Want to Do
“Ah'm gonna kill him!” Hissed Applejack “Ah'm gonna wrap mah hooves 'round his neck and throttle 'im good!”
Granny Smith rolled her eyes “Be a shame if ya made Macintosh waste all that time at the boiler 'n hosing him off.” The elderly pony humored her grand-daughter while she mixed up a sticky poultice.
The younger pony stomped around the kitchen, grumbling to herself and flicking her tail in agitation. “Ah told him Granny! Ah told him straight to his weird, flat face! Ah told him that we all care about him, that he was a part of this family, 'n the first thing he does is go 'n, go 'n, gah!” She stomped a hoof “Ah'm so mad ah can't even talk straight!”
“Yer Daddy'd get like that when his temper was gettin' the better of him too.” She said bluntly.
Applejack stiffened and shot her grandmother a withering glance that the elderly pony flagrantly ignored. She paced a frustrated circle around the kitchen table and said “Danged fool of a miserable so-'n-so.”
“Ya dragged him to the barn and got him sorted fine Applejack, there's nothin' doin' anymore for tonight.” crowed Granny Smith “Just go to bed 'n worry 'bout it in the mornin'. You'll be in better sorts fer it too.”
Applejack ground her teeth. “Nothin' doin', yeah right. Ah should march out to that barn right now 'n truss him up proper. Maybe then he'd keep his fool ass in one place!”
“You'll do no such thing child, and watch yer language.” admonished Granny, a harsh scowl creasing her brow.
“And why shouldn't ah Granny? When Winona's leg got hurt we had to put that cone 'round her neck. Ah see it as the same thing.”
“Winona's a dog Applejack, she don't know no better.”
Applejack leaned against the table. “Ah've seen more sense from Winona than ah have from Rajrishi, 'specially these last few days.”
“Applejack!” scolded Granny Smith “I will not have you insulting a guest of this house, not on my watch.”
Feeling embarrassed, Applejack slid away from her Grandmother. “Ah know Granny, and ah'm sorry but, well, ah don't think ah can do this no more.” she settled her face in her hooves, staring at the candle sitting in the middle of the table. “Ah can't just watch him kill himself and do nothin'.”
“Rajrishi's gonna do what he needs to. Ya can't force that.” explained Granny as she added a layer of crushed herbs to her poultice.
Applejack leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “Ah just wish ah knew why he was doin' it. What it was all for, then maybe ah wouldn't feel this way.” She swung forward and brought her hooves down on the tabletop and almost shouted “But he won't, 'cause he's a lowdown, secretive cuss that don't give one wit about nopony but himself!”
Granny Smith looked at her granddaughter for a long minute after that. “Can ya really not see it sugarcube? The weight he's carrying?”
Applejack shook her head “No Granny, what do ya mean? Are ya talking about how he always looks so down after coming home?”
Granny Smith stepped away “Child, whenever that boy walks through those doors, he doesn't just look down, he looks lost. That's the same look you were wearin' when your folks died and-” She paused for a second, taking a breath. “-and its the same one I wore for years when mah Jonagold was taken from me.”
Applejack was taken aback. Granny Smith hardly ever spoke about her late husband and almost never to her. Even mentioning him in passing was considered rude in the Apple house. “Granny, you don't have to-”
She held up a hoof “Lemme finish Applejack. For a long time afterward, ah didn't feel right, like something was missing. Ah still feel that way as a matter of fact, ah just got used to it.” She pressed a hoof to her chest “That feller is carrying something just as heavy, a deathly kinda heavy. Him not sharing it is a kindness.”
“Granny ah... ah...” Applejack trailed off, not knowing what to say.
The argument was interrupted by a deep clearing of a throat. Both mares turned to see Big Macintosh standing in the door-frame leading outside.
He rumbled “He's up.”
