Unpopular opinion time

Brass Beau

Howdy from Shimmer Pope
@Latecomer  
Sounds like Twilight doesn’t know how to treat him or what her relationship is supposed to be to him. That’s both believable for Twilight and concerning for Spike’s well-being.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

@Background Pony #6071
 
And when she has two living parents, an older brother in his teenage years, and Celestia, there’s nothing fair whatsoever about Twilight being the primary caretaker of Spike from the get-go. The former four (especially the adults) can’t look anything but bad if they pressured her to do this as a freshly cutie marked kid, or even a teenager. Sure, she certainly became his caretaker when she moved out on her own before S1, as a high-school/college graduate, and they were quite close, but still.
 
It’s a shame we didn’t get more with Shining Armor and Spike; he could’ve been one to influence him on his desire to be a “knight in shining armor” at some stage of his life (specifically, one example is in A Dog and Pony Show). …it’s a shame we didn’t get more Shining Armor and Cadance in general, because the crumbs we did get were interesting enough.
 
@Myoozik
 
Not sure I’d want to know, but curiosity is such a damned thing that I probably wouldn’t say no to learning it.
Background Pony #6071
@Brass Beau  
Which Is why I chose to believe Twi’s parents just adopted him. Saves me from the fridge horror that equestria’s adults are crazy enough to let pre FiM Twilight raise a baby. Them again, given that IDW comic, I’m left to wonder.
Latecomer

@Brass Beau  
Some old fics toyed with this.
 
 
@Background Pony #6071  
Show trumps comic, and the beginning of Sparkle’s Seven shows him living in the family home in infancy. (Which also debunks the common fanon that Twilight left her family and moved to the palace after becoming Celestia’s student.)
asdtroi
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).

Twilight being a big sister who takes care of Spike makes more sense in the context of the show. Then again, Spike did say that she raised her…
 
I think there should have been more episodes exploring their relationship.
Brass Beau

Howdy from Shimmer Pope
@asdtroi  
Or at least defining what they thought their relationship was. Maybe Spike thinks of her as a mother but she sees him as a sibling. How would those views clash? Is she lenient towards him since she doesn’t see herself as responsible for him? Does Spike interpret that as a sign of trust? Does he stick so closely to her out of respect for that trust? Am I over thinking this?
 

 
Okay, pretty sure I can answer that last one.
DoctorWTF
Non-Fungible Trixie -

@Brass Beau
Which Is why I chose to believe Twi’s parents just adopted him. Saves me from the fridge horror that equestria’s adults are crazy enough to let pre FiM Twilight raise a baby. Them again, given that IDW comic, I’m left to wonder.
 
It’s possible that right after the comic ended, Twilight’s parents and Celestia realized how utterly screwed up Twilight’s situation was, and scaled back her babysitting hours to something more reasonable for someone her age. Though it’s also fairly likely that the need to recover her grades would have left Twilight laser-focused on her studies - still exacerbating the problem that Celestia thought she was helping to solve. For all the criticism levied against Celestia’s leadership over the series, that’s on a whole new level.
 
[Comic Book Guy voice] Worst. Friendship lesson. Ever. [/Comic Book Guy voice]
Brass Beau

Howdy from Shimmer Pope
One idea from the “mama Twilight” collective headcanon I like is that Spike’s flames are magically infused due to Twilight’s influence from hatching him.
AC97
Lunar Supporter - Helped forge New Lunar Republic's freedom in the face of the Solar Empire's oppressive tyrannical regime (April Fools 2023).
Non-Fungible Trixie -
My Little Pony - 1992 Edition

@Brass Beau
 
 
(it may have been a fantasy, but that was the first time we saw Ember’s fire, and it turned out later to actually be pink, and she is a good judge of Starlight’s abilities)  
 
If the fact that dragons seem to have color-coded magical fire to begin with is any indication (probably not a natural consequence of mundane fire, to cause explosions), I don’t think she introduced magic into him where none should have been. However, with the nature of his birth, being magically hatched and grown to a giant right off the bat by Twilight, perhaps it influenced his potential into being more potent than it would’ve normally been.
 
if it’s annoying to use smol thumbnails tell me
DoctorWTF
Non-Fungible Trixie -

And speaking of Spike and Twilight, here’s another thing that’s been on my mind for a while: “Dragon Quest” established that ponies at the time knew next to nothing about dragons. So how, then, did they know that Spike’s egg was ready to hatch? How did they know that Twilight would end up with a cute and marketable baby dragon as opposed to a dragon abortion?
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