*reactive thumbs to herd ponies*

Whelp. I like it and hate when things get thumbed down without explanation.

Ya, I'm not sure what that was about. That's the kind of reception you'd expect for a grammatical nightmare or troll fic. I could understand if someone said it was just boring, but it was just auto thumbs down and walk away. Haha, ah well.

Well, I don't know what other people's opinions are, but I at least would be willing to read this. It seems of reasonable quality, and is in "That framework", of probable humans in Equestria who have no idea what is going on, and tend to conclude that their memories are inaccurate.

Almost passed this fic up because of the rating and the romance tag, but I've read and enjoyed two other stories with a similar premise that I decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did as this seems interesting. Weird that you've got such a bad rating on your story, I've seen many worse stories that are more popular than this. Other than the two grammatical errors in the antepenultimate sentence, a misspelled Celestia and a forgotten apostrophe in stallion's, I can't see anything wrong with this.

I do have one question, is John Smith actually his name?

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Thanks for giving it a shot, and I'm glad you found it interesting. As to the low rating, my assumption is that some people saw the mention of herds, and then the romance tag, and assumed it was harem fic rather than me exploring a bit of world building around the idea of a sapient pony society. Ponies as animals have herds with a lead mare so I wanted to explore how that might pan out in a functioning culture of sapient ponies with that sort of background.

John and Smith are two extremely common names so I went with that for the protagonist. It's also a bit of an ironic twist too since "John Smith" is known as a "placeholder name." Since he's sure he's crazy, and probably doubts even his real name, he's using this as a placeholder till his real identity is found.

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I'm not getting the downvotes either. Might be the Romance and Mature tags coupled (no pun intended) with your only other story being a clopfic.
I myself haven't read a psychology-based fic from anything other than the protagonist's POV so this is an interesting angle for me. Alongside Mr. John Smith's seemingly ironclad logical approach to this situation.
It'll be intriguing to see how this pans out if you are planning on continuing this, which I certainly am hoping you will.

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Well thanks, I appreciated hearing that. I have 2500 words of the next chapter done and have started working on it again. So, yes, it will be continued.

Well, i like it, a little slow.

I wish more stories would put a focus on the whole 'matriarchy society' thing and be a good story, like this one. If I had a problem with it though, it would be that his name (or the name he remembers, anyway) is John Smith. It is actively distracting and impaired my sense of disbelief. Even if you have a solid reason for it down the line, the readers won't know that.

I'm also pretty certain that was why there was a bunch of immediate downvotes; they just read the description and saw 'John Smith' and downvoted right then and there. Luckily, there's only currently one chapter, so it would be easy for you and us readers to adapt as there isn't much to adapt to yet.

In any case, I eagerly await the next chapter!

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I hadn't considered the name John Smith breaching someones suspended disbelief actually. There are actually 45,000 John Smiths in the US (possibly more), so I figured it'd be fine. That, and it not being their actual name. Oh well, no where to go but forward now. Thanks for the heads up and I'm glad you found this interesting!

I look forward to reading more of this. Did you intend Happy Days to come off as a little bit condescending?

This story was mentioned in passing in the comments of another story, so I decided to give it a shot. It looks interesting so far, but there's little to base that on beyond the initial impression.

3826048 It makes sense as a placeholder. At least you didn't go with Anon/Anonymous.

I would suggest that, in story, he explain that it's a placeholder name from his "false" memories and fish for an equivalent. Since his entire approach appears to be "I must be crazy, none of what I remember can possibly be real," it would be both fitting and help explain the apparent oddity. Even if they choose not to rename him, it gives them (and us!) an even better understanding of his situation.

This story deserves more exposure. There may not be a whole lot of it yet but what there is would have made for a great one-shot all on its own. Hopefully future updates will attract more readers as writing style, characters and overall setting are superb.
You may also want to add Human to the story's tags, as it technically still applies.

Seems good. Will follow.

This has potential to be an interesting take on a tired premise. Don't disappoint me.