Spike has known Rarity for two years* and in all that time she has never returned his feelings in the same way. Dragons are resilient creatures though and he wasn't going to give up too easily.

But it doesn't matter how thick your scales are, at some point they break...and then what happens?

Cover image, and part inspiration, was "Desparity" by DM29

*Note - I know there have been four series, but we've only seen one set of annual events (Hearths warming, WWU, NMN, GGG, SSC, Birthdays etc) so i think time is slower.