//------------------------------// // Seventh Day: Zip, Zilch, Nada! // Story: And He Silently Painted A Rainbow // by WritingSpirit //------------------------------// "Rainbow..." Rainbow could feel the soft tips of feathers tickling her skin, immediately stirring from her sleep. She purred underneath her breath, murmuring softly before opening her heavy eyelids to see Taciturn staring ahead, before he suddenly rose from the couch, leaving the mare behind. "Mmm...... Tassee?" she mumbled with a small yawn, ruffling her wings a little at the protest of his departure. She stopped to watch as the colt marched towards the window, perching like an eagle on its roost with a gander at the silvery plains glittering in the first rays of daylight. "Whatcha doing, buddy?" Rainbow asked, marching up to the colt. Taciturn just raised his hoof, pointing at a distant building standing in the outskirts of town. It was none other than Ponyville Hospital, the place where they had first met. The sight of it reminded her of her checkup with Doctor Martingale, who was planning to check his progress, as he had mentioned when Rainbow obtained guardianship of Taciturn. After all, it's been a week since they've met, and the doctor expected an improvement of behavior from the colt. "Dash?" he muttered, curious at his guardian's pondering. "We have to visit the doctor, remember?" the sky-blue mare said. "He wants to see if you got better already. Wouldn't it be great to know that?" Taciturn just turned away, blankly staring at the floor again. Rainbow could only sigh at the degenerate response she received from him, shaking her head before heading into her bedroom. "Tassee, Tassee..." she mumbled, then let out a chuckle as the colt ruffled his wings, reminding her of the large appendages he was possessing. They were large for an average pegasus like him; if he was not the reclusive painter he was, he could be a well-equipped performer for the Wonderbolt flight shows. It didn't seem large when he tucked them in however, and she could only question how the feathers can actually fold in. Then there was the problem with the press. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy didn't say exactly how many groups of journalists are awaiting for Taciturn's presence, but she knew it was anything but small. Of course, she could not forget about the snitch. It could be anypony in town, and she had already had her suspicions rooted on the higher society ponies in town, namely Filthy Rich and his family and friends. If anything, they were the largest group of black sheep in the whole of town, always up in some shady dealings with the rest of Equestria. At least, that's how she would see it as. Maybe he or she will show themselves somehow. Twilight did mention she, along with the rest of her friends, were planning to dig deep into the situation, all the while trying to satisfy the conflicting sides of the town's craving for Taciturn's paintings, and of the colt's abhorrence with attention. "If there was only some way..." her voice trailed off, thinking through the situation. Maybe Rarity's magazines might contain an answer; they were all about Taciturn's area of expertise, after all. "Come on, Tassee!" she called her patient, heading out of the door with the colt hurriedly following behind, climbing onto his back. Rainbow would never understand why he was so lightweight, and probably never bothered to, she thought to herself, for it meant a lesser burden to carry on her back, literally. Drifting down to the ground, Taciturn stepped off his guardian's back, staring at the path ahead them. Rainbow ruffled the colt's mane, eliciting a small giggle once he snorted and harrumphed a little, stepping backwards and exhibiting his displeasure. "Seriously, though," she began, trotting down the path. "Thanks... for what you did last night. You slept before I could say it." The colt just beamed with a wide smile, eagerly trotting back to her side. Rainbow grinned back at him, a little happy in her heart that he was here. No doubt the colt felt the same, judging from the way he was happily outgoing around her. "Do..." she stammered. She had been planning to ask him the question for a while now, and the answer she was yearning for had kept bugging her head. "Do you trust me?" The colt just looked up at her, giving a small, cheery nod. Rainbow smiled at that, pushing her thoughts of insecurity away. She wasn't so sure after staring into Taciturn's eyes for the first time a few days ago, and was a little relieved that the colt wasn't suspecting her of anything in any way. The weight on her drooping shoulders suddenly felt lighter, ridding any misunderstanding thoughts that she had harbored against the pony that she was guarding. "Well," she began, the two pegasi trotting forward. "You trusted me all this time, didn'tcha?" "I guess it's time for me to do the same in return." "Well, I can tell your guardianship has certainly