Spike

Spike is a purple and green baby dragon. He is Twilight Sparkle's best friend and number one assistant, and one of the main characters of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. He has an ability to magically deliver scrolls to and from Princess Celestia with his green fire-breath, which is featured in many episodes, as is his crush on Rarity.

Development
Spike's appearance is based on his Generation 1 incarnation more than his Generation 3 version, with a few modifications done by Lauren Faust. In G1, he was portrayed as a baby dragon with green spikes, and his body was pink. In his G3 incarnation, he was a thousand-year old dragon with orange spikes, purple hair, and a blue body. He is the only main character who was taken from G1 other than Applejack.

Playfulness
Spike is occasionally sarcastic and sometimes laughs at others' misfortunes; in "Bridle Gossip," he comes up with parodies of the ponies' names after their exposure to poison joke; Hairity, Rainbow Crash, Spitty Pie, Apple Teeny, and Flutterguy; however, he can't think of a nickname for Twilight Sparkle and says, "I can't even work with that." When the ponies leave, he finally comes up with the nickname Twilight Flopple. In "Winter Wrap Up," he makes fun of Twilight's terrible nest-making and skating skills. However, he is very helpful and supportive towards Twilight in "Lesson Zero." For instance, Spike was the only member of the main cast to take Twilight's concerns about missing a report to Princess Celestia seriously, unlike the other ponies. He is often defensive about his masculinity and dismissive of things he considers "girly", although his outward disdain is often a front. In "The Ticket Master," for instance, Spike scoffs at the idea of attending the "girly Gala gunk" throughout the episode, but he's overjoyed when Princess Celestia sends him a ticket at the end.

He's a fun-loving dragon: He enjoys the welcome party that Pinkie Pie throws for Twilight in "Friendship is Magic, part 1," and scarfs down candy in "Nightmare Night."

Sensitivity
Spike is quite relieved and excited to find Fluttershy unharmed after thinking she was in danger in "Feeling Pinkie Keen," and he hugs her enthusiastically. Spike, in spite of his usual confidence, can also be insecure at times, as in "Owl's Well That Ends Well" when he believes Twilight replaced him with an owl named Owlowiscious. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash point out to Twilight that he might be worried that Owlowiscious is going to replace him, but she dismisses this as "crazy" and presumes that "Spike knows he can't be replaced." Spike is sensitive to Twilight's concerns when she has a hard time coping with being tardy with her studies in "Lesson Zero," and eventually contacts Princess Celestia to alleviate Twilight's worries. In the season 3 premiere, it is shown that Spike's greatest fear is not being useful to Twilight and, as a result, her sending him away.

Self-image
Spike sees himself as athletic and smart; in "Read It and Weep," when Twilight says to Rainbow Dash, "Just because you're athletic doesn't mean you aren't smart," he replies, "Yeah. Just look at me," curls his arm, and kisses his bicep. Twilight and Dash are not impressed by this display, and he irritatedly walks off.

He imagines himself to be a debonair knight in a fantasy sequence in "A Dog and Pony Show," suavely and easily defeating the Diamond Dogs to save his "Lady Rarity." He admits to Pinkie in "Party of One," somewhat embarrassed, that "sometimes, when no one's around, I do this," then pulls up a mirror, flexes his arms, sticks out his chest, and says, "Lookin' good, Spike, lookin' real good", though he covers his face in bashfulness afterwards.

Generosity and greed
Spike magically matures through his greediness in "Secret of My Excess." At the beginning of the episode, he generously gives his highly-coveted fire ruby to Rarity, even though he was saving it for his birthday. At his birthday party, Pinkie Pie mentions to Spike that the Cakes have made a special gift for him, and he goes to Sugarcube Corner to collect it. On his way out he bumps into Cheerilee, who gives him an impromptu gift when she finds out it's his birthday.

Spike begins eliciting gifts from ponies for his birthday, which results in him growing into a gangly "teenager" by the next day. Twilight takes him to a doctor and then a vet, but both fail to diagnose him because they have no experience with dragons. She then takes him to Zecora who explains that his greed is making him grow into a monster. Throughout the episode he grows larger, and develops more lizard-like qualities, such as slit pupils and a long thin-forked tongue. Unlike most other dragons in the show, he does not possess wings, and he loses his language while growing up; as a teenager he only stammers "Spike want!", and still later he is only roaring.

