😡

@albert19  
Yeah…That does blow a hole in the theory…I just came to that conclusion, because she seemed at every step, trying to make him feel welcome and important. (Sending guards and whatnot to help him about and pamper him. Wanting to spend some time with him.)
 
But hey, if the writers want to leave Spike’s baby days and stuff a mystery….I try to think of something happy for him myself.

@Evowizard25  
Cadance raising Spike?? 0_o Hmmm… intriguing… The only downside is the fact that Spike doesn’t show Cadance any affection, especially in the Equestria Games.

@Background Pony #6B45  
I believe that stuff happens to Spike, partly because Spike is so durable. He’s an Earth dragon {given his lack of wings}. He even let himself become a pincussion, because he said he didn’t feel a thing because of his thick hide. Most, if not all that stuff, barely did anything to him.
 
(Though, if I had to say, I think Applejack has been just as loving, if not more so, than Twilight.
 
Which doesn’t mean Twilight doesn’t care for him, but he’s pretty much her little brother. Brothers and sisters sometimes get into confrontations, which now and again get physical. Neither try and really harm each other, however. )
 
And even though we’ve only had one episode of these two, Cadance seemed to treat him highly and wanted to make him feel important…
 
Which makes me wonder.  
Did Cadance raise him? She foalsitted Twilight and Twilight and Spike have a history, but Twilight couldn’t have raised him since she was but a child.
 
And since the show doesn’t want us to think Celestia is his mother. (Even though Faust wanted that to happen and would have added more depth to her character…The show really doesn’t want to give Celestia really any depth and care.) We can assume that Spike was most likely cared for by someone else.
 
It could have either been nannies or Cadance. (I’d like to think she did.)

@TheFriendlyElephant  
In “It’s About Time” she uses her magic to fling him against the wall when he’s tickling her. In “The Cutie Pox” she praises him one second for finding a reference to help Apple Bloom, and then when he makes a little joke she bucks him off of her. Also, in “The Crystal Empire” she picks him up, holds him for a second, and then drops him to the ground, and in “Princess Twilight” she teleports to save herself and leaves him to crash into the library.
 
All of that being said, is Twilight a child abusing monster? No, of course not. She is also the character who has hugged him the most, and she has been the one who has tried to comfort him in some of his darkest moments… just like he’s been there for her at her worst times.
 
The writers have designated Spike as “the punching bag” of the series (Applejack hit him too, in “Twilight’s Kingdom”) and since Spike spends most of his time with Twilight, he’s the one who gets it the most from her.
 
Most fans brush it off, but I can’t help but think of it as one of Twilight’s greatest character faults… a sort of bipolar blindness where she goes from hugging him to be awful to him. We’ve never seen her tell Spike she loves him, like she did to the girls at the end of season three, and while he takes it well (a lost opportunity by the writers, again) there’s no realistic way that wouldn’t be hard on a kid.

@Background Pony #6B45  
Thank you!  
I’m pretty sure Twilight loves Spike as much as he does to her.  
But did she deliberately throw him against the wall or toss him off her back?  
Or is that just from the writers? Where he’s always for some reason the butt of the joke?
 
I sort of feel bad for him now that you mentioned he is treated more like a labor force. But again he never seems to mind anything about the situation……well, actually he has a few times.  
I guess it all just depends on how he is written in the show. The writers should really give him more respect.

In other news, cute image of Spike and Cadence. I’d love to see Spike have someone he can show affection like this towards again—and who would give it to him. Poor kid.

>And I don’t remember Twilight ever going as far as hitting or making fun of him.
 
“Hurricane Fluttershy”. She also throws him against a wall in “It’s About Time” and tosses him off her back in “The Cutie Pox.”
 
>He was always her assistant, ever since the pilot episode.
 
That’s half the problem… Spike is still a kid, and Twilight is supposedly an adult. She has a responsibility to treat him as more than a labor force, she’s supposed to be his guardian. That’s one test she’s failing.

@albert19  
I’ve seen every episode. And I don’t remember Twilight ever going as far as hitting or making fun of him. She would never do that.  
She has scowled him from time to time when he would do something that he wasn’t supposed to, but that would be it.  
Yes he does make some meals every so often but because he wanted to. Like that gem stone cake back in Season 3 and that pile of nachos in season 4.  
And he seems to take care of everything all the time because he wants to always be the best #1 assistant to Twilight. He was always her assistant, ever since the pilot episode.

@TheFriendlyElephant  
… Wow. Do you watch the show? She hits him, makes fun of him, and makes him cook, in fact, Spike takes care of Twilight.

@albert19  
How is Twilight a horrible care-taker to Spike?

Aunt and Nephew?! Twilight is a horrible mother and I demand the immediate removal of Spike from her custody – give him to me.