Down on the Farm
It wasn't the tempting smell of waffles that woke Raj up, nor the soft beams of sunlight that shone through the faded blinds. It was the yellow filly bouncing on the bed.
“C'mon, c'mon, wake up! It's time for breakfast!” gleefully shouted Applebloom less than a hands-span away from his face.
Raj groaned and rolled over, covering his head with a pillow and muttering unkind things.
“No ya don't. Up and at 'em Rajrishi!” She grabbed the covers in her mouth and hauls them off the bed. When that didn't get a response she started to lightly headbutt his lower back. “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”
Raj sat upright and growled “I'm up, I am up.” He shot his tormentor a bleary-eyed glare that went entirely unnoticed.
“Neat. See ya downstairs.” She hopped off the bed and pranced away, humming lightly.
Raj watched her go and grumbled darkly to himself. He briefly considered lying back down to steal a few more minutes of sleep but he knew what that would cause; either Applejack or Granny Smith coming to rouse him in a far less subtle fashion. The Apple family does not cotton to sloth, he'd learned.
He swung his legs off the bed and stood up into a euphoric stretch accompanied by a chorus of pops and cracks from joints made stiff by sleep. He let out a bear-like yawn and scratched himself with a lazy smile on his face.
He turned to his side at Banjo curled up on a fluffy pillow, looking at him through half-cracked eyes. Raj smiled and saed “I got a good feeling about today Banjo.” The dog whined slightly and closed his eyes. “Bah, what do you know? You're a dog.” The canine ignored the insult and faded back into slumber.
Raj availed himself of the Apple family's lone bathroom, kneeling to use the mirror and bird-bathing himself with a basin of water and a washcloth rather than use their comically tiny tub. A shave was considered, but he vividly remembered his first experience with an Equestrian razor and decided to put it off. He combed out and braided his hair before trying to tie it up into a proper turban, but failed due to the bulky cast over his arm getting in the way. He settled for a patka in orange cloth and called it a morning.
He descended to creaky steps and was greeted by Winona's enthusiastic barking. He gave her a quick scratch and padded over to the table.
“Look Rajrishi, Granny made breakfast!” cried an enthusiastic Applebloom from behind a small mountain of golden waffles.
“I see that.” He lowered into a chair.
“Well, get 'em while they're hot.” Applejack slid a tray of seared asparagus in front of him.
Raj didn't need to be told twice and he tucked into the meal with enthusiasm. Home cooked food was a welcome change from living on bland fish, barely cooked eggs, and whatever he could pull out of the ground.
Granny Smith chuckled “Slow down there young'un, there's plenty to go around.” Raj grunted in response but didn't slow down his pace.
“So what's everypony up to today? Anythin' excitin'?” chirped Applebloom around a mouthful of waffles.
Macintosh grunted at her, shrugging his big shoulders. A surprisingly verbose reply for him from what Raj has observed.
“Hoo doggy do I got a lot of work to get to today!” drawled Granny Smith “Gotta start jarrin' if we're gonna be stored up for the winter.”
Applejack shrugged and said “Nothin' too amazin' sugarcube, just a few chores 'round the farm. What 'bout you?”
“Me 'n the other crusaders are getting our tennis playin' cutie marks. Sweetie Belle got Rarity to talk Ace into givin' us private lessons!”
“Aww, well ain't that sweet, ah'll have to sneak a few extra apples into his bag when he comes by the stand next.” said Granny Smith with a pleased smile.
“Yah don't have to do all that Granny, Rarity said Ace was plenty happy to be helpin' us out. Heck, he couldn't stop grinnin' when she was talkin' to him!”
“Yeah, Ah bet he was grinnin' 'bout somethin' else sugarcube.” said Applejack with a stern look. “What about you Rajrishi? You got some big plans for the day?”
“No.” muttered Raj between bites.
Applejack frowned “Oh um, alright.”
Applebloom excitedly propped herself up on the kitchen table “Do yah got some little plans then?” asked Applebloom with a wide grin on her face before a chastising look from Granny put her back in her chair.
“Nothing worth mentioning.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and set it on his plate. He scooted his chair back and stood up “Thank you for the meal ma'am.”
