There were a lot of questions on his mind. A majority of them were ones that came back with the questioning of Rainbow Dash, but there were some of them that only came around because of her. It just didn't seem natural that somepony would be as helpful, especially if they had caused an accident. Why did she want to take him to her friend? Who was this friend? Hokey Smokes knew a name, but that didn't tell him anything about her. Well, that's not true. She's apparently an egghead. And apparently, she will be able to help me out with the problem of not knowing who I am. All of that leads me to believe... that I'm doomed.

That was likely the wrong conclusion, but oh well. She had, after all, proven that she could be something other than completely rude. And anypony who is a friend of Rainbow Dash can't be that bad of a person. Or are they just like her? Nah, she doesn't seem like an egghead. Or maybe she just thinks her friend is an egghead because she's smarter than Rainbow Dash. Yeah, that might be it. More questions than answers, but Hokey Smokes did his best to simply continue walking with the hopes that all of the problems would have some sort of conclusion.

Almost half an hour later, they stopped walking. Well, she wasn't walking at all. She was... flying. That must be nice to be able too fly in stead of walk. Alright, so where are w- It was around that time that he looked at the building that he had been taken to. It was a tree. Did trees normally have doors? It wasn't something he really wanted to think about, since a lot of things simply seemed to make no sense when it came to the world around him. The only thing that the confused stallion could think to do was look up at his guide.

"Well? What are you waiting for? An invitation?"

"I think I have one of those!" A bizarre pink pony appeared out of a nearby barrel, a smile on her face. It didn't seem to affect Rainbow Dash, but the same couldn't be said of Hokey Smokes. He had been startled, and was actually laying on his back. He had actually jumped into the air, and the landing was the least graceful thing that any of them had seen. It elicited a laugh from the pink one, but that joyous reaction was short-lived.

She looked at him for a moment, then let out a gasp and ran away.

"Well, that was interesting..." Within ten seconds of saying that, Hokey Smokes was back on his feet. The fact that Rainbow Dash didn't seem to be shocked was almost as shocking as what had happened. "What just happened?"

"That's just Pinkie being Pinkie. Come on."

"Are you sure it's alright to just walk in?"

"Well, it is a library."

"In a tree?"

"Where else would it be? In the clouds?"

"In a building..."

"This is a building."

"I give up. Let's just go see this egghead you told me about."

Rainbow Dash could barely hold in her laughter, it seemed, at the fact that somepony else was referring to her friend as such. Or it could have been the fact that the door quickly opened to show a purple pony. The only way that she could be described at that point, aside from direct appearance, would be the expression that was on her face. Rainbow Dash looked amused, the pink one looked happy, and this one looked like she was annoyed. I knew that just walking in would be a bad idea. If this is that Twilight person that Rainbow Dash told me about...

She doesn't look happy to see me.

Instead of saying anything to him, though, she turned to Rainbow Dash. "Oh, hello Rainbow." The annoyed look was replaced by a smile. "Out from the hospital, I see. And your wing looks like it healed nicely." That remark seemed to be the wrong one, as Rainbow Dash proceeded to do a few tricks to show off her healed wings.

"What can I say? I heal quick!"

"That's good." Eyes then moved back to Hokey Smokes. The annoyed look was gone, but she still scared him a little. It was almost as if she was studying him, wanting to know what it was that made him tick. Regardless of what her intention was, it was making him feel as if there was something that he needed to say. Why doesn't Rainbow Dash say anything? This is, by far, the most uncomfortable meeting that I've had. And I met her by getting slammed into a building!

"Oh yeah, this is a guy I ran into... at the hospital."

Of course, Twilight likely got the message. Rainbow Dash had done more than run into him at the hospital. It had been her slamming into him that had caused the problem in the first place. Hokey Smokes couldn't quite figure out what it was that she was thinking, just that it was likely something that would affect the amount of help she was likely to give. "Does this mysterious pony have a name, or should I just call him 'that guy from the hospital'?