* * *
Raj dragged the damaged lump of his shirt up the washboard, peeling dirt and mud from it. The washtub was pure brown, a few errant clumps of dirt and vegetable matter bobbing on the surface. Grumbling, he snapped out his shirt and hung it in the barn with the rest of his still filthy clothes.
The side door rattled open and Applejack stepped in, a tray and a bowl balanced on her back.
“Hey.” she said.
“Hey” he said back.
She set her load on a barrel. “Ah, uh, brought some soup for ya, and this here is some salve Granny whipped up for your Brander Ant stings.” She lifted up the bowl and hoofed it to him.
“Great, these things are still pretty tender.” He scooped a bit up and slathered it over the grape sized swells clustered over his hip. He paused a few seconds and asked “Is it supposed to burn?”
Applejack cocked her head “Ah don't think so.”
“Because it is, burning I mean.” He looked worriedly at his side.
Applejack inspected the swollen bumps. Each one was large and weeping with an angry red color glowering out of them. She mulled them over and said “Ah'm sure it's fine.”
“Yeah, probably is.” He turned back to his washtub and started working on his pants.
“How'd you get bit up anyway?”
“Passed out on an anthill. They took exception to that.”
“Why's you go and do something like that?'
Raj shrugged “Looked comfortable at the time.” He gave a chuckle that drifted into a series of throaty coughs.
She gave him a second to settle himself and asked “You okay?”
Raj wiped a line of spittle from his chin and answered “Oh most definitely not. Did you hear that cough? There's something wrong in there. Something's loose or too tight, can't tell.”
Applejack shot him a level look “Ah'm being serious here Rajrishi.”
“I know.” He gave her a light smile and ran his pants down the washboard again. “And I am not.
Applejack stomped a hoof “Well, ya should be Rajrishi. We're tired of you dragging your sorry self in here everyday, all banged up and torn apart, and expecting us to put you back together again.”
“It hasn't really been a picnic for me either Applejack.”
“Then why are you doing it, that's what I don't understand. Ah've never met nopony with such a deathwish that they'd go into the Everfree like that. Ah got half a mind to have ya committed.”
Raj swallowed a harsh retort and replied “I'm not doing it because I want to Applejack, I'm doing it because I have to.”
“Why? Who's making you?” She pleaded “Ah haven't seen anypony pushing you, far as I know you don't talk to anyone.”
“Nobody is forcing me, but I still have to. I'm trying to go home.”
She shot him an exasperated look “Then go home! Heck, ah'll buy you a train ticket.”
Raj shook his head and huffed “You are not even close, you don't even know.”
She stepped closer, leaning in and imploring “Then help me to understand, explain it to me.”
He replied flatly “I have a son Applejack.”
Applejack's eyes widened. “W-what?”
“I have a son, a house, a job, a wife, and a family. I have a car payment, I have a mortgage, and I have college to save for. I have duties, things I have to do, things I need to do Applejack.”
“Well, what're ya doing here?”
Raj sighed “Trying to get back to all that. As far as I know, my only way home is somewhere in the Everfree.”
She stuttered “Ah, ah'm sorry, ah didn't know.”
“And now you do. Does it make you feel better?” He asked.
Applejack shivered and whispered back. “No.”
Raj smiled wryly and scoffed “You're welcome.”
They sat there in tense silence for a good long while, the only noise the scraping of clothes on a washboard.
After a long span of thought Applejack's face screwed up in confusion. “Wait, something ah don't understand.”
Raj sighed, exasperated. “What?”
“You got people you love, and they love you back, right?”
“Of course they do.”
“And you're still killing yourself?” Her eyebrow raised “That don't make sense.”
“You don't know what you're talking about.”
“Yeah, ah do.” She stomped her front hooves “Anypony who loves somepony wouldn't want 'em to go through what your going through, much less for so long.”
“Shutup Applejack.”
“There ain't no reason to be working yourself so hard you get pneumonia. There ain't no reason to be lettin' yourself be attacked by all kindsa monsters and whatnot, 'specially if you got people countin' on you back home.”
