I got to say that this is one interesting story. I enjoy seeing how John acts like a rational guy, as opposed to the panicky guys who end up like Bruce from "Oh to be old again", when he ends up transformed into a stallion, thus giving this fic quite a refreshing feel. The way you portray the matriarchal society, which involves herds led by mares, is impressive and your characterization of Twilight and Rarity is pretty original as they both show an appreciation of romance from herds yet retain most of their personalities from the canon. Anyhow, I hope the next chapter comes soon as this is a great story.

Not sure about Midday myself, but the rest seems reasonable. It sounds too much like mid-day, or however you spell it, which corresponds to roughly noon. Hence it might be slightly confusing to some people.

Glad to see this story continued. So few stories of this type.

4772226
I'd read plenty of stories where folks felt they were insane humans imagining these things but couldn't think of any where the person thought they were an insane pony that imagined their memories so I thought I'd take a stab at it. I figured doing it outside their perception would make world building easier too.

As for Minalkra's OtbOA, I feel like we're portraying two characters taking the situation badly in polar opposite ways. John is throwing all his memories under the bus in a bought of logic while Bruce clings to his with a fervent obsession. What's more, John is an adult pony with all the new brain chemistry urges that comes with it while Bruce is a child pony with all the impulse control that comes with that (almost none). Also, Bruce is from an earth with the show and John isn't. I've enjoyed talking with Minalkra about herd worlds and such for a long time and making a seemingly polar opposite character setup grabbed my attention and I started rolling with it.

Anywho, thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you've enjoyed it so.

4772254
That's a good and fair point to make about Midday. I was brainstorming some reasonable/MLP-esque day names and just came up with those. I'd be fine with changing it if something else comes up, or I'll just leave it alone specifically for the confusion. English is rife with words that have multiple different meanings and that could be one of them for the ponies.

Pine seems nice but he is dumb as rocks. I hope all stallions aren't quite so malleable.

4754020
I was thinking more along the lines of GlaDOS in the Portal 2 multiplayer trailer.

"Don't disappoint me... or I'll make you wish you could die."

4772352
Oh, looks like I forgot to put that in the Author's note. I originally had a comment in there to alleviate any fears that the first stallion we see being a clueless guy was a precursor to them all being that way. I've been disappointed in stories that did that in the past myself so I understand. So here we go:

Author Note edit:
P.P.S: I realize Pine is clueless. I tried really hard to write him like that (it wasn't easy). But no, very few stallions are like that, it's just Pine's personality and how he ended up getting raised. Just like you wouldn't expect every mare to have the same personality etc. etc.

4772389
He was raised to be a twit? That's funny.

I enjoyed the chapter though it seemed a bit short on world building. Keep up the good work!

4772339

I think the other stories I've seen are "Wish Upon a Supernova" and "M'you've gotta be kidding me"
The second one however is questionable considering it is part of the "Chess game of the Gods" universe, and hence can't be considered serious.
The other type of stories are those that are Ponies (or not), believe themselves to have been human, but are either entirely unable to communicate it (speech Geas) or are not believed in that case. "The Triumvirate", "Oh To Be Old Again" , and "Whiteout" qualify I think.
There are also a handful of others, like "Solitary Pinion", "Cog in the Machine" and "Orchestrated Chaos".
These stories, in general, have reasons that prevent any real resolution of that issue, because of either a language barrier or lack of freedom.
"My Life, Recreated" is similar, but it is more to do with him wanting to avoid timeline alterations, which does cause conflict.

I like the conflict that occurs when you have a person placed in a foreign (or known as fiction) setting, and they actually have serious trouble, for sane reasons, rather than story-book reasons. That is, Lack of knowledge of area, or wrong/watered down knowledge, and, in the case of having knoweldge, the whole knowing everything about the characters thing. That and timetravel, both of which cause the obvious "Must be a spy" assumption.
The other thing is that that person tends to lack as much freedom as many self-insert-like characters tend to have. (Self insert not being an insult. It is loosely accurate as a genre description)

4772441
How do you figure he's a twit?

The way I planned him is that he got used to going with the flow of his family (even socially trained to do so). He's not smart enough to see what they're doing but he does have the sense they're doing it. That's why he left them and moved out. He has the perspective of someone that isn't clever enough to figure out when or how he's being manipulated and is earnestly clueless about social situations. Putting it crudely: he's an honest simpleton. I've met plenty of folks like this and even seen clever people run circles around them. It always bothered me seeing that happen.

Not every character is perceptive and able to read others intentions. I guess I'll take folks irritation with him being a sign that I got something right on that front. Glad to hear you enjoyed this chapter and I'll try and get the next one out sooner~

4773388
Your explaination of his character meshes with my own impression of the poor sod so I think you pulled that one off very well. He knows he's being manipulated by his relatives but lacks the smarts to notice when exactly they are pulling the woll over his face. It doesn't help that he his train of thought is going every which way and jumping at shadows. I dearly hope John's addition to the household will bring a few changes around what with him being such a rational being.
Chances are people are frustrated when reading what goes on inside the head of somebody so easily decived.