"You're going to have a good laugh at this one, Twilight." Another minute, or at least close enough, went by before she said anything again. "This guy's name is Hokey Smokes." All that Twilight did was glance at him, as if wondering if it was true. At the same time, Rainbow Dash started laughing again. It was almost as if she had forgotten the fact that his name was unique. It was his name, though, or at least that was what he went by throughout the past week or so.

"Alright, so now that I know his name... now what?" She turned, then stared at Rainbow Dash. "You normally don't bring random ponies over." A smile went over her face, and then a wink. "This wouldn't happen to be your new coltfriend, would it?"

Both of them, Hokey Smokes and Rainbow Dash, blinked a few times and blushed. That was the strangest question that had been asked. He barely knew her. The only thing he did know was that she was friends with Egghead Sparkle, or Twilight Egghead, or whatever it was that her name actually was.

"That's not it at all!" Rainbow suddenly burst out.

"Then what is it?"

"I thought you could help him."

"With what?"

"Why don't you explain?" Eyes then moved to him, and Hokey Smokes stopped blushing. This was one of those times when he started to rethink what it was that he had been doing.. Had it been a good idea to tell his story to somepony who didn't believe him? Was it a good idea to continue to spread it around? Would she believe him? That was something that he would have to figure out before he said anything. If anything, Hokey Smokes was sure that she would call him crazy and tell him to leave.

She might even accuse him of being a spy!

"Well?" The purple pony continue to look at him, analyzing him as he looked back at her.

"Alright, but you probably won't believe me."

"Try me."

Over the course of the next hour, and still outside, Hokey Smokes tried to explain everything. He told every little detail about what had happened, about what he knew. The details about the dream, which he hadn't told Rainbow Dash, were given. Everything was laid out for her to try to figure out, and potentially help him figure out. The entire time, she just continued to listen. Rainbow Dash even seemed to get caught up in it, especially when there were the added details of the dream.

Did they believe him?

"Interesting story." Twilight turned, and started to walk in. "I think I have a little research to do." Rainbow Dash followed behind, but Hokey Smokes still stood there. He didn't like the idea of walking into somepony's home, not without being invited. It was only when she turned, and motioned for him to follow, that he actually moved from the spot. As long as somepony invited him in, it wasn't the wrong thing to do.

"Spike!"

A small creature walked from the next room, purple and green. Just as before, Hokey Smokes was startled. It had been enough to see ponies, but this was something new. What was he? "Oh come on." Twilight said when she saw the reaction. "Not even Fluttershy is afraid of baby dragons." That last part was said in a way that made Hokey Smokes feel a little ashamed. Who was this Fluttershy? What made her so special as to be the gauge of which being afraid was measured?

"I knew you'd finally get a coltfriend, Twilight! But why did you hide him from me for so long?"

The response that it got, from Twilight, was a glare. It was obvious that she didn't find the joke funny. Hokey Smokes simply blinked a couple of times, wondering why everypony seemed to be heading toward that conclusion. Did he look like coltfriend material? Were they looking for ccoltfriends? Did he care if either of those things were true?

"This is not a joke. I need you to help me find some books about dreams."

Why start with the dream? Come on, I know that means something. Every so often, the logical part of his brain would override the fun. These sorts of things didn't happen without cause, and the cause was obviously something that would help him figure out what he was supposed to do. Until he figured out what he was supposed too do, though, all he could do was wait.

-Hours later-

There was still no information.

"Nothing?" Hokey Smokes asked, hoping that she might have something that she didn't tell him about. There was the subtle feeling that there wasn't anything, however.

"Nothing."

"Well, thanks anyway."

"Oh no, I have one more idea!"

This had turned from something nice to something else. Hokey Smokes could see it in her eyes, this was a challenge. He had become a puzzle for her to solve, which meant that he was going to be solved. Those were the eyes of somepony that was determined to succeed at all costs. "And that idea is?"

Twilight's horn started to glow. It was enough to make Hokey Smokes want to run away. When he started to move, though, he realized he couldn't. Her friend had gotten the message, some message, about how she was supposed to stop him from running. The only thing he could do, given the grasp of the amazingly strong pony, was try to move his head away from her. Her horn touched his head, and then the consciousness quickly left him. Something had happened, but he was hoping that this wasn't exactly what was meant to happen.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash both looked at each other, shocked.

