So, this is going to suck

The other night, I had a hankering for some Twilight-Spike stories, so I ran through my favorites and placing a few in my read later list. I noticed that some stories hadn't been updated for awhile, and so I decided to see how those authors were doing.

One had been gone for thirty eight weeks, and the comments on their front page were declaring them dead. Another had written a short blog post I never got in my notifications since tagged story blog posts weren't a thing that simply stated they lost interest in the show entirely. Finally, it has been about ten weeks since we've last seen Patchwork-Inkplot, what hope I have of her return dwindles.

Authors come and go. Some stories will never receive the end they deserve. And as much as we joke about George Martin dying before concluding his series, that is a tragic possibility that could happen to any creator and any work. It depresses me that I'll never get to see the finish of The Jewellery Box, but what upsets me more is how I'm never going to wrap up Ash's adventures in Equestria.

Yes, that is right, I am retiring The Second Revival. It's so far from the canon I'd have to add an alternative universe tag, and I'm sorry to say I've lost interest. To the twenty odd of you that faved this early mess of a fic, I apologize and thank you for your support. Without it, I don't think I could have become the writer I am today. Knowing that other people enjoyed reading my stuff is what drove me to improving, what pushed into writing A Hoard of Memories, Temporary Hiatus, and Patience, She Said.

Writing The Second Revival also taught me a lot. Writing is a like a road trip; knowing where you are and where you're headed is great and all, but you need to know how you're going to get there. This means planning, else you end up with a half written story, trying to figure out how to connect all the major events you have thought up, which was one of problems I had with Ash's story and a problem I'm still dealing with.

Well I fell it only fair to lay out what I had planned for The Revival. Maybe one of you out there might find something out of it. One man's trash is another man's treasure:

This was supposed to be a trilogy, with the first story being Ash's exposure to Equestria, the second being Ash's adventures in Ponyville with a slice of life element, and the third was to be a darker story in which Ash and the mane 6 return to Ash's world.

In The Second Revival, Ash was supposed to take care of Sweetie Belle for the day. She ends up pestering him into teaching her magic, especially the gem finding spell a Rarity uses. While exploring a cave, they end up trapped with a bunch of diamond dogs and some black magic crystals that disrupt Ash's disguise, turning him back into human. I had planned to imply that those crystals were both part of King Sombra and of the sword of the Dark One. There was going to be a joke where Ash covers Sweetie Belle's mouth with his hand, and Sweetie Belle marvels what it is. Ash ends up blurting out that it's a hand and convinces her that only males have them.

There was going to be a Hearts and Hooves Day chapter that followed mainly Spike and his plan ask Rarity to be his very special somepony while in the background, Ash is planning the same thing with Fluttershy. Spike loses his nerve, however, and returns home with a fist full of roses. He finds Ash on the door step with a half-empty box of chocolates and learns that Ash chickened out as well. Ash gives the rest of the chocolates to Spike and simply says, "Maybe next year" in a defeatist manner.

The FluttershyXAsh was planned to never leave the awkward stage, with the two of them being so shy, and Ash questioning whether he was just trying to replace Matilda.

The Second Revival was to end with Ash finally asking Fluttershy to dance at the Grand Galloping Gala. The dance is interrupt when Celestia asks him and the rest of the mane 6 to accompany her to the garden. The story would have continued in the third book.

The third book continues where the second left off, with Celestia taking everyone to Discord's statue. Ash reacts violently, his disguise disappears and suddenly he and the mane 6 vanish and reappear in Ash's world. The reasoning had to do with the remaining shard of the Dark One's blade trapped in Ash's chest reacting to Discord's presence.

How Ash figures out where they are is by recognizing the forest they're in, which were right outside the castle he lived at. He confirms it by digging up a time capsule he buried with Ramth but is disturbed by how little decay the box experienced.

They encounter more humans but aren't sure if they're friendly. Ash hails them and gets an arrow to the shoulder for it. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack rush out to engage them. Ash panics and tell Twilight to stop them. Due next scene and all the humans are tied up and beaten. Ash ends up recognizing one of them, a young girl he and his party had saved on their quest that's now nearing middle age. He learns that while he was stuck in Equestria for thousands of years, only about fifty have passed here.

Ash and the mane 6 learn that the Dark One's destroyed several major cities with magic but has been mysteriously content with letting the roaming hoards of monsters finish everyone off.

They were supposed to go to the headquarters of the resistance where Pinkie Pie finds a hanged body of a criminal and calls it a piñata.

The Archmage is actually one of the Archmage's apprentices and Ash's old rival, Geo, disguised with illusions. The real Archmage disappeared years ago, and Geo's been using the original Archmage's image to keep moral up.

Ash, pressured by both the ponies and Geo, reluctant agrees to let the mane 6 help with the resistance, as long as they continue to research a way to get the ponies back to Equestria. They find the Archmage's personal journal which is written in Equestrian.

The ponies bond with their bodyguards, which would die or get hurt over the course of the story. Fluttershy would convince hers not to kill a giant spider, only for the monster to attack and poison her guard, leading to a loss of his arm. Applejack would continually tell her guard he'd be alright when he asked even though it was clear that he had already lost too much blood. Rainbow Dash would trip to pull her guard out from under a monster, and ends up tearing him in half. Rarity's guard loves his hat and takes a cannon ball to the face.

Ash discovers that the Archmage was actually three mages that were sacrificed in order to create a more powerful magic user. Ash ends up depressed, figuring that as a "candidate" for the Archmage successor, he was probably just another sacrifice to create the next Archmage. Geo learns of this as well but decides to use it for his own gain, draining an entire village to strengthen his own magic.

Ash manages to defeat Geo only after Twilight distracts him. Rainbow Dash tries to give him a high five, only to knock his entire arm off. The rest of Ash's body crumbles into dust.

They discover a spell to return home in the journal but decide to stay and help.

The resistance decides to try recruiting the elves. They find dragons instead, led by a much older Spike whom, with the help of Trixie, Sweetie Belle, and Cadence, transported him into this world against Celestia's wishes. He ended up several years earlier than when the ponies landed and had to accept his greed growth which helped him establish dominance over the dragons here.

Ramth appears while the resistance prepares to strike the Dark One's stronghold. Spike manages to drive him away but not before becoming severely injured. Twilight sleeps next to him that night, making him promise to stay with her. He agrees and gets her to remind him of Ponyville. Spike succumbs to his wounds and dies in his sleep.

Ash returns in a new body, a la Gandalf the White style. There's a flashback, in which the Archmage appears (like in the King's Cross chapter of the Deathly Hollows) and explains that the original spell in Ash found in the Archmage's journal was originally supposed to make him into an alicorn, and it is hinted that the Archmage was Starswirl the Bearded.

The Dark One enters the battle. The ponies manage to seal him by becoming manifestations of the Elements of Harmony. However, there's already too much damage done to the world, which begins to break apart, and already, the Dark One's beginning to reawaken. Ash sends the mane 6 back to Equestria, just a few seconds after they had originally disappeared, and manages to hold the Dark One back. Celestia, Luna, and Spike watch in confusion as the Bearer mourn.

Years later, Spike gets a mysterious letter written in the form a friendship report.