“Where ya'll goin'?” asks Applejack.
“Nowhere in particular.” He gave his dog an affectionate pet and started sliding on his boots.
“Nowhere? What are ya'll gonna do when yah get there?”
He looked back at her and said blandly “Nothing. I'll be back before supper.”
He opened the door and walked directly into a yellow pony standing on the porch. She bounced off his stomach and ungainly flopped onto the floorboards.
“Oww. That's a fine good morning.” grumbled Doctor Flummox as she rubbed a hoof against her head.
“Sorry 'bout that. Distracted.” He leaned down and helped her up to her hooves and brushed a thin bit of dirt off her side.
“Howdy Doc!” called Applejack from her seat at the table. The rest of the Apple family followed with greetings of their own.
“Good morning Apples.” The doctor smiled and waved “Just here to look in on a patient. Sorry to interrupt your breakfast.”
“Ain't no problem at all Doc. Would yah care for some? We got plenty.” Applejack held up a waffle speared on a fork.
“No thank you Applejack, I'm just here to give Raj his weekend checkup.”
“Let's get this over with.” Raj squatted onto the swinging bench out on the porch and held out his arm for Flummox to examine.
She ran her hoof over the cast, bending his arm and making him flex his fingers as she did so. “Any pain?”
“No.” He lied.
She squinted at the edges of the cast. “I'm seeing cracks in the plaster, pretty significant ones. Have you been resting like I told you to?”
Raj opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by Applejack from the front door “No he ain't. He's been wanderin' off 'n disappearin' for whole days.”
The doctor flicked her eyes up at him. “Is this true?”
“Sure.” He said while shooting Applejack a glare.
Dr. Flummox grumbled something unkind and continued. “Well, the arm is healing fine and the damage to the cast isn't severe. So I'll let it slide. Now, off with the shirt.”
“Yes'm.” Raj peeled his shirt off and settled onto the ground, leaning his head against one of the porch's support beams.
“Alright, let's see what we got here.” Raj felt the bandages unravel and hooves start to press into his back, probing and checking the stitching holding his skin together. The Doctor took on a sour expression and said “That's not good.”
“What's the matter doc? He gonna be okay?” Inquired Applejack while she crowded at her side to get a better look.
Flummox paused her ministrations and shouldered the doting farmer gently. She pulled the skin around his injury and a thin bead of clear fluid ran from a section of broken, bristly wire “A good number of stitches have popped and you've started seeping. They need to be replaced.” she pulled a needle and thread from her bag and said “This is gonna hurt.”
“What doesn't?” replied Raj noncommittally.
Flummox took that as a cue to start her work, yanking broken wire with expert care. Raj jerked sharply with the first pull, hissing in pain. Applejack sidled in again, trying to get a better look at Flummox's work. The Doctor took on a dour look for a second and whispered to the farm-mare “Applejack, could you talk to him or something, keep him distracted so he doesn't move around as much?”
“Sure thing Doc.” Applejack circled around to Raj's front, catching his eye to keep his attention off what's happening behind him. “Heya partner, how ya doin'?”
“How do you think?” he replied snidely, sneering a bit when Flummox nicked him.
“Heh heh, right.” Applejack awkwardly shuffled s a bit, looking for something to say. “So, um, how come yah didn't notice this business with your back? Seems like something you woulda felt.”
“I've been preoccupIED!” His voice hitched in pain on a tugged thread.
“Preoccupied with what?”
“Stuff.” He replied unenthusiastically.
“What kinda stuff?”
“The private kind of stuff.”
Applejack smiled lightly “Aww, c'mon Rajrishi. Ya can tell me. Ah won't tell a soul.” She ran a hoof across her mouth, miming zipping it shut.
He settled on her with a level look. “You really want to know?”
“Course ah do, sugarcube.”
Raj glanced back and forth, checking for any listeners, and waved her in close. In a hushed tone he said “I'm an exile.”
Applejack leaned close, whispering. “What?”
“I'm an exile, well, fugitive really. I was imprisoned, for a crime I didn't commit.”
“Really? What was it?”