Spike kidnaps Rarity, wreaks havoc on Ponyville, and even gets confronted by the Wonderbolts, whose efforts fail to stop him. Rarity, not recognizing that her captor is Spike, admonishes him for his behavior. In the process, Spike sees that she's wearing a necklace with the gem he gave her earlier, and a flashback sequence shows him giving Rarity the gem in first-person. After the flashback he magically returns to his former size, which makes him lose his hold on the mountainside they were on. The two plummet to the ground, and Spike tries to confess to Rarity that he has a crush on her, but she stops him mid-sentence with a gentle hoof to his mouth and an affectionate smile. They're rescued by Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, and at the end of the episode Spike concludes that he'd rather be generous, because hoarding doesn't compare to giving.

However, while Spike has learned to be less greedy, he still has greed when gems are involved. In "Just For Sidekicks," when given the offer of petsitting Angel for Fluttershy, Spike takes up the offer for a gem of great size. Baking a jewel cake but running out of gems, Spike decides to get five other gems from his friends as payment for petsitting their pets while they go to the crystal empire. Eventually, Spike learns the hardship of not paying attention when taking his own responsibility after he slowly loses each of his gems. It is here where he learns not to be greedy when it comes to his favorite object, jewels.

Hatching
As a filly in a flashback from "The Cutie Mark Chronicles," Twilight is faced with an entrance exam for Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns. The test involves hatching a dragon egg, one that happened to contain infant Spike. At first, she struggled drawing any trace of magic from her horn; however, the shock wave from Rainbow Dash's sonic rainboom triggered an uncontrolled unleash of Twilight's latent power, not only hatching Spike, but enlarging him into the size of an adult dragon, among various other sorts of mayhem. It took the intervention of Princess Celestia herself to calm Twilight and bring her magic under control. In the episode "Secret of My Excess" Spike's birthday also marks the anniversary of the Cutie marks the mane six got, as Twilight got her's when she hatched Spike's egg.

His egg is colored shades of purple in the episode, but in "Friendship is Magic, part 1," he tells Fluttershy that he hatched from a "cute little purple-and-green egg". Their conversation starts after Fluttershy enthusiastically tells Twilight that she's never seen a baby dragon before, and she asks him to tell her absolutely everything about him.

Lauren Faust elaborated on her take on these events, which is covered in a section below.

Assistant to Twilight Sparkle
Spike, serving as Twilight's assistant, moves with her to Ponyville in "Friendship is Magic, part 1" when Celestia orders Twilight to go for the Summer Sun Celebration. Twilight is slightly depressed, but Spike tries to cheer her up, telling her that the Princess arranged for her to stay in a library. Throughout the series he sends correspondence between Twilight and the Princess using his magical fire breath, helps organize and fetch books, reads and writes letters, keeps Twilight's checklists, and helps her practice magic. In one instance, he is "away on royal business", in "Look Before You Sleep."

Spike finds Twilight her "old copy of Predictions and Prophecies", re-shelves Twilight's pile of books, and checks off items in her Summer Sun Celebration checklist in "Friendship is Magic, part 1." In "Griffon the Brush Off," Spike got the scrolls from town-hall. He helps Twilight practice magic in the beginning of "Boast Busters" and also in "Feeling Pinkie Keen." Also, in the aforementioned episodes, Spike takes notes for Twilight and carries the books from the library. In "Bridle Gossip," Spike both offers the book "Super Naturals" and stays at the library to look for a cure to the ponies' "curse" while they go to Zecora's. In "Owl's Well That Ends Well," he prepares a picnic entirely by himself, and later accidentally burns a book he was supposed to put back in place. He woke the next morning, on the stairs he had fallen asleep on, and claimed he had over slept. Then he ran to Twilight in a rush, listing a series of his "morning chores" while trying to make up for them. But then found out that Twilight had already assigned them to Owlowiscious. He tidies up the library in "The Return of Harmony Part 2." He fills so many checklists in "Lesson Zero" that he gets a claw-cramp, and carries a broom at the library in "Read It and Weep."

In "Hurricane Fluttershy," Spike also seems to act as a translator for Twilight, showing an understanding towards Twilight and a deeper intelligence than some older ponies have.

Filling different roles
Twilight arranges for Spike to care for Fluttershy's animals in Dragonshy" in the ponies' absence. He also stayed in the house during "The Return of Harmony Part 2" to clean up the library.

In "The Show Stoppers," Spike helps Cheerilee give out the awards for the talent competition.

Twilight dubs Spike "the new Rainbow Dash" in "The Return of Harmony Part 2." She is fed up with her friends' negative behavior and chooses to give Spike the jewellery embodying the Element of Loyalty instead of searching for Rainbow Dash. Spike expresses his concerns that Rainbow Dash will "find out [he's] been impersonating her" and shudders at the prospect. At multiple points in the series, Spike is also shown to be an adept cook, baking and making dishes such as cookies and salads.