improved his sociability." Rainbow beamed proudly at Doctor Martingale's words, giving a wink towards the slightly uncertain Taciturn, who was sitting like a feline on top of a small bed, his white tail swinging about constantly. "I must say, he has made a considerably astounding amount of progress in the last few days I have seen of him," Doctor Martingale remarked, flipping through the papers attached onto his clipboard. Trotting towards the colt, he gave his papers a few more checks, before settling it onto his worktable. "You've really done a good job tending to him, Miss Dash." "No biggie!" she replied, heading towards Taciturn's side. "Got any advice for me, doc?" "There is one," the doctor replied, his eyebrows drooping. "I've heard of his recent... breakthrough, I shall put it, with the Canterlot press lately." "We never were involved with it." Rainbow's quick answer made him look in surprise, her stern, darkening expression and clenched hooves justifying the graveness of her response. She gazed at Taciturn, who was glancing around out of boredom perhaps, before lowering her voice to a mere whisper. "He never asked for any of this to happen, and I certainly never did! Don't blame it on me, doc, and at none of my friends either. He just wanted to paint a portrait for Pinkie Pie and everypony else suddenly just noticed it and suddenly every single pony in town knew about it. Then suddenly all these problems step in and the press and the stuff about only her ice portrait was already spreading around Canterlot-" "I've seen it, I've seen it," Doctor Martingale said passively, trying to calm her down. "It's pretty much all over the news in town lately. In fact, I heard Sugarcube Corner was barred by your friend this morning from any more visitors." The cyan mare could only shake her head in disapproval at the sound of that: how long were they going to pester her friend only to get the answer? If there was only some way that they could stop this madness... "I'm trying not to expose Tassee's identity to them," she stated clearly. Instead of an affirmative nod, however, the doctor suddenly gave an amused chuckle. "What?" she asked, not understanding the joke, if there was any. "Nothing. Just that you gave him a nickname, that's all." "For a good reason, y'know," Rainbow huffed, crossing her hooves. "I still can't get his full name right. Something like Teesee... Taysee..." "Taciturn." "Whatever," she shot back, waving her hoof conceitedly. "Plus, it's kinda has a ring to it. I'm not really sure what it was, but he didn't mind anyway, so it's okay." "Oh?" Doctor Martingale started to grin coyly, raising his eyebrows in mock surprise. "And suddenly you seemed to care a lot about him," he teased, the words making Rainbow scrunch her face up in the most annoyed, most disgusted look she could ever give. "What happened to the brash, denying pegasus that I've met five days ago? The one that never wanted to babysit Taciturn in the first place, hmm?" "I said I would take care of him only for him to improve!" she yelled, the sight of it making the doctor laugh quietly under his breath with fond amusement. Who does he think he is, making false assumptions like that. "I'm his guardian, and it's my duty to protect him. That doesn't mean I actually care for him, you know? Yeah, sure, he has something exceptional, but this is seriously a little too far fetched for me. I wouldn't actually be that close to him, would I? It's not that I like him or anything of that sort." "Mares like you kept saying things like that the whole time," he professed, pouring himself a drink. The reply only made Rainbow's snout crinkle even more with dilute irritation, the doctor nearly bursting out into a fit of laughs once her face reddened like a boiler ready to explode, before she quickly marched off, her head held high. "C-come on, Tassee!" she ordered with a stammer, the colt curiously looking at the cyan mare before trotting up to her side, curious on their next destination. "Let's get outta here!" And so, both guardian and patient did, stepping out of Ponyville Hospital without another glance back; at least, from Rainbow's perspective. Taciturn did stop to look back a few times, though the mare's suddenly forceful tone pulled him away from it, fearfully trotting to her side. The tense feeling in her shoulders relaxed once the hospital was out of their view, the flurrying heat in her head dying down as she extinguished it all out in a foggy sigh. The mare then wrapped her scarf back around, before tending to Taciturn's contrasting black one, ruffling the insides to prevent it from choking him. "Your doctor really is a playful guy, huh?" she remarked whilst doing so, though there was no reply. "Well," Rainbow continued, unfazed by his lack of response. "I think he sticks his nose a little too far in between, like some ponies who don't understand whatever the hay it is you're going through. Ponies like that are just going