One question: shouldn't "element of generosity" be capitalized?

4774188
Yesum, it should very much so be capitalized. Thanks for pointing that out to me!

4773388
Well, the definition I found for "twit" is "a silly or foolish person" which seems to fit.

4774522
LoL, really? Wow... alright. I guess my sense of the word was completely off. I've only ever heard "twit" used in reference to someone being purposely mean or annoying.

4772553
I can't say I've heard of most of those stories. I'll have to look a few of them up then. Thanks for the list! I enjoy the foreigner in a foreign setting scenario as well and especially when the culture they're in is something other than a generic Americanada deal.

Glad to see this update, it was a pleasure to read. I'm really looking forward to seeing more.

Also, I think I found an error. It looks like you forgot to remove a word during editing, I'm assuming that common should be deleted:

The guilt of not being able to fend for yourself at all times isn't uncommon common, though as a percentage it crops up more in stallions than mares.

Thank heavens for Pine Breeze, he saved what was otherwise a rather dull chapter.

4786359
4774188
I R TEH BEST EDITER!

4860636
lol, shush Minalkra. You literally found one or two things needing fixing every single paragraph. Sides, you just told me "No one is perfect" three weeks ago in relation to the idea of not being a good editor just because you don't catch everything.

She just shrugged he withers with an apologetic smile.

her

His mom and mother's weren't here so that was a good sign at least.

mothers

Good to see this fic continue (*cough* ignore the fact that it took nearly two months to actually get around to reading this chapter */cough*).

I find my self quite fond of Pine Breeze and his sisters. While I do feel sympathy for him being manipulated, I can't totally fault his sisters for manipulating him, as he does seem to be enough of a simpleton that he would have a difficult time getting on in life without someone to help him along. Of course, the issue becomes how much manipulation is acceptable, and I'm not sure there really is an answer to that.

Is work on the next chapter progressing well?

5393905
I transferred into a University and my community college didn't really adequately prepare me so this whole term I've just been slammed against the wall trying to self learn subjects that are prerequisites for courses I'm currently in. Tomorrow is my last final so I'm going to relax and work on this after that, but ya, just been too stressed and busy to do much of anything the last few months.

Sorry for the wait y'all

Bit of a note on the days of the week: Twilight mentions Thursday in Look Before You Sleep.

Also, if you're referring to a hillock, that's a knoll. A Gnoll is a hyena-like fantasy monster, which would be a rather poor place for tea.

5620391
Heh, I actually meant knoll. It's funny no one caught that before yourself.

As for the days, I tried looking up to see if they had mentioned days at any point and after coming up empty I figured I'd have some fun with it. I'm pretty okay with it as is. *shrug*

At some point, someone should realize the important fact that John's memories, as delusional as they may be, and no matter how cognizant of their delusional nature he may be, are still coloring the way he views the world, and it couldn't possibly be otherwise.

How's the next chapter coming along?

Last Modified: 29th Jul 2014

Current Date: 29th Jul 2015

This is an undesirable state of affairs.

Can we get any news about this?

Can we at least get an explanation for why this was never continued? Even if it's just "I lost interest" it would be better than this continued silence.

7015265
Thing is, I still want to write it, I just hit a hard semester and then went into research over the Summer then got slammed with my senior year and trying to enter into the Masters program at my University. Sorry, I really do plan to pick it back up, I just can't seem to get ahead right now.

7015844
'Tis okay. Real life takes priority, obviously. When it does continue, I'll be there to give it a read.

Just read through this little story here and I gotta say, I like it quite a bit. But then i have to ask, do you still plan on continuing it, particularly any time soon?

I'm really struggling to see any hope of this story ever being completed. At this point, it should probably just be officially cancelled and put to rest.

Hi!
this story is great and set wonderfully in the RGRE (reverse gender role Equestria) universe.
I was surprised how long ago this story was posted but it is quite an endearing read.
I hope in the next chapter there will be an exposition about realizing when you are being manipulated. Even though I thought he would get to live with Twilight and not with a stallion unsure of his own standing.
this house sponsored for displaced ponys... what is this about? Is it for coming of age and going your own way the first time?

Sorry folks, but I must have reread my old chapters some 5 times trying to get back into the mindset for this story but it's escaped me. Truth is, I haven't seen the show past season 2. The wedding episode and conclusion sapped my enthusiasm for the show so it's been really hard for me to try and get back into anything related to this series. I wanted to keep going, especially considering some of you would peek in here and there over the years, but it's just not in the cards seems like.

As such, I've officially canceled this story.

8458670
Nooooo! Ok. Well that sucks. I was hoping for some more social weirdness and how it would play out.

But then again some of the other stories here are still pretty good too...

Do you happen to write anything else? The world details were pretty good in this story.

Occam's Razor is a unique weapon in Fallout 3
I like what you did

Pity you canceled the story - it was really intriguing in the way you built that world.

I have to say your world building is a refreshing take on RGRE stories also, this could be going on in the same time as 'Xenophilia' or elements of the 'Herding Instincts' work to name two.