"I thought you'd help him, not knock him out!"

"All I used was a simple memory spell, like when we had to deal with Discord..."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash, who had been shocked by the fact that Hokey Smokes had just passed out, we're both staring down at him. By this time, they had placed him in the guest bed. The two went the only ones who we looking at him. There was also the baby dragon, Spike, looking down at the unconscious pony.

"What did you do, Twilight?" The purple dragon asked, slightly worried that she might have hurt somepony. If she had done something like that, they would likely all deal with the consequences. What would happen if he never woke up? What was it that had caused him to pass out in the first place? Who was he? Twilight hadn't said anything about the mysterious stallion, aside from the fact that he wasn't her coltfriend. Even that hadn't been said, merely implied when he had made the comment about her getting one.

"A memory spell shouldn't do this." Rainbow Dash cut in, stopping her from the explanation.

"But that's what I used..."

All three of them continued to look down at the stallion, who looked as though he wasn't doing all that well. All three of them were wondering what it was that was happening.

~~~~~

Hokey Smokes sat up. His head hurt, and he remembered something happening with a sharp object. Had it been a knife? A hand moved to his head, and five fingers tapped his forehead. Unlike before, however, this time was better. There was no confusion, this was obviously the real world. He was a human being, he was Michael, he was living in a house with a few cats. All of this made perfect sense.

He looked at an orange cat, who was laying next to him.

"Hey Bobby."

Purring was the only response. It wasn't as if he expected the cat to talk. Cats didn't talk, they didn't have the capability. Arms stretched, and he knew it was time for him to get up. A hand grabbed for his phone, and it was almost nine o'clock. First he would have to use the restroom, and then he could head to the library. Eyes scanned the house, still messy, and then he stood up. The cat followed him, and they were soon joined by a calico cat.

That was nice.

Ten minutes later, he had everything ready for him to head out. The only thing he needed was his computer bag. When he picked that up, he started to head to the door. Outside, there were stairs that led to the sidewalk. When he took a step, however, quick tripped and fell toward the sidewalk. It would have hurt, but he sank into it. It was the first time he had sank into something that wasn't liquid. The experience was still painful, though.

And when he stood up, he saw ponies.

There wasn't anything wrong with this, not in his mind. The experience of the past half hour, with the cats and the stairs, wasn't even a memory. Hokey Smokes could remember what had happened before this. He had been playing with his good friend, Candy Apple. They had been on a teeter-totter. She had slammed down, to make it more fun, and then he had actually flown and slammed onto the ground nearby. A teacher rushed over, to make sure that he was alright.

A few minutes after that, there was another pony. That made it three, one of which was his friend, standing near him.

"Why won't he get up?" Hokey Smokes heard in an unfamiliar voice. It looked as though the teacher was the one that said it, but the voice didn't fit. The voice didn't make any sense at all. The other thing that didn't make any sense was that they spoke about him as if he was laying there. Hokey Smokes had stood back up. What they said made absolutely no sense to him, or likely anypony else.

"Do you think he's dead?"

"No, I checked. He has a pulse."

"Then what's wrong with him?"

"I don't know."

All of that was going on without any input from Hokey. He didn't know what to say, didn't know how to make any sense of any of it. A bright flash came next, and he closed his eyes. When he started to open them again, everything changed again. This was the second time when things had suddenly become weird. This time, there were two ponies and a weird creature. Before he panicked, though, he remembered that it was a baby dragon.

"What did you hit me with?" Hokey Smokes felt as if he had been hit in the head with something. It wasn't merely pain from the spell, which was painless, but something else. Now that he was awake, everything hit him at once. There were two things that had happened, both of them disagreed with the other. Only one of them could be true, which meant that the other had to be fake.

Which one was which?

"Nothing. I used a spell on you to help you out."

"With?"

'Well, logically you should have seen something from your past. Did you?" The purple pony wasn't the only one who looked hopeful. There was also a hopeful glance from Rainbow Dash. Both of them wanted to hear what was going to be said by him.

