remember?" "R-Rainbow..." he replied blankly, staring into whatever void he was picturing. "Okay...... so Doctor Martingale, how long do you think I have to take care of him?" "I'll check his progress after a week," the doctor answered readily. "We'll see how things go with him then. If there's any sign of improvement, it will be easily noticed." "Alright, I guess." With that, Rainbow quickly placed the box into the plastic bag, her other hoof guiding the withdrawn pony towards the hospital doors, trying to force out the best smile that she could muster. "Come on, Tassee," she called with constrained delight. "We have a lot of things to catch up on today! First things first, I'm gonna bring you to visit one of my friends! Her name is Twilight Sparkle, and she's an egghead, and I mean ostrich-sized egghead..." Doctor Martingale's dimpled grin reached the sides of his ears, watching them step out of the hospital. "Those two will get along just fine, Tenderhoof Martingale..." he whispered a promise to himself. "Just you wait and see." Rainbow Dash had never felt more awkward in her life. There she was, in the middle of Ponyville, waving the ornate paintbrush towards its owner, who reluctantly crawled - and he literally crawled - across the snow, his ink-like pupils fixated onto the bristled object like it was a pouch of a thousand diamonds. His infatuation made him growl, the stallion wanting to just scream at any moment. The worst part wasn't that he was doing it: it was that every single pony in town was watching her baiting Taciturn with a small paintbrush towards the door of Golden Oaks Library. The mare could hear their muffled chuckles from beneath their covered mouths, which only fueled to her frustration. "What are you looking at, chumps?" she scowled at a group of ponies with a glare, prompting them to huddle away with their infuriating giggles. Seriously, if they keep this up... The candle-adorned wooden entrance of Twilight's studious home soon came into view, much to her relief. She has no idea just how much longer she could tolerate any more of enticing the pale stallion, much less look good doing it. Unwrapping her scarf from around her neck (and Taciturn's own black, woolly one; the pony was completely oblivious to anything the moment he had his paintbrush) she gave the door a quick knock, ignoring the humiliating stares of everypony around her. Sure enough, her friend's door opened, the violet mare immediately grinning at the sight of her friend. "Glad you could come, Rainbow," she hastily spoke, offering her and Taciturn to step inside. "Heard about your, um... guardianship..." "AJ told you about it, huh?" the cyan mare asked, to which Twilight gave an affirmative nod. "His doctor," she began her explanation, "thought that I could help this fellow here with his condition. It was supposed to be Fluttershy's job, but, well, I guess she can't take it either." "Really?" Twilight suddenly beckoned her to come closer, whispering in her ear. "You mentioned 'either'. Does that mean that you... that you might burst any second or so... at him?" "I'm trying to keep my cool," she hissed, out of earshot from their subject pony, who was toying around with his black scarf, his wings flapping eagerly. "Plus, there's something I wanna ask you about him." "Anything," her scholarly friend replied cheerfully. "Spike finished arranging the books before he and Rarity went gem-hunting, so you can ask however long you like!" "Great! Number one..." Rainbow quickly pushed Taciturn forward (which he never responded; both mares thought he should shriek by now), passing him his coveted gift: the ornate paintbrush, as Twilight watched him fondling it like a newborn foal, a creepy smile edging up to the sides of his lips. "Nurse Redheart said he's a special pony," the pegasus continued. "What does that mean, actually?" "Seeing his actions... and his strange behavior..." Twilight's horn lit up a pale purple, the cloud of sparkling magic reciprocal to it shrouding a row of books, before piling them towards her. She quickly leafed through the many pages of each and every hardcover she had brought, and it wasn't long before her face lit up immediately. "I have your answer, Rainbow!" she exclaimed with a grin of pride. "Really? So you know how he's special, right?" Twilight gave a confirmatory nod, handing the book towards her friend. It wasn't necessary to read it (she wouldn't understand any of the elaborated