to get themselves in trouble anyway." "R-R... R-Rainbow...?" Taciturn whimpered suddenly, though his guardian still continued her rambling. "And then they'll start blaming at us, trying to blackmail us and stuff. I mean, what's up with these kinds of ponies anyway? They're the ones that got themselves into their mess and they put the blame onto us, I mean, seriously, sometimes ponies need to respect another pony's priva-" Her eyes was suddenly assaulted by a brief flash of white, followed by the familiar click of a camera. Rainbow staggered and zigzagged about the road, bumping into Taciturn as her blurry vision tried to focus itself back, her shock rising immediately at the sight of the swarming ponies around them. "Miss Dash! Miss Dash!" the barrage of voices assaulted her, followed by the endless snapping noises of the camera lenses. She stumbled backwards onto the floor, with Taciturn cowering with fear underneath her, her face grimacing a raging black at all the ponies around her. How in the hay did the press knew they were here? More importantly, how did they know that she was his guardian, and not the various ponies around town? That wretched, Celestia-be-darned snitch! "Get away from me!" she yelled, shoving through the crowd with the quivering Taciturn clinging onto her back. Her raspy voice only enticed more attempts on interviewing her, which was starting to crack into her head. She tried to fly into the air, but, much to her disbelief, a few ponies yanked her down by the tail, the searing pain from such a harsh tug throwing her into a fit of rage. "What the hay do you think you're doing, you jerk?!" she yelled into the face of one reporter. Surprisingly enough, the pony remained his cool, raising his mic towards her as he asked: "How were you able to cope with the meaningless behavioral patterns that Mr. Bleach is believed to have displayed?" Meaningless? She couldn't believe her ears. Meaningless? "I got something to say to you, and to the rest of you as well," she scowled, the reporters silenced as they braced for her sentence; one they were not hoping for. "JUST LEAVE US ALONE!! I'm not going to answer any of your dumb questions, and I never will! N-E-V-E-R! Zip, zilch nada! Now get the hay out of my way!!" Despite that, the reporters persevered, forcing even more questions onto her. Taciturn was already beginning to wail at the back, the sounds of his pained situation snapping the fraying strings of her tolerance. She couldn't believe it how ridiculously stubborn they were, her head screaming at her to take action. And she did: as a wall of ponies started to pile up in front of her, Rainbow clenched her hooves, before pushing them away from her, trying to force a path through. She never knew the consequences of such an action. Suddenly, something whacked against her cheek. Something hard. A stone-cold blow from the side. She didn't know if it was on purpose or by accident; all that she knew is that one minute she was glaring at every angle, the next she fell backwards onto the floor, throwing Taciturn off as well. Small tears started to leak out from her eye, and Rainbow could only stare in shock at the numerous amount of flashes around her. Time languidly slowed in her suffering, her only viable option being is to sniffle lightly on the snow. At least, for the time being. The fluttering flip of wings soon captivated her attention, as Taciturn suddenly stood over her, his wings flared up defiantly at every pony surrounding them. He growled menacingly whilst shielding his guardian (a bit strange, on that part), his jet black eyes squinting glaringly at each pony that stood in their way. "Rainbow!" a voice called out, the cyan mare recognizing it to be Twilight's. The unicorn eased her way through the crowd, kneeling down to her friend and gasping the moment she saw the blue-black bruise slapped onto the side of her cheek. "What in Equestria..." "Get away from her!" Pinkie's voice shrilled, with the trademark party cannon of hers swinging about every single one that dared stepped closer towards them. Her concern for Rainbow Dash was evident the moment she asked Twilight: "Is she hurt?" "Begone!!" Rarity snarled, galloping up to them with the ponies right behind her consisting of her younger sister, Scootaloo, Fluttershy, Spike and the Apple Family. The reporters immediately huddled away at that, leaving Rainbow to recuperate with the rest of her friends. Taciturn shed his wings back in, whimpering at his guardian's small bruise. The mare forced out a pained smile, brushing her mane aside while Fluttershy tended to her stinging injury. "It's alright, Tassee," she muttered. "I'm fine. Nopony could hurt this pony." "Nopony at all..." "D-Dash?" "Thanks, Tassee," Rainbow chirped, receiving a cup of warm chocolate from Taciturn. She took a sip of it, the nourishing, sugary contents of it bathing her in a pool of warmth immediately, the mare letting out a breathless 'aah' of