"It started off with me in a bed. I had a headache, and I put my hand on my head. I got up, started to walk to the library-" Hokey Smokes was interrupted by Rainbow Dash, who had looked as though she was completely bored. It must have seemed strange to hear somebody tell about a memory that wasn't exactly the most exciting one ever. Was it a memory? That was something that he didn't think was a memory, but she had said it was.

"Get to the part where it helped you out!"

"The only difference was that I had... fingers. I didn't have hooves. And I walked on two legs, not fo-"

"Wait, what?" This time, Twilight interrupted. It seemed as though he wasn't going to be able to get through his entire story. There had been one interruption from one, another from the other. "I don't even know what you mean. There are very few animals in Equestria that walk on two legs. And you're obviously not one of them. That is scientifically impossible! Your memory is scientifically impossible!"

"Let him continue, Twilight." The dragon spoke up, wanting to get this whole thing over with. "Maybe he'll explain himself."

"And then I started walking down the stairs, tripped, and found myself looking at my friend Candy Apple." Hokey Smokes continued, and then he glanced over at the wall. "After I felt myself... sink into the sidewalk." That was the least believable part, or at least he thought it was. This wasn't the part that got the disbelief, or at least it wasn't shown by any of the individuals in the room. "And then I woke up in a bed. I don't even know how I got here."

"We couldn't just let you lay on the floor. That would have been a bad idea. Imagine if somepony just came walking in, they might have thought you were dead!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, not being the type that hid her thoughts all that well. Twilight looked up at her, then back down at the confused stallion. None of this made any sense to any of them, especially not him.

"That doesn't even make any sense." Twilight started in, and then she put her hoof on her chin. Another few minutes passed, and she seemed to get an idea. "What if I tried that again?"

"No, no, no. That's a bad idea." Hokey Smokes didn't want to deal with the headache. It hadn't worked the first time, and it certainly wouldn't work this time. It didn't make any sense to try the same thing a second time. Without any warning, she moved to try again. Hokey Smokes pushed her away, and quickly bucked at Rainbow Dash. He wasn't going to get grabbed this time.

As quickly as he could, Hokey Smokes jumped through the nearby window. It didn't hurt as much as he assumed it would, but the glass did cut him. He didn't turn to see it, but the expressions of all three of them were of complete shock. He was able to move with a speed that he didn't know he had, and ten minutes later he was four miles away. The day had proven to be something that he wished he could take back, it had proven to be horrible.

Whatever she had done, it was horrible.

Hokey Smokes waited a couple of hours, sneaking back into town to get a quill to write down in his journal with. That was the only thing that made any sense. At the very least, he was able to use it to collect his thoughts.

Dear Journal,

I me Egghead Sparkle today. She was nice, but now I'm even more confused than ever. All I know is that I am a pony, or I might not be. I might have hooves or I might have hands. This might be a dream, or this might be real life. I might be here for a while, or I might leave soon.

The one thing that I am sure of is that horns are bad news.

Hokey Smokes.

The rest of the day was boring. There was nothing special, aside the from fact that he was trying to figure out where it was that he should go. The sun was starting to set, which meant that the entire day had somehow been spent. That didn't make any sense to him, as he could have sworn that he had been let out of the hospital that morning. It took a few minutes before it hit him where the day had gone. Hokey Smokes had gone to see Twilight Sparkle, the egghead friend of Rainbow Dash. She had asked him questions, done some research, and then she did something weird with her horn. Whatever she had done had knocked him out for an unknown number of hours.

And now he was outside of town, laying in the grass.

-Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Spike-

"What do you think I did?" The purple unicorn asked. She had concerned look on her face, as if she was worried that she had done something. Her friends, both Spike and Rainbow Dash, just stared at her and then the broken window. Neither of them knew exactly what it was that they should say, if the should even say anything at all. Finally, the dragon moved to start cleaning up the pieces of glass that we're near the bed.

"You didn't do anything. That sure was one weird pony, though." He chimed in, quickly cleaning up what remained of glass. "Well, I mean you did scare him. How? Beats me."