terms on it anyway) as the violet mare gave the answer: "He's an autistic savant." "A what?" she stopped Twilight before she could continue. "What did you say he was again?" "An autistic savant. Your friend is an autistic savant." "He's an artistic servant?" Rainbow pondered at the words, carefully thinking through what she had registered. Unbeknownst to her, Twilight had smacked her own forehead, though it was only the beginning. "I get the artistic part, seeing how he's a painter and all," the pegasus began, much to her friend's frustration, "but I don't get the servant part. Is he like some sort of butler for Princess Celestia or a pony rescued from Queen Chrysalis or King Sombra or something, 'cause I don't really see how he's a servant." "No, Rainbow! Autistic savant!" Twilight hovered the book back towards her, reading the text out loud: "Autism. A disorder of neural development. A pony diagnosed with autism displays impaired social interaction and communication, as well as a strict, orderly routine and repetitive behavior. Only one in ten autistic ponies are recorded to have savant skills, some even far better than others." "Savant skills?" Rainbow emphasized on those two words, wearing a befuddled expression. "What is that exactly?" "Savant syndrome, basically: when somepony with such conditions displays exceptional skills beyond those of a normal pony in a particular category or field. Despite their setbacks, the capabilities that they can display are purely amazing, with most of them having an extremely good memory." "So you're saying that he remembers nearly everything?" the cyan mare asked. "Like, literally everything?" "I guess so," was Twilight's answer, trotting towards Taciturn, who was still fondling his paintbrush. "Do you have any paper and paint?" she asked his guardian, to which she received it from. Spreading it out in front of the colt, she reached for his hooves to guide it towards the palette she had settled, though he suddenly let out a loud shrill of fear. The violet mare immediately yelped in surprise, jumping back with her ears on her hooves. Rainbow muffled a laugh at that, before she confidently spoke: "Lemme try, Twi. I am his guardian, after all." With that, she quickly strode to Taciturn's side, slowly reaching out of her hoof as both her and Twilight held their breath, letting out a relieved sigh once her hoof touched his pale ones, his paintbrush still fiddling within. Slowly but surely, she guided his hoof towards the palette, dabbing the paintbrush onto a spot of yellowish paint. Rainbow gently let go of his hoof, watching as he started to paint a few lines on the parchment. The cyan mare smiled once she finished her end of the job, before feeling a tap on her shoulder. "How did you do it?" Twilight asked, interested in her answer. "These kind of ponies don't let random strangers touch them, much less go close to them at all!" "I dunno, actually," she replied adamantly with a shrug. "His doctor said that he saw... something in me. I dunno what it was but it seems Tassee feels more comfortable around me than other ponies. That's why he asked me to be his guardian in the first place, which ruined my schedule basically for the last two days-" "D-Dash," Taciturn suddenly spoke, leaving them to look in confusion. It was only after he repeated it that the cyan pegasus understood he was calling her. "What is it, Tassee?" she asked hesitantly, to which he pointed at the palette. "You want another color, huh?" she guessed, striking the bulls-eye immediately as the stallion gave a meek nod. With a hefty sigh, she quickly lifted the palette towards him, watching his black eyes scan the muddled paints all over, before dipping onto a fresh spot of pink. "He does seem to trust you," Twilight said, her eyes sparkling with fickle delight at her friend's sudden compassion. "You know," she added, "they say autistic ponies are the answer to the universe. Some ponies say that without these kind of prodigies, we would still be running about the plains mindlessly without any knowledge of magic, weather or even farming." "I'm just hoping that he wouldn't interfere with my plans for tomorrow. Ice-skating with Pinkie isn't what he would wanna do. The Pinkie part, I mean." Both mares gave a soft chuckle, before glancing ahead at Taciturn, who seemed to be finishing on the painting. It wasn't long before he suddenly placed the paintbrush down, smiling blankly at the drawing before