It's a sunny afternoon, and all of the girls have managed to gather for a picnic on a hill.

Each has drifted in their own way; life has called them somewhere else.

Twilight Sparkle struggles to bring them back together: to make those giddy times return.

You have to learn how to say goodbye in life. Goodbye to friends and farewell to family.

But, sometimes, there's the odd few that will always be with you.

That DOES IT! Spike has had enough. He won't deal with Twilight anymore. Not when she can get so mean and yell so loud. He'll go off somewhere else. Somewhere where he can be alone. Curled beneath a hill, he hears a gentle voice calling.

The weak Princess sits on her throne. Guards—and a dragon—keep monsters behind the door. The Elements concentrate on a spell. Fewer guards return in each instance.

And more of Spike is eaten by non-existence.

Spike has always, maybe, sorta KINDA had a crush on Fluttershy. Only, he doesn't believe he's dragon enough to deserve her. When Twilight (accidentally) transforms him into a ferret, he's left in Fluttershy's care.

Can he become more than a pet?

Twilight stumbles home and to the scene of a murder. Spike stands before a corpse. When she asks him what happened, all he can ask her is: "What do you mean?"

Spike falls through a void that opens at his feet; none of the girls care that he is falling through the world.

And he'll have peace once he has fallen to the bottom of the abyss.

Spike is drunk. Twilight is high. Rainbow is sober. This sort of trio has never happened before.

And it's up to the sober to get the others home.

After learning how to drink, you do a bit too much of it, for you mostly do it alone.

Pain built from guilt is reduced by punishment.

There are many ways to deal with the pain from the punishment that comes from a drink. One can squeeze their eyes and clench their claws and shake through the shudders of alcoholic intensity. Or one exhales the punishment as it comes up, concentrating it out.

And that trick applies to more than just drinking.

You see a message sent ten minutes ago from someone who has not been online for the last ten months.

You are Spike, and that message is from Rarity.

This story is a sequel to Please Love Me?

Decades change within a blink. The banishment of a sister, the loss of a student, has caused Princess Celestia to be distant when it comes to family. However, a baby dragon burns through her defence... but her past failures cause her to let go.