“Conspiring with a failed dictator. I did no such thing, but I was locked up anyways for fourteen long years in one of the most ghoulish prisons imaginable.”
“My gosh Rajrishi, that sounds awful.”
“Oh, it was, but I escaped with the help of a fellow prisoner. He taught me many things, how to fight, proper decorum, and gave me the insight enough to figure out who betrayed me and got me locked up unjustly.”
“Where is this feller, sounds like a stand up guy.”
Raj frowned “Sadly, he didn't make it. Died in prison so that I could get away, but not before he told me where he'd hidden the treasure that got him locked in irons. Once I find it, I can finally enact my plan for revenge.” He injected as much venom into his words as he could, his hands even shaking with vehemence.
The pair were silent for a moment. Rajrishi was looking at her with as much sincerity as he could muster and she was staring at him with something like awe. She said “Wow Rajrishi, ah, ah had no idea. That's just... wow.”
He smiled “I know right.”
“Yeah, yeah, wooo,” She shook her head “That's a whole lot to take in.” She takes a few steps away and rubbed a hoof on her head.
“Well... it would be.” he said with a sly roll of his eyes “If it weren't horsecrap.”
She stopped “Come again?”
“It's the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo actually. Good book. You should read it.” He said with a smug grin “But you believed me, didn't you?”
Applejack settled into a deep scowl. “That ain't funny Rajrishi.”
“I don't know Applejack, it's a little funny.”
She frowned at that and flicked an ear in annoyance. “What have you been doin' all day Rajrishi?”
Raj said “None of your business Applejack.” He winced again at a sharp pinch from his backside.
Applejack looks scandalized for a second and stomped a hoof “Why you sick little- Fine! Keep your dang secrets! See if ah care!” She started to trot away.
“Aww come on Applejack, don't be like that. Fine fine, I've been searching for the elusive whale that took my leg many years ago. No no, actually I'm out there with my buddy Enkidu looking for Humbaba. Have you seen her?”
Applejack slammed the front door shut with enough force to rattle the frame. Raj smiled wide and broke into a fit of chuckles.
“That wasn't very nice you know.” said Dr. Flummox.
“But it was pretty funny.” His aggrandizing grin disappeared when Flummox dug her needle in with a little too much verve, making him yelp.
“Sorry about that, hoof slipped.” She set her tools back in her case “All done back here.”
“Glad to hear it.” He pulled his shirt back on with a pained grunt. “Don't know what you did but it hasn't hurt like this in days.”
“That's because I had to open one of them back up Rajrishi. You popped an internal stitch. If left alone you could have permanent muscle damage.” She pointed a hoof at his chest “You need to take it easy, at least for the next week or you're going to seriously hurt yourself.”
Raj put his hands up defensively “Alright, alright fine Doc. I'll be as sedate as a sloth.”
“Good. I'll be by at the end of the week to check on you and Piggington. See you then.” She kept his eye for a second before turning to leave.
Raj sat on the porch for a few minutes, watching her yellow figure fade away down the road. Once she was out of sight he stood up, dusted himself off, and started down the path to the west orchard.
He was halfway there when he heard the clopping of hooves behind him and a voice ask “Where do you think your goin' off to?”
He answered without turning “Elsewhere.”
“Doc said you were messed up 'n needed to stay put.”
He stopped and turned to her “So we're eavesdropping on each other now?”
“You told her you would too. Promised her practically.”
“'Cause if eavesdropping on one another is just something we do now, I want to go on record as not being cool with that.”
“Got' DANG it Rajrishi! Stop being so... so... glib!” She shouted, stomping her front hooves.
Raj stared at her levelly for a second before saying “Applejack, just... just go pick some apples or whatever. Leave me be.” He turned on a heel and strides away.
The orange mare went red in the face, fuming. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, willing her anger down. She said “Nuh uh, no way pardner. You ain't getting off that easy.”
Raj sighs “Look, I have something I need to do okay? By myself.”
“Ah understand that you think that, but ah don't care. You're not the only pony that can ignore folks when it suits 'em.” she adjusted her hat and puffed out her chest defiantly.
Raj worked his thumb against a groove on his staff in annoyance. “So what, you're going to follow me now?”