him. "Well..." Twilight began, trying to give a smile to the seemingly elated colt, at least, in his own silent way. "This looks..." she tried to force out a word. Any word, basically. "Interesting..." "Interesting?" Rainbow blurted out, her rasping tone making Taciturn cower. "This is plain ridiculous!! That doesn't even look like anything at all!" "Rainbow-" "Just look at it, Twilight!" she continued yelling, ignoring his friend's attempts to call her as the lavender unicorn herself trotted towards the side of the paper, raising it from the corner. "I don't get it! He could paint better yesterday! For Celestia's sake, he painted the whole darn city of Canterlot!" "Rainbow!" her friend shouted, finally cutting in to her fierce rambling. "Could you just calm down for a minute? You're scaring Taciturn here!" Rainbow blinked a few times, before turning towards the stallion, her heart sinking the moment she saw him shivering with fear behind a stacked pile of books. "Plus," her friend added, "his painting is an illusion: an anamorphic painting, to be exact. You have to see it at a specific angle to see the complete painting. Here..." The cyan pegasus slowly strode towards the raised corner of the paper in Twilight's hoof, taking over as she viewed it from there. Her eyes soon lit up with a sparkle, her mouth opening in a silent gasp. Sure enough, there was a painting. What was a bunch of pink, white, green and yellow blotches on the canvas with charcoal lines had become something she had never expected: it was Fluttershy sniffing at a daisy flower! "I..." she stammered in amazement. "I can't believe it..." "And that means you owe somepony an apology, don't you Rainbow?" Twilight said sternly, crossing her hooves whilst beckoning her rueful friend to step forward. "Go on!" she ordered. "Apologize to him!" "All right, all right! Fine!" With a begrudging sigh, Rainbow stepped towards the quivering Taciturn, her scrunched lips pressuring out a fake smile and her hooves reaching out to his. "I'm sorry, okay Tassee?" she said, faking a whimper. Despite never bothering to look into her gaze, he gave a meager nod, rising from his hiding spot immediately. Twilight just rolled her eyes, trotting back to her books. "You're lucky he trusts you, Rainbow," she spoke sharply, her horn lighting up once more as she quickly arranged the tower of books that the colt had stacked to make his hiding spot back into their respective shelves. "If he screams again, I'll have to buck you out of my house." "Hehe, yeah..." her friend replied. None of them would want to hear his banshee scream again. "I'm just wondering though. How did he paint this? I mean, Fluttershy's not around or anything, and the way he transformed it..." "Maybe he saw Fluttershy smelling at a flower while she was taking care of him before." Twilight gazed back at the amorphous painting, still intrigued at the complexity and the intricacy of it. "He has a good memory, after all. I'm not sure how he changed the painting though. Maybe it's just something with his nervous system and how he pictures things from what his sensory neurons receive from the environment, but that wouldn't make sense because his other paintings seemed normal, so it might be the way that the nerve cells are particularly organized and altered from other normal ponies..." Rainbow started to zone out the moment the scholarly unicorn began her verbal pondering, trying her best to suppress a loud groan down her throat. Instead, she let out a polite cough, snapping Twilight out of her intellectual chatter. "You done yet?" she asked, to which her friend replied with a sheepish grin: "Sorry about that. It's just... it's pretty interesting to see how he works." "I'm sure it is," the cyan mare replied sarcastically, giving her friend a snicker as Twilight rolled her eyes. "Well, I gotta go. Have to help this fellow here settle down." "Alright then," her friend said, opening the door for her and Taciturn. "Try not to blow up into his face or anything!" "Ha-ha, Twilight," Rainbow spoke coldly with a smug grin, her friend responding with a soft giggle. "Very funny. Best joke of Equestria award. Whatever." Gathering her things or, more accurately, Taciturn's things, she guided the melancholic colt towards the door and into the snow, helping him wrap the scarf around his neck again. "Thanks for your help, Twi," she quickly said, rolling up his new painting. "No problem, Rainbow," she cheerfully