satisfaction. "That really hit the spot." Settling the cup onto the table, she soon reached for her ice pack again, placing it back onto her new bruise. She yelped a little once the freezing cold touched the tips of her damaged skin, though it was reduced to hissing at the stinging pain that came after that. Her friends were all shocked on what had just happened this afternoon, with the still sensible part of the town in a slight uproar at the prospect of such an event. Twilight had already begun pressing charges against the reporters, even writing a letter to Princess Celestia and her brother, Shining Armor, about what had happened. The rest of her friends could only give a few phrases of good luck and such to Rainbow, unable to think of a way to help their friend. "Just a darn bruise..." she acknowledged, feeling a small sting again. The more she thinks about it, however, the more her heart starts to wretch up a little at her recent ordeal. Whoever that hit her must pay, she swore to herself, though she was advised to rest and let it heal before she could do anything brash again. "You had worse before. Just a teensy...... weensy...... bruise..." She wanted to ask herself why. Why she couldn't force herself to accept that it was just another injury? It could've even been accidental, she thought to herself, and yet the thoughts still lingered. That, and her patient's sudden boost of heroism, leaving her all the more curious about what the colt can not do instead. Taciturn had helped her out in a few things around her house, such as making a warm chocolate for her. Despite the wraith-like colt being the cause of this injury in the first place, she knew he was never at fault from the very start. He was too frail and too naive of the world to ever do such a thing, and that there's only one darn pony to blame. "Snitches," she scoffed, wiping a tear off her- wait. A tear? Rainbow frantically rubbed her hoof onto the clouds, closing her eyes shut as she whisper a few words of encouragement. "You're a strong pony, Rainbow Dash," she muttered repetitively to herself, clenching her hooves as if she was in some sort of prayer. "Rainbow Dash?" Taciturn called for her, curious at her actions. The light sniffle that the mare elicited suddenly only brought her closer to her out of curiosity, reaching out his pale hoof to help his guardian wipe a small tear off her cheeks. "I'm s-sorry..." Rainbow bawled out suddenly, the tears steadily trickling down her cheeks. "Those reporters... they could've hurt you, and I was suppose to be your guardian and protect you... but... b-but instead... look at me!" She gritted her teeth, the pressure from the existence of that bruise straining within her gut. The tears that dripped started to overflow from her eyelids, though she hid her face into the couch before Taciturn had a chance to see her cry. "D-don't, Tassee..." Rainbow protested once the colt proceeded to nuzzle her at her cheek, his wings wrapping around her own pair. "Happy..." Taciturn said bluntly, the mare forcing out a small smile instead, trying to rid herself of negative thoughts and satisfy her own patient as she sniffled and wiped her tears of sadness away. "Yeah, I guess I am happy..." she responded, blinking her slightly watery eyes while leaning against his shoulder. "So, did you paint anything today? I know everything's a little sudden, but..." The colt's beaming face had already shown the answer, and he quickly took out a roll of paper from beneath his hooves, passing it for his guardian to see. Slowly, Rainbow unfurled the canvas, quietly gasping once she saw the astounding, perplexedly distorted array of black and white lines on the paper. She tilted her head a little to the side, trying to picture whatever monochromatic painting he was holding within. "What is it? I don't really get it," she admitted. With a disgruntled sigh (a first sign of annoyance from the colt) he held the painting up like a television in his hooves, beckoning Rainbow to look at its dead center. He gradually stepped backwards and away from the cyan mare, whose puzzled, questioning looks starting to change into one of pure delight. "No... no way...!" she murmured. Made up from the zebra doodle of lines, from afar, was the picture of a long, elegant hallway, comparable to those in the palace of Canterlot. At the sides of the walls were ornate frames adorning every part of the corridor, the royal sight stopping her breath almost immediately. "That's a pretty cool place!" she remarked, giving him a cheerful grin. "It's almost as if you want to... want to..." Rainbow's face lit up immediately. That's it! That's the one! "Celestia, you're a genius, Tassee!!" she declared at the top of the lungs, giving him a tight hug. Without even bothering to grab her scarf, she quickly zoom out of the door, leaving Taciturn to just stare at her rainbow path she was creating, muttering with a confused tilt of his head: "Rainbow?"