“Yep.”
“You're really that curious?”
She shook her head “Heck no, ah'm making sure you don't do something stupid and get yourself hurt worse 'n you already are.”
Raj rubbed the bridge of his nose, groaning lightly. “Do you seriously not have anything better to do today?”
“Nope. Today's my day off.”
“And you are going to waste it following me god knows where?” he asks.
“If ah have to.”
“I'm not going on a day hike here Applejack, I'm going somewhere dangerous.”
“All the more reason you should have somepony with yah.”
He placed a palm against his forehead and groused “I'm not interested in having some hanger-on I need to worry about.”
“Ah can take care of mahself Rajrishi, been scrappin' since ah was a little filly. Now are we going or what?” She trotted past him, head held sternly.
Raj gave a defeated sigh and said “Fine, but you better be able to keep up with me, got it?”
“Fine, now let's mosey.” She trotted ahead, kicking up thin plumes of dirt.
Raj rolled his eyes “Mosey she says.” He grumbled to himself and hurried to catch up.
* * *
He led her to the Everfree Forest, a distant edge of it far outside Ponyville. They walked through the bright meadow along its flank, but the pair were still close enough to make Applejack wary.
The border near Ponyville is tamed somewhat, regularly patrolled by Rangers and watched by Weather Pegasi. The wild growth is hacked back regularly and the monstrous inhabitants avoid their neighbors, usually.
The edge they walked beside was untamed, completely without the touch of ponies. The gloomy barrier as stark and menacing as the tallest cliff face. Simple proximity was enough to creep unease into the spirit of any creature not of the darkened place.
Any creature except Rajrishi, it seemed.
After hours of walking he stopped in his tracks and scanned the looming edge. “Here looks good. C'mon.” He started towards a break in the treeline.
“Wait what?” stuttered Applejack.
“We're going in, follow me.” He parted a curtain of vines and peered in.
“But, ah thought we were just walking alongside.”
“And now we're going in. This is around where I went in before. If I look around for a bit I can probably find where I left off. Figure I can get a few good miles knocked out today, if we get going now.” He gestured to the opening with the end of his staff.
“A-a few good miles? Is this what you've been doing all this time, exploring the Everfree Forest?” Applejack glanced back and forth nervously, swaying on her hooves. “D-don'tcha know how dangerous is is in there? Especially way out here?”
“Yeah I do, now are you coming or not?”
Applejack wavered for a second before she sets her face and adjusted her hat. “Hold yer horses, ah'm comin'.” She galloped forward, plowing past him into the Everfree.
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Hm, seems Raj is looking for another set of trees to get him back home.
Heh, also had to laugh when he started reciting the story of monte christo there. Did not expect that.
The timeskip without dealing with the tension between Raj and Mac detracts heavily from this chapter, and the whole story too in fact. Even if you did get me good with the Count of Monte Cristo section, and nailed Applejack's characterisation, that you wasted such a juicy subplot is not something I'm willing to overlook.
Good thing I hadn't upvoted before.
Interesting...so I decided to look up Rajrishi's name to see if it meant anything It came for Hinduism meaning royal sage but the hair thing makes me thing of the Sikhs. (He better have a real good reason to not listen to the doc )
6052183 No shit! The initial meeting between he and Big Mac should have been a chapter. At least have him break a fucker's jaw.
Applejack: "Well, wha' bad could come from that?"
"
*...one mushroom cloud later...*
Big Mac: "Ya hadda ask."
Applejack: "
7096424 Wait...Ace as in Ace Ventura
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/8/4/391038__safe_meme_equestria+girls_princess+cadance_if+you+know+what+i+mean.png
Did I miss something?
Did you skip something ?
Wasn't he going to get some recompense for Big Macintosh nearly killing him?
4 months of living alone with Zecora for occasional company (who he seems alright with), doesn't seem to be able to handle being amongst the locals despite it being MUCH safer (attack on his person notwithstanding).
Is he depressed or something?
7800436
Well, his potential way home, to a wife and son no less, was destroyed. What do you think?
7312549
Ace is a tennis term. Well, not just Tennis. Usually means something akin to star player.