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After a hard day's work in the apple orchard, Applejack likes to relax with a good book. This time, she's ditched the adventure stories for something altogether more profound. It's a good job she has Twilight to talk to.
Partly inspired by a (sadly now-deleted) comment of JohnPerry's.
Now has a reading by... er... me!
Review: Present Perfect
Cover image: background is a cropped screenshot from "Bats!"; hat adapted from this resource (CC by-sa 3.0) by ZuTheSkunk.
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6375585 Glad you enjoyed it!
Which particular bit of pun fodder, out of interest?
6375602
Soarin's name. There's a lot of fun to be had there.
6375682 Aha! True enough. And now you're giving me more ideas...
I love it this makes me smile.
6377928 Thanks very much; I'm happy you liked it! And thank you for reading, too.
6378424 Thanks for giving it a read, and I'm glad it was to your taste.
I loved "Murky Guard" and "Hay Digger ", but Soarin was priceless.
6378664 It was actually realising that Kierkegaard's first name was Søren that provided the spark for this!
Good to hear you enjoyed it.
6379066 I was actually annoyed with myself that I didn't see it coming.
Amazing
6381035 Thanks very much! Any part(s) you particularly enjoyed?
6381425 I enjoyed how you wrote Applejack as rather intelligent and having some really interesting insights on the philosophy book, to where she and Twilight could toss around ideas and have a thought provoking discussion, since I've always seen her as being smarter than she lets on, plus in the comics she's been shown as having a keen business sense, and being an excellent strategist. In one comic, it was even suggested she might become mayor one day. It bugs me when people say that she's dumb or something.
6384837 Ah, thanks for the explanation. :) Yeah, that annoys me as well, just like when people write Pinkie as though her randomness was the only thing about her. Applejack has to be smart -- to have managed what she has, especially without her parents, can't have been easy. And yep, I read that comic; it was one of the better ones, I think.
I definitely enjoyed this story, and I thought that as always with your work, the characterisation seemed perfect. Especially as Applejack is, I'd imagine, not the easiest pony to write for. The only drawback for me is that I didn't really understand what the story was about, and I get the feeling that either a) I'm a bonehead or b) there is some kind of in-joke or somesuch that I've missed out on. It didn't alter the fact that I liked what I read, but I probably didn't get as much from it as I normally would for that reason. (Or more likely because of reason "A."
)
6387960 Thanks; characterisation is something that's important to me, so I'm glad you felt that worked.
To explain what the story's actually about, I'll need some heavy-duty spoiler markers, so bear with me here! The story is really an existentialist fruit story, as its short description says. All the names (Neightsche etc) are based on the names of real philosophers who are relevant to existentialist philosophy. That zebrine book is based on a real one, Thus Spake Zarathustra. The conflict between life being like an apple or being like an apple pie is a real philosophical argument (well, without the apples, but same basic idea). And so on and so forth. Given all that, I'm actually (pleasantly) surprised that it's had such a good reception! 
6388449 Ahhhh, well that would explain much of what I didn't understand. Thank you very much for that explanation!
I know pretty much nothing about philosophy or associated writers, so it would explain why the names didn't really trigger any recognition. But I'll keep those in mind and give it a reread. 
i did a dramatic read of you fan fic
Haha, that was cool
Soarin writing philosophical books about apple pie, can't say I've seen a story that does that before! It was a good read, and I loved Twilight's line at the end 
Nice one!
6590143 Thanks! I'm pleased you enjoyed it.
I don't think I'd ever have even considered writing this if it hadn't been for JohnPerry's comment setting off my brain, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I have been a little surprised that it's been received so positively, since it's not the most obvious of subjects, but I'm not complaining!
While I'm here: I now have a fic of yours in the Louder Yay review queue for a couple of weeks' time. I won't spoil the details, not even of which story it is, except to say that you don't have to worry about me hammering it!
6590884 Oh wow, awesome! I don't think anyone's done a review of one of my stories before
At least not that they've told me about.
In that case, I'll look forward to reading it!
6592523 Actually, Present Perfect reviewed a story of yours (Resurgence) last year. I haven't read it, so I've avoided reading the actual meat of the review, but if you're interested, here it is.
6593677 So he did! Recommended for Luna fans - yup, I'll take it
Thanks for the link!
Cool read.
Have my thumbs up.
6660223 Thanks!
33rd like, HECK YEAH! 33 is my lucky number.
6709765 Oh no! Now I'll have to ban anyone else from liking it!
6709952
I didn't think that was possible.
6709958 Oh, I can issue the ban. It's just that nobody takes any notice of me.
6710152 Oh, alright then
6710152 *duly flouts ban*
7325842 You're a horrible person, and you should feel terrible. I hope you realise this.
7326240 Eenope!
7326774 I think that pretty much proves my point that nobody listens to a word I say. I can relax now.
Beautifully done. An excellent way of making the confusion of philosophy just a bit more edible.
7349750 That'll be the cinnamon. And thanks very much!
I tell you, I wish you hadn't come right out and named him in the middle there. You can't have thought this would appeal to anyone who wouldn't get a more subtle version of that joke in the first place. <.<
7626507 I really don't think I thought about very much at all while writing this one!
But I'm not sure I agree.I was confidently expecting at least a few downvotes from people who had no idea what I was playing at, and it hasn't happened. What can I say, I'm just not a very subtle person. :DEdit: On reflection, I've made one small change -- the specific "Soarin'. Murky Guard" line has been dropped, as I think you have a point that it is a tad clunky. Everything else is staying the same.
7627588
I made a good thing! :D
This was suprisingly light reading, given the subject. I don't even have cursory knowledge of Kierkegaard's work, so the apple pie analogy went completely over my head, but the rest of the allusions/puns were quite entertaining.
A nice vignette all in all.
7631676 Thank you; I'm glad you enjoyed it.
To be honest, my knowledge of this stuff is distinctly unimpressive, too! It's just that the silly idea of "existentialist fruit story" refused to leave my head until I'd written it. The apple pie stuff is loosely based on real existentialist philosophy, though. I'm actually very surprised this fic has had such a good reception -- I was confidently expecting lots of people to dislike it because they didn't know what was going on!
6590884
Hi! I know I'm a tiny little bit extremely late but, do you by any chance know what has been of JohnPerry? I was searching a story of him and found that his FimFiction account has disappeared and now his work is only available in FimFetch😕.
11390617
I don't know, I'm afraid. I never knew JohnPerry personally, just as a name on Fimfiction. Sorry I can't be of more help!
11390688
No problem. Thank you for replying.
Just thought you might like to know, google's Bard AI just recommended this fic to me.
Screenshot
Looks like it did get the author's name wrong though.
11745803
Though hey, maybe I'm really an alt of TheKMExperience and just don't know it. 
An AI chatbot getting a fact wrong? Say it ain't so!
Also, I do apologise if you originally glanced at the title and thought my fic was called "The Unbearable Lightness of Bucket".