responded. "If something comes up, lemme know." The cyan mare gave a nod and a last wave to her friend, within her heart hoping that nothing would 'come up', as Twilight phrased it. She had enough problems of her own with Taciturn (such as her recent, slight misunderstanding) and if there were any more, she wouldn't want to hear the end of it. "Alright, Tassee," she called to him. He was more respondent than before their visit to the library by giving her a glance, which was good: she didn't plan on baiting him again with his paintbrush. "Let's go home." "Easy now, Tassee. Slowly..." Taciturn merely whimpered with fear, his wings glued together with his hooves clinging tightly onto Rainbow's back, the mare only able to shake her head with a sympathetic smile. The entrance to her house was just a few feet away from the ground, which would be fine for a pegasus, yet his teeth were chattering like a snake rattler. Even Fluttershy could do better than that, she said to herself. She had always seen her butter-colored friend as the dainty pegasus, though this fellow set the record straight for that title. It was sunset by the time Rainbow finally reached her home, having stopped by at the marketplace to pick up some food for dinner. Every vendor she stopped to greet had asked her about Taciturn being in her guardianship and such, though she assured them it was fine. It's queer, really. Only a few ponies knew of her guardianship, and suddenly the news and gossip was spreading about like a Horstralian bushfire. It reminded her of the time when three innocent-looking fillies started a Gabby Gums column a year ago, the thought of it making her shudder every time she passed by the spa. Gently, she landed onto the puff of her porch, pulling him back just as he was about to wander into the fluid spectrum spewing out from the crevices in her cloud-house. "Woah there, Tassee," she quipped, opening her door while Taciturn's gaze was glued to the rainbow streams and waterfalls flowing from her home, his eyes sparkling in a trance-like state. "You really have a thing for rainbows, don't you?" It took her a while to get the mesmerized patient into her house. She quickly unwrapped his scarf, as well as her own, and hung them on a mist-like coat rack, before settling his belongings onto the table. The colt crept towards what was supposed to be her couch, kicking at its fluffy surface whilst muttering inaudibly under his breath. "Hungry, bud?" Rainbow asked. As usual, there wasn't any response from him. With a shrug, she trotted to the other inhabitant in her house, wearing a wide smile. "Hey, Tank!" she nudged the tortoise, who delightfully climbed out of his green shell. She smiled as he munched onto a piece of lettuce she had bought from the market earlier, her pet eagerly chomping onto it as she declared: "We got a new guest in our house today!" Her pet just craned his neck up as his owner plopped Taciturn in front of him, the both of them exchanging blank stares. Taciturn knelt down onto all fours in a bout of curiosity, perching like a feline as he gazed at the creature. "I knew you guys would be perfect for each other!" Rainbow exclaimed out of awkwardness, the presence of both pony and tortoise reminded her of the fact that she has not one, but two buddies to take care of. "So..." her voice trailed off, her hoof reaching for his plastic bag and picking out a bottle. "Is this the one you have to take before sleeping?" Taciturn shook his head no, not even bothering to spare a glance. "Okay..." she replied, taking out another bottle. "How about this one?" Again, no. It was the same for the next bottle. And the next bottle. And the one after that. "What about this?" she asked the colt, who was still staring at the tortoise and not the brownish glass bottle in her hoof. Much to her relief, he nodded eagerly, rising from his position as he pranced to the mare's side. Rainbow held her breath as Taciturn placed the pill on his tongue, immediately chugging down a mug of water soon afterwards. At least he doesn't choke on his meds, she thought to herself. The colt soon resumed his spectacle between him and Tank, leaving their caretaker to shake her head, her signature mane tossed all over the place. "Gotta get some sleep, Tassee-" she stopped to let out a languid yawn, stretching her hooves and wings before slouching back down, hovering herself towards the bedroom after telling him: "Tomorrow might be a big day..."