Alright, so I've had a story under my belt that I've kept onto for at least a year, but never was able to finish. It's a psychological thriller, but has a comedic edge to it that jabs against cliches in most bad HiE stories.

The premise is that somebody named Gene Erics becomes disillusioned by the world he lives in after the death of his parents, his disemployment, and the death of his girlfriend by an explosion (which he witnesses). Eventually, he manages to find a way to use self-hypnosis on himself to send him to a better world, which (you guessed it) sends him to Equestria.

He wakes up as a unicorn, and although initially shocked, manages to adapt to pony life and believes it to be paradise compared to his home world. Naming himself "Cookie Cutter", he befriends the mane 6 and also starts to form a relationship with Lyra Heartstrings.

However, a few months in, he begins to experience hallucinations and other strange encounters that although unsettling, he tries to ignore given that it's all a dream. But as they persist, he begins to question whether or not Equestria is the dream, or his life as Gene Erics.

Eventually, he finally seeks psychiatric help, at which point he's reminded of an explosion that took place in about two months ago, a few weeks after he became a pony. It turns out the building was an institute for the criminally insane, and he just might be Blue Velvet - an inmate at the asylum whose fate after the fire was left unknown.

From that point, I have no idea what to do. I know what the final twist is, but how the story gets there is beyond me.

Basically, it turns out that Equestria truly was the real world in the story, but he wasn't Blue Velvet. He was actually her doctor at the asylum. While under his care, Velvet managed to appeal to his lonely, depressed nature, and managed to trick him into thinking she loved him, even though she saw little more than a trump card. She manipulated him into rigging the explosion so that they could elope, which he'd consented to.

However, rather than follow him, she faked her death inside so that he would think she was killed, thus allowing her to escape without a hitch. Overwhelmed by grief, yet unable to end his misery, he resorted to self-hypnosis that would erase his memories of his life, while also creating a world that would make Equestria paradise in comparison.

Which for a while worked, until he met her again. Unknowing of her true identity, she fell in love again, thus causing the mental facade to shatter.

I'd also like a lot of ways to create his character…I want to enforce him as a stereotype, while also tolerable to read for a couple thousand words.

Any ideas?

3303719 Your idea reminds me of this:

It was one of my favorite episodes in Buffy.