Sleepiness
Twilight attributes Spike's sleepiness in "Friendship is Magic, part 1," saying that Spike, as a baby, needs to get his sleep (despite Spike stating the contrary) as an excuse to send Fluttershy away. In "Friendship is Magic, part 2," she tucks him in his bed when she and her new friends set out to find the Elements of Harmony. He's sleepy at the beginning of "Winter Wrap Up," too, owing to the very early hour at which Twilight wakes up. His sleepiness concerns Twilight in "Owl's Well That Ends Well," and she finds a second assistant, Owlowiscious, to relieve him of some of the workload.

The new assistant makes Spike grow jealous; Spike is convinced the owl is jeopardizing his position, and goes as far as attempting to frame the innocent owl by using a toy mouse and some ketchup to fabricate a bloody scene. Twilight catches Spike in the act, and tells him she's disappointed in him and his behavior. Spike takes this as evidence that Twilight no longer loves him, and runs far away from home; however, Twilight and Owlowiscious are able to track him down and even manage to save his life. That day, in contrast to the friendship report sent by Twilight in most episodes (of the first season), Spike writes the letter to show what he had learned, falling asleep mid-way through.

In "Magical Mystery Cure," Spike is woken up by Twilight during her Morning in Ponyville song, and instantly flops back down into his basket. He later complains about not being allowed to sleep in when he and Twilight go to Rainbow Dash's (formerly Fluttershy's) cottage.

Identity
In "Dragon Quest," Spike embarks on a journey of self-discovery when he suddenly begins to question his own identity. Due to lack of knowledge of his own origins, as well as the ponies' lack of knowledge in dragons in general (which was even depicted earlier in "Secret of My Excess" when both the pediatrician and the veterinary physician failed to give a diagnosis about Spike's condition at the time), this encourages Spike to decide and follow the dragon migration. By the time Spike reaches the dragons' roost, he encounters a group of teenage dragons, whom initially mock Spike for his small size and the fact that he socializes with ponies. However, after belly-flopping hard into the lava pool, Spike becomes accepted into the group. Spike believes that being rough, strong, physical, and dominating is what it means to be a dragon. When he follows the other dragons on a raid for phoenix eggs, the other dragons encourage him to break one of the phoenix eggs. Spike is unwilling to break it and defies the group. As a result, the other dragons turn against him. Rarity, Twilight and Rainbow Dash come out of hiding and stick up for him. The other dragons accuse Spike of being a pony instead of a dragon. At that point, he finally realized what was important was not what he is, but who he is, and that is being Spike, a baby dragon who is family with a group of ponies.

Crush on Rarity
"I'm gonna tell you two a secret. But you have to promise not to tell anyone. [...] I have a crush on Rarity!"

- Spike telling Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie his "secret" in Green Isn't Your Color.

Spike develops a crush on Rarity the moment he sees her in "Friendship is Magic, part 1." He goes to great lengths for her affection. In "Boast Busters," he tries to impress her with a mustache conjured through twilight's magic; however, this attempt was met with little success. Spike postures that maybe the mustache was not enough, and he considers adding a beard, too. In "Green Isn't Your Color," he gladly offers his body as a pincushion for Rarity to use, while she designs a dress.

Spike is protective about Rarity in "A Dog and Pony Show." Albeit he is all but defeated by the Diamond Dogs, he still tries to find ways to rescue Rarity, like using the gem she gave him earlier, which he holds very dear, as bait for the Diamond Dogs. There is a fantasy sequence of him rescuing Rarity from the dungeon as a debonair and masculine knight, and almost receiving a kiss from his damsel-in-distress, which ends when his fantasy clashes with reality and he nearly kisses Applejack instead, who was standing next to him.

Despite all of this, Rarity seemingly does not really acknowledge his feelings for her. He even treats it as a secret in "Green Isn't Your Color," though his feelings are so obvious to other ponies that he is shown wearing a shirt with Rarity surrounded by a heart as a visual gag. Pinkie Pie, who is privy to the "secret" as much as the other ponies, still acts very surprised when Spike reveals his secret to her. However, when he and Rarity plummet from a mountainside to a likely demise in "Secret of My Excess," he tries to confess his feelings to her, but she puts her hoof on his mouth to shush him before he finishes his sentence and smiles at him teary eyed, showing that she already knows and is happy about it. In "Dragon Quest," Rarity shows a more caring and more sensitive feeling for Spike, and like in "Secret of My Excess," calls him "Spikey-Wikey." In that same episode, Spike gives Rarity a fire ruby that he was planning to eat for his own birthday, saying that he would rather share it with her than eat it himself.