“Shutup Applejack.”
“Trust me Rajrishi, ah know what it's like to think you should suffer for your family, and ah'm here to tell you that you don't.”
“SHUTUP APPLEJACK!” Raj shot up, spilling his washtub and throwing brown water across the barn floor. He leaned down, getting his face within a hand-span of Applejack's. When he spoke, his voice was an acid hiss. “You do not know me, you do not know my situation. Now shut. Your. Mouth.”
Applejack met his gaze with steely resolve and puffed out her chest before talking back. “Nopony would want someone to be as miserable as you are. If'n this family of yers does then, then, well, they ain't worth a damn!”
He uncoiled an arm and the barn was filled with a sharp crack as her brown stetson went flying off to the corner.
Applejack's head snapped into a turn, a fierce red hand-print glowing her cheek. She lifted a hoof and pressed against it lightly. She stammered “Y-you slapped me.”
Raj's scowl receded a bit and his eyes softened “Applejack, I...”
“You SONOVABITCH!” she snarled and pounced, driving her whole body into his chest.
Raj was bowled over, tumbling to the hay-strewn floor. Applejack straddled his chest and started raining blows down on his prone form, screaming madly “You no-good, consarned, worthless horseapple!”
“Get off, get off!” Raj blocked, wincing as strikes smacked against his forearms. He caught one of her hooves in a hand and twisted the limb to block her other swings. Now free from attack, he looped an arm down and hooked a fist into her barrel, knocking her off with a pained grunt.
He rolled onto his front, wheezing with effort. Applejack scrambled to her hooves and charged a headbutt into his shoulder, forcing him back over. He saw Applejack rearing up to stomp on his chest and lashed out, catching her back legs with his hand and swept them out from underneath her. She pitched to the side and her head struck the floor with a solid crack.
Raj staggered to his feet as Applejack laid on the floor, moaning and clutching her head. Raj caught his breath and opened to mouth to say something but was cut off when Applejack uncoiled into an upwards aimed buck, a single hoof catching him in the pelvis hard enough to put him in the air.
He sailed into a pile of hay bales and crashed onto them. As soon as he had the faculties to do so he clutched at the swelling spot below his navel and groaned in pain.
They laid there like that, clutching their respective injuries, for several minutes before Applejack unsteadily rose to her hooves. She shook her head to clear the dizziness from it and squared herself against Rajrishi. She saw his unready form on the hay and her posture sunk. She drawled “Rajrishi, the hell we doin'?”
Raj took a second to formulate an answer before saying “I 'unno.”
“Me neither.” Applejack slowly clopped over and dropped down onto the unorganized hay bales, staring upwards as well.
For a long while they stared at the cobweb lined roof of the barn and through the loft door at the faint glow of the new sun staining the sky.
Raj shifted, the hay scratching his bare skin. He asked “Applejack?”
“What?”
“Sorry I hit you.”
She snorted “Don't be. You hit like a filly.”
“Yeah.” His hand drifted to the hot bruise on his gut “You don't.”
They shared a few seconds of mutual laughter before drifting into silence again.
“Rajrishi?”
“Yeah?”
She turned to face him “Earlier, ya said that you've been doin' stuff that ya have to do, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, what do ya want to do?”
He looked at her “What?”
She rolled to her hooves and stood up. “C'mon. If you could do anything you wanted right now, not something ya have to do, not something you need to do, just something ya wanna do, what would it be?”
Raj's head flopped back against the hay and he stared at the dusty air slowly drifting down onto him before saying “A bath.”
Applejack cocked her head “A bath?”
“Yeah, a bath.” He confirmed “None of this cloth wipedown crap I've been doing for the last week. A real bath.”
“With fancy soaps and things?”
Raj sat up “Yeah, and a scrubber that not too rough and not too soft, with hot water enough that I can soak for hours. And shampoo, something scented, citrus. Or maybe pomegranate.”
