@PonyPon  
Fluttershy has the patience of a saint, as seen in both ‘Keep Calm and Flutter On’ and ‘The Stare Master.’ Both were great episodes and I would LOVE to see more like them, instead of yet another episode where Fluttershy struggles with insert crippling phobia here.

@SemiJuggao  
I think you’re right.
 
Normally, I think it’s good to get characters out of their comfort zone, but most of Shy’s major happenings are when she gets kicked out of it.

@SemiJuggao  
I just want less gimmicky stuff. In one season, we had Flutterhulk, Flutterbat, Flutterguy, and Breezieshy.

@Itsthinking  
Couldn’t agree more, especially in regards to Fluttershy. Ever since ‘Filli Vanilli,’ I’ve been saying that they need to do more scenarios that actually play towards Fluttershy’s strengths, rather than her weaknesses.

@Background Pony Number 17  
i love your theory…

@Background Pony #4B75  
That kind of makes sense.

In SomE, in my opinion, it wasn’t the hoard that made Spike grow… It was his feeling of greed. So even if he collects things right now like his comic book collection or whatever yet never feels greedy about them, his body won’t change.
 
The first time he grew in SomE, he looked like he was in the same stage that Garble and the other dragons were. Maybe having other dragons around as competition does stifle the dragon growth process.

@Background Pony Number 17  
Makes sense.
 
@SemiJuggao  
He just needs them soon, yes.
 
@SemiJuggao  
Would be a decent idea.

@Background Pony Number 17  
Interesting. That also fits in well with a fan-theory that Celestia originally received Spike’s egg from, none other than SCORPAN!

@Itsthinking  
Agreed. Wings wouldn’t be a bad addition to Spike’s character. He appears to be capable of producing fire breath that’s on par with an adult dragon, considering he melted a gigantic hunk of ice in midair; all that’s missing is another foot of growth.

@Itsthinking  
Time for my crackpot head-canon:
 
Spike is actually an adult dragon. No one realizes it because he’s under the influence of an Age spell.
 
When Celestia obtained Spike as an egg, she cast an Age spell upon it to keep it from hatching. The problem is, Age spells don’t actually stop the aging process, they just put it on hold. Without the Age spell’s effects, Spike would be a full-grown dragon.
 
The two times we’ve seen Spike grow to full size, it happened because the Age spell was cancelled. The first time was when Twilight was tasked to hatch his egg. It was actually a test to see if her power was as strong as Celestia’s. It was, and then some – Celestia had to re-apply the Age spell to dial Spike back to “newly hatched” size.
 
The second time, the spell started to wear off due to Spike’s first experience with greed. Zecora was correct in thinking greed was causing Spike’s growth, but she missed the direct cause – the Age spell was wearing off, and Spike was returning to his “natural” age. When confronted by Rarity and reminded of her appreciation for his generosity, the effect of the greed was stopped, causing the Age spell to kick back in and revert Spike to his baby dragon size.

@SemiJuggao  
Well, like I said, he was collecting comics until the S4 finale happened, though I’m sure there’s some excuse.
 
He’s also growing naturally, he’s a bit taller in some S4 episodes. Now he just needs that goddamn pair of wings already.

@Itsthinking
 
@boz  
I maintain the theory that maintaining a slowly, but steadily-growing hoard is a possible answer to accelerating Spike’s growth.

That said, I’m still holding out hope for SOMETHING covering this in S5. Have one or two less samey/gimmicky episodes for Applejack/Fluttershy respectively and give us info on something they haven’t touched in two years.

@Itsthinking  
I think too that it was strange. With greed he passed from baby to giant in a couple of hours, yet, the teenage dragons exist to prove that there is a way to grow that include a middle phase that last longer.

@bico-kun  
See, the episode was kind of an allegory for not going crazy with repressed feelings, I think he’d have a better handle on it now.
 
I mean, he has (had, I guess) a large comic collection. But I don’t think growing like he did was natural even for dragons. They’d probably have a slowly growing hoard and other dragons around to discourage too much hoarding all at once.

@bico-kun  
Oh, man! You beat me to it!

@Itsthinking  
Well, the thing with SoME, that was years of suppressed dragon instincts, brought to the surface by a single birthday party in Ponyville.

@Itsthinking  
Well, strange to ponies. Zecora seemed to know what was up, so it can’t be that uncommon among dragons. I assume, at the very least, that it’s one way dragons can mature if not the only way. It could be that Spike matured faster than he was supposed to, possible from having his dragon instincts suppressed for so long that he didn’t have time to cope with them in a healthy way.

@SemiJuggao  
That kind of makes sense, collecting things that are important to him.
 
Of course with the Treebrary gone, that ruins it a bit. I personally like to think there’s some other way he can grow. They treated the way he grew in SoME like something strange.

@Itsthinking  
Then Rarity will have to somehow get over the fact that her beloved dragon will always be shorter than her.
 
Not a big problem to me though.

@Itsthinking  
I’d like to think if Spike were to make his own hoard, consisting of treasures he found on his own, rather than stealing, he could actually grow at a steady rate, while maintaining his sense of self.

It does raise a question: what if Spike reaches adult age without growing physically?