"Rainbow Dash?" Her eyes moved to her blue friend, who was hovering over the bed. Whatever had happened, there had to be something done to fix it. There was no way that the confused pony wold know where it was that he needed to go. In the end, she felt as though she didn't do anything to help the poor stallion out. Her efforts had only led to his retreat. That wasn't what she meant to do at all.

"Yes, Twilight?"

"I want you to find him tomorrow. He'll be alright for the night."

"Are you sure you want her to find him? He seemed... weird." Spike interjected, and the only response was a glare from the two ponies.

"Remember Zecura? We all thought that she was weird, and she turned out to be alright." Twilight was rut, and Spike knew it. There was just something about this pony, whoever he was, that didn't sit right with the baby dragon. He didn't know what it was, but he knew that something wasn't right. The only thing he did know for sure, if anything about the stallion was certain, it was that he would have to be watched carefully. Spike wasn't going to allow anything to happen to his family.

-Back to Hokey Smokes-

Contrary to their beliefs, Hokey Smokes didn't have any clue where to go. He was still poor, though he knew what the currency was, and he was homeless. It wasn't as if he had relatives, or that he knew them. There was one friend's name in his mind, but that was questionable. Well, two friends. Bobby and Candy Apple. One is a cat, the other is a pony. Even if he did have a name, a name of a friend, that didn't mean she was actually more than a dream.

It was going to be a long night of sleeping outside, it seemed. Hokey Smokes was starting to be used to it, as there wasn't anywhere else for him to go. Another night wouldn't hurt too badly, and so he soon found himself searching for the most comfortable place outside. That was actually more difficult than he thought, and he soon found himself at a place that looked as though it was right outside the forest. The was a cottage within eyesight, and a nice stream for him to get some water from. Everything was perfect, and soon he was asleep.

First, though, he got a drink.

The night was uneventful, with Hokey Smokes having that same dream from before. It was the dream that Egghead Sparkle had forced onto him. Half of it was in a world with humans, the second half had nothing to do with them. He had friends in both, even if it was only cats in one of them. It was still confusing, however, and left him tossing and turning throw out the night. At least he wasn't going to be woken up by anything bad, though.

Then came the feeling that he was being kicked.

Eyes opened up to see a white rabbit staring into his eyes. Was he being assaulted by a bunny? That didn't make any sense. Rabbits were normally a timid bunch that didn't attack. The thing that caused him to wake up the rest of the way, however, was the single word that was yelled from the nearby house.

"Angel!"

Had he intruded on somepony's property? He had worked hard to make sure that didn't happen, but it had. Was he going to get beat down? The voice sounded nice enough, but that didn't mean anything. The horn had looked pleasant enough, but it had been something that caused him a lot of pain. Hokey Mokes wasn't going to take any risks, he wasn't going to get beat down by whatever it was that had that voice. Hooves moved up, grabbed the rabbit, and gently tossed him away. The voice was heard again, yelling the same name.

Hokey Smokes ran.

Ten minutes passed before he knew it, before he stopped to catch his breath. Hokey Smokes had actually gone further than he thought possible, a whole five miles of panicked run. He hadn't even turned to see the timid looking pegasus that had stepped out to try to collect her pet rabbit. If he had, he would have seen a yellow pony with a pink mane. She didn't look like a threat, but he didn't know that. He had ran before she could even show up.

Slam!

Once again, Hokey Smokes was staring at a rainbow mane. It seemed as if he was destined to meet her like this, the most painful way imaginable. The only difference was that, with this time, he wasn't going to the hospital. There was also the fact that he was conscious, that was something new. Perhaps the least important, to him at least, fact was that he had run into her. "Sorry. Gotta go!" He didn't say another word, but he quickly started running away from her.

She might take him to her friend.

Hokey Smokes turned to see that she was following him, and quickly catching up. It might have been the wings, or her speed, but something was giving him a disadvantage. The only thing that helped him out was when he looked forward to see forest. He was going to head into the forest, and she was going to have a hard time following him. What would he actually do in the forest? He wasn't sure, he might just stay there for a while and hope they forgot about him.

Unknown to him, he was planning on staying in the Everfree Forest.