Magic fire breath
Spike has the ability to transport scrolls back and forth between Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia. He sends notes by breathing magic fire onto them and blowing them into the air. He sends multiple notes all at once in "Griffon the Brush Off," and transports tickets to the Gala in "The Ticket Master." He does have his limits, though: Twilight finds him curled up on the floor, groaning and clutching his stomach, after Princess Celestia sends him too many scrolls in "The Return of Harmony Part 2." In "Feeling Pinkie Keen," Princess Celestia comes to collect one of the scrolls herself, right as Spike is about to send it from the library's terrace.

Spike's fire has different effects on objects in different situations. In "Griffon the Brush Off," his fiery hiccups cause Princess Celestia to be showered with a large number of scrolls, which he can also do voluntarily. In "Owl's Well That Ends Well," he accidentally incinerates a book with a sneeze. He has also used his fire to cook food in "Over a Barrel" and "A Bird in the Hoof." In "Griffon the Brush Off," Spike mentioned he was fireproof, but in "Owl's Well That Ends Well," his spines were slightly burned by the wild dragon.

Lauren Faust elaborated on her take of Spike's magic fire breath, which is covered in a section below.

Digging for gems
During "A Dog and Pony Show," Spike digs up gems for Rarity. He uses several different techniques, including scrabbling at the ground with his claws, using the splay of his tail as a shovel, and bouncing on his tail like a jackhammer. The effort doesn't seem to tire him in the least.

Commentating and announcing
Over the course of the series, Spike has shown talent and enthusiasm for announcing at events. His first taste is in Fall Weather Friends where he commentates on the Iron Pony Competition, and he is quite disheartened when Pinkie Pie is set as the announcer for the Running of the Leaves. Fortunately she asks him to be her co-announcer, much to his delight. He continued this role in Suited For Success, where he emcees Rarity's fashion show. In Hearth's Warming Eve, he narrates the Canterlot Hearth's Warming Eve pageant.

Musical talents
In Over a Barrel, Spike proficiently plays the piano for Pinkie Pie's musical number. Spike's "predecessor" in the 1986 My Little Pony movie plays the piano for one of the ponies' musical number as well. Spike is also seen playing a double-flute in Hurricane Fluttershy.

Spike can be heard humming the opening theme song in Griffon the Brush Off.

Spike is among the singers of The Heart Carol and The Flim Flam Brothers (song), but his singing voice is not heard clearly until The Failure Song, in which he sings backup for Twilight. He also sings in the Crystal Fair Song.

Dietary habits
As a dragon, Spike possesses an iron stomach and is omnivorous in the truest sense of the word. His love for eating gemstones is featured in several episodes. When he comes across buffalo in Over a Barrel, they show him great respect and feed him turquoises. Rarity takes him along for her gem hunt in A Dog and Pony Show with the promise of letting him have some of the gems she finds. Pinkie Pie forces a false confession out of him in Party of One by offering him a plate of gems and applying some duress on him; he is frightened because of her strange behavior, but happily chows down on the gems once Pinkie Pie is done interrogating him. In Secret of My Excess, Spike enthusiastically runs towards Sugarcube Corner, leaving behind his own birthday party when Pinkie Pie informs that the Cakes had prepared a special surprise for him, in form of a cupcake made from sapphires. In Just for Sidekicks, he wants to bake his gems into a cake, but every time he tries, he ends up eating them prematurely.

In The Ticket Master, he goes to a cafe with Twilight Sparkle and asks if they serve gems, but settles for hay fries. He eats doughnuts in The Best Night Ever while waiting for the ponies to conclude their night at the Grand Galloping Gala, and in Applebuck Season he even eats some bad muffins he dug up from the trash without getting any noticeable ill-effects, wherein said muffins had previously poisoned half of Ponyville.

Spike's stomach does still have its limits, as seen in It's About Time. Taking advantage of Twilight Sparkle's distraction by the impending "disaster", Spike decides to eat an entire tub of ice cream. Throughout the episode, he consumes countless tubs of ice cream while Twilight Sparkle is trying to figure out this "disaster", even taking some with him while accompanying Twilight and Pinkie Pie. Eventually, he gets a stomach ache and, unable to move, having Twilight Sparkle carrying him on her back as they return home.

Cooking
Spike has been shown or mentioned to be a good cook. In Owl's Well That Ends Well, Twilight mentions Spike baked the cookies all the ponies liked. Spike bakes the food for Princess Celestia's party in A Bird in the Hoof, mentions in Over a Barrel that he fire-roasted the ponies' snacks earlier that day, and in Dragon Quest makes and serves the tea and baked goods everypony eats while watching the dragon migration. However, in Spike at Your Service, he does a terrible job at baking an apple pie, burning it badly.

