Okay I guess

 
A straight answer from the man himself.

My main gripe is that Spike isn’t a lizard pet, and I’m not sure if the diamond dog trio and Gilda are humans in this show, but if they are, they should be dogs and a bird like species, respectively.

@Scrounge  
You weren’t serious then? I see.
 
Neither of those is anyone treating him as less than equal though. Twilight absolutely cares about him deeply, and like I said, he’s like family to her. There are a lot of positive things that can be said about Twilight and Spike’s relationship.
 
As for Rarity, I can understand the argument that Rarity may exploit him at times, but I don’t think she exactly realizes the problem, as she’s certainly not a bad person . She does genuinely care about Spike too, and she definitely appreciates him, that should be obvious.
 
There are some things that Rarity does, not just with Spike mind you, sometimes other characters too, that I’m definitely not a fan of, but yeah, I wouldn’t say that she fully realizes that those things can be seen as exploitative and such, because there’s no way she’d knowingly use her friends like that. I think she’s gotten a lot better about it over the seasons though.
 
But yeah, nobody is treating Spike as less than an equal. I can definitely see some pretty valid criticisms of Rarity’s actions towards him in certain situations, but that doesn’t somehow amount to treating him as less than an equal, and with her and all the others, it’s totally clear they do genuinely and deeply care about him, and that they’re good friends with him, and so on. And with Rarity, it’s worth mentioning that there have been a number of more touching moments with her and Spike in the show too, such as the end of Secret of my Excess for example.
 
Anyway, could say more, there’s a lot more to consider honestly, but discussing this stuff about Rarity in particular is pretty complicated and I haven’t put enough thought into a lot of the factors, so I’m honestly not entirely sure what is and isn’t appropriate to say here, among other issues. Even this post took me a while to make because I wasn’t really sure how to word the stuff about Rarity, and I’m still not satisfied with the post, but I can’t exactly sit here staring at it all day. Either way, I think a lot of this stuff the writers could have simply straight up done a better job with, honestly.

My only concern so far is the >implied shoehorning of Scitwi into Equtwi’s position at the expense of Sunset. Don’t get me wrong, as I believe they work well together given their different characterisations, but feel that they shouldn’t raise Scitwi up at the expense of Sunset Shimmer.

@Scrounge  

 
GENEROSITY! YOU ARE THE KEY!

@Background Pony #C36B  

 
I think you may have overestimated my seriousness.
 
That said, at least two ponies do often treat him as less than an equal, and sadly it’s the two he cares about most. Twilight has this problem with taking him for granted sometimes, though she at least tries not to. Rarity, on the other hand, has repeatedly chosen to exploit his crush on her any time she wants something, often solely for the sake of personal gain; this is much harder to defend, and quite frankly should be beneath her.
 
As for his bed, it is visually evocative of a doggy bed, but I blame the animators rather than anypony in-universe. And as for a new bed?
 

 
If I were Spike, I wouldn’t be able to sleep in my old one after a wake-up call like that.

Staright is sad? That’s good.  
I love Starlight but she is cutest when she’s sad. Therefore, we need to make her more sad.  
The old ‘doing hurtful things to your waifu’ meme is perfect for Starlight. Glimmerbuse is also perfect.

This drama made Roman Reigns Strong

like i said, Drama!

@Background Pony #3178  
All things considered, I think all ten are main characters for a variety of reasons, and I don’t necessarily think that somehow dilutes things as long as the show can provide all of them with adequate focus, so we’re going to have to agree to disagree about the CMC.
 
Regardless though, I came here to argue about Spike, and rather than extending the conversation further with arguing about the CMC, I’m just gonna say that Spike definitely is, there’s no arguing against that; it most definitely is an inarguable truth that he’s a main character and belongs in the Mane 7. Of that much I’m certain. I’ve already posted here a lot going over this stuff though, so yeah.
 
@Psyga315  
I see.

@thatguy  
The sales didn’t do as good as previous years in 2015. However the new line of minis has been selling pretty good according to Hasbro. Even so EqG still makes them money, no real reason to end it.

@thatguy  
I’d hazard that’s because the most recent line was several months ago and the new line hasn’t yet been released. :T

@Background Pony #C36B  
Episodes that heavily focused on the characters.

@Itsthinking  
I’d say that is even more of an incentive for them to keep pumping out Equestria Girls media and toy lines. Major corporations are all about destroying the competition.

@SuppliedRelic  
Not an accomplishment given how poorly Mattel is doing.

@thatguy  
Declining sales do not mean that the franchise is coming to an end. It is extremely likely that Equestria Girls is significantly outselling Monster High, the competition.

@thps48
 
The last I heard of anything sales related to the EqG franchise this year is that its sales were declining.

@Background Pony #C36B  
I’ll agree about the Main 7 designation being about more than screentime, and I like using that term to refer to the Mane 6 + Spike myself, but I think it’s useful to remember that, even though he’s had about as many episodes as a/the focus character as some of the Mane 6, Spike still hasn’t had the amount of raw screentime that they’ve had. If he’d continued playing as big a role in the show as he had played during seasons 3 and 4 (hm, who was the showrunner during that time?), he’d undoubtedly count as a main character; as it stands, he’s more-or-less a main character, but it’s not an inarguable truth.
 
The CMC, in my opinion, are definitely supporting characters. Partly because saying there’s 10 main characters in a series sorta dilutes the meaning of “main character”, and partly because there’s a clear line between how much the CMC are featured and how much the Main 7 are featured.

@thatguy  
Yes, the EG sub-series is drastically outselling its competition and thus will be discontinued for no real reason. XD

@Background Pony #43B4
 
This movie might be the last time Sunset is ever seen in anything official. It’s really not something to make a big deal out of unless something new is announced after this.

@Background Pony #3178  
I don’t think the whole ‘Mane x number’ thing was ever a specific measure of screentime. Spike absolutely should be included. He’s been there from the start and is part of the gang, he’s played a big role in many episodes and has many of his own, and so on. It’s not a stretch at all.
 
Spike is absolutely part of the Mane 7. I don’t think the specific amount of screentime matters all that much. He’s still a main character, he’s been there from the start, and he’s part of the gang.
 
You could argue that the CMC could also fit in that too (there are definitely some things that need to be considered though, but I don’t really want to extend the post in that direction and I don’t really know how to word it anyway), but it seems people prefer to refer to them as the CMC rather than binding it all into into ‘Mane 10’. Maybe because it just doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well, dunno, but either way, the CMC are obviously also very close to the other main characters, especially the obvious like Apple Bloom to Applejack, Scootaloo to Rainbow Dash, and Sweetie Belle to Rarity.
 
Eh, you get the idea, I hope. Already tired, hopefully can take a break now.
 
@Background Pony #3178  
Mmm. So Spike and Rarity are pretty even in the number of episodes where they are a main character, eh?

@Background Pony #C36B  
If you click on the image of the chart, it takes you to where it was uploaded to Derpibooru; that page’s source link is the spreadsheet he used to create the chart. Basically, it’s counting “number of episodes in which X was a/the main character”.

@Background Pony #5B1D  
It matters because Sunset got branded a main character before starlight. I don’t believe starlight has been officially admitted as a main character. Maybe she will have a similar role as discord