Applejack smiled “Anything else?”
He nodded, a tired grin coming to his face “Yeah. A fine file, something to get these burrs off my nails. And a towel, a big fluffy one. Heated, heated enough that I can barely tell I'm out of the water.”
Applejack laughed as she slipped her hat back on “Well, ah might not be able to help with everything, but ah reckon ah can help with this. Let's rustle you up a bath partner.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.018 seconds
Total duration
1,039 users online
2,003,199 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
A bath. Lol
I wonder why this story isn't getting more comments or likes? This is GOOD!
Superb stuff here
4048108
I know! It's freaking baffling how unappreciated this is.
5563930
It's most likely because the human isn't white and/or a brony wants to stay in Equestria, and/or fall in love with pretty pretty poni princesses. Ya'know mainstream crap.
That he has wife, son and compromises doesn't warrant him diving headfirst into bedrock without padding to cushion the fall. He needs proper preparations if he's to get back.
And he has to learn that a true friend is something you NEVER really lose. The bond isn't broken because of death or separation, and if it does, it wasn't true friendship.
Thanks for smacking a bitch, AJ.
Why the fuck not? If the shoe fits...
Aaaaand I'm done. He slapped A.J. because he couldn't stand the fact that she was right. Yep, he's of Middle East descent alright. Downvoted.
6593856
I agree with everything here except for the downvote thing.
Like you said, he IS of middle eastern descent, and throwing caution to the wind, especially for prolonged periods of time is something common in many -if not all- middle eastern cultures.
He knows what he's doing is stupid, reckless, and doing infinitely more harm to his chances than good... BUT, his cultural history is steeped in glorifying this behavior (many middle eastern tales and teachings focus on acting on pure emotion with determination, and leave the final lesson of "real men" accomplishing what their goal through sheer will and headlong charges of stupidity fueled by anger).
*And before anyone starts judging me for saying this, I would like to head the whole "you're white so you must be a racist!" thing off by pointing out that my understanding of this comes from a close friend ~Mohind~ whom I've known since high school.*
(It's a sad world we live in where those with white skin must have references in order to avoid being harassed for "racism" because of their skin color.)
Edgy shit bruh
Raj is a really annoying edgy special flower character.
7018681 Short list of HiE fics that aren't either that or a Sue or Stu.
If what I have read so far is any indicator, he supposedly was driving and ended up going through a portal and the shock of passing through and ending up in a VERY much wooded forest didn't give him much chance to stop as indicated by having hit a tree at a significant speed w/deployed airbags.
The arch that he was so damn intent on originally may or may not have been part of the how he got there but its no longer in any shape to do anything again.
So why the hell is he searching a dangerous forest when he seemingly didn't go far from his original point of entry as indicated by his camp?
7800534 probably desperate hope that he'd find another like it
6593856
I love how you seemed normal until you went the whole "He slapped a woman, typical backwards mudslime!" route
I hope you get hit by a car you racist piece of dog shite.
6968666
7018681
7229523
>Guy loses his family and any connection and hope of finding them again
>Guy falls into despair at not being able to find any way back to his wife and child
>Guy nearly kills himself constantly searching the woods, desperately hoping for another way, any way back home
>Guy tells off someone for not getting it through their thick skull that they are in a completely alien world with no frame of reference for what they have experienced.
>"Wow this guy is edgy! Lel XD!"
People like you make me want to rip my fucking hair out. People like you are the reason Trump is in the White House.
I hope you all get vored by an elephant.
8634375
I like people like you!
8634375
I have never heard someone say what you have just said.
Sir, if I had the motivation in my semi-delirious, break from studying state, I'd post this to r/rareinsults.
10289356
Agreed, that was original, to be sure.
Granny is a real wise mare.
But that idiot Applejack just went and skirted on insulting his family. Is she that fucking dense? She's making him choose between her and his family. That idiot, seriously!