Grown Spike
Spike is depicted as an adult, or at least larger than he usually is, in three different episodes. The first is in his fantasy in A Dog and Pony Show, detailed in the section crush on Rarity. The second is in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, detailed in the section hatching. The third and most prominent depiction is in the episode Secret of My Excess, detailed in the section generosity and greed. Although, on each different occasion, Spike's grown up designs each seem different from each other.

Peewee
Peewee is Spike's pet as seen in Dragon Quest. At the end of the episode, after Spike finishes writing his friendship report to Princess Celestia, Peewee hatches from an egg which Spike found during the phoenix egg raid earlier in the episode. Spike refused to smash this egg on the other dragons' demand. Peewee has parents and five older siblings, but they were forced to flee for parts unknown after the older dragons had destroyed their nest. Spike then kept the egg for himself to look after back in Ponyville. In the beginning of Just for Sidekicks, there is a small picture gallery of Spike looking after him. Other pictures show Spike trying to share some ice cream with Peewee, but with the carton ending up on top of Twilight's head, covering her in ice cream. The final picture shows Spike having returned Peewee to his parents.

Lauren Faust
Lauren Faust, the show's developer, had suggested that after the entrance exam, it was Princess Celestia who raised and trained Spike before he ended up as Twilight Sparkle's assistant later in life, where Princess Celestia believed they did belong together since it was Twilight Sparkle who hatched him. Faust further suggests that the egg-hatching test was arranged for Twilight Sparkle by Princess Celestia because she sensed her connection to the Elements of Harmony, but adds that the show's current crew may treat the story differently. In "Dragon Quest," a line by Twilight Sparkle suggests that she has raised him ever since he was hatched.

Teacher for a Day description
''Spike is a baby dragon with a big job - he is Twilight Sparkle's Number One Assistant! The two have been friends forever since Twilight Sparkle's first day at Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns in Canterlot.''

''When Princess Celestia sent Twilight to Ponyville to learn about the magic of friendship, Spike was right by her side. And when the Princess has a message for Twilight, she sends a letter to Spike.''

''When Spike belches, he isn't being impolite - he is receiving Princess Celestia's letter! When the ponies want to tell the Princess about their adventures, Spike writes letters and sends them off to Canterlot in a puff of dragon fire.''

Quotes
"Maybe the ponies in Ponyville have interesting things to talk about! C'mon, Twilight, just try!"

- Friendship is Magic, part 1

"Say it, don't spray it!"

- Bridle Gossip

"This is hilarious! Look at all of you! We got: Hairity, Rainbow Crash, Spitty Pie, Apple Teeny, Flutterguy, and... uh... I got nothin'.... Twilight Sparkle. I mean seriously, I can't even work with that...!"

- Bridle Gossip

"You are a natural! A natural disaster!!!"

- Winter Wrap Up

"Can you do that? Can you explode twice?"

- Feeling Pinkie Keen

"Aaah! Rarity... woods... jewels... dogs... hole... taken... SAVE HER!"

- A Dog and Pony Show

"Now, where is Lady Rarity?"

- A Dog and Pony Show

"I'm coming for you, my lady. Hi-ho, Twilight! Away!"

- A Dog and Pony Show

"Oh, please! You're the most studious student ever! I'm sure the princess will forgive you if you miss one little deadline."

- Lesson Zero

"P.S.: Obviously, Spike did not have to learn a lesson, because he is the most awesome friend a pony could ask for. Unlike everypony else, he took things seriously and— Uh, yeah. I'll just, um..."

- Lesson Zero

"Ugh, the rainbow wig just kills it for me."

- Luna Eclipsed

"Bet'cha can't say that ten times fast."

- The Cutie Pox

"I will never wash this cheek again."

- About being kissed on the cheek by Rarity in Secret of My Excess

"Spike want!!!!"

- Secret of My Excess

"Then maybe you won't mind if I...eat an entire tub of ice cream!"

- It's About Time

"Run away!"

- Dragon Quest

"Oh, yeah? Just wait until you see what I have planned for the bachelor party!"

- A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2

"The dragon is the finest creature ever! There's more to it than just guarding treasure!"

- Spike at Your Service

"Nah, pshaw. I'll be fine. But, uh, just between you and me, I gotta give priority to the... paying customers."

- Just for Sidekicks

Merchandise
A Spike figure is included in Twilight Sparkle's Twinkling Balloon set, the Canterlot Palace Friends set, the Royal Ball at Canterlot set, and the molded 5-Pack Gift Set. The Royal Ball set also gives him a bowtie.