Spike

Spike is a baby male purple and green dragon. He is Twilight Sparkle's assistant, and one of the main characters of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. He is known for his ability to magically deliver scrolls to and from Princess Celestia with his fire-breath.

Personality
Spike is a bit sarcastic and often laughs at others' misfortune. However, he is very helpful and supportive towards Twilight. Although protective of his masculinity and often dismissive of things he considers 'girly,' he is often seen being just as enthusiastic about them as any of the others. He can be a bit insecure, especially of his role as Twilight's "Number One Assistant" after her acquisition of a new pet owl.

One trait that has grown over the course of the series is Spike's enjoyment of announcing. He first got into it during Fall Weather Friends where he announced the Iron Pony Competition and later got quite disheartened when Pinkie Pie was set up as the announcer for the Running of the Leaves (and was obviously enthusiastic when she asked him to be her co-announcer). He continues this role in Suited For Success, where he emcees Rarity's fashion show.

Skills
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 breeze. He can also send multiple notes at one time, as seen in Griffon the Brush Off (also, as shown in The Ticket Master, Spike is also able to transport other objects, example being the tickets for the gala). He receives scrolls by belching them up.

This ability appears to be deliberate as opposed to instinctive; when not specifically using his fire to send notes or items to the Princess, he breathes "regular" fire which burns up items, like the book he accidentally burns in Owl's Well That Ends Well. Another example was in Over a Barrel when he breathed fire for the purpose of roasting food. Spike appears to have no control over receiving messages, however; when the Princess sends a message, he belches it up whether he wants to or not. Some fans humorously refer to this ability as "Hot Mail"; referencing both the commonly used e-mail program and Spike's unique method of sending messages to the Princess. This message ability appears to be specifically linked between himself and Princess Celestia; he's never been seen sending messages to or receiving messages from anyone but her.

During the episode A Dog and Pony Show, Spike digs up gems for Rarity. He uses several different techniques, including scrabbling at the ground with his hands, 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.

Spike played the piano for Pinkie Pie's musical number in Over a Barrel.

Spike possesses an iron stomach and is omnivorous in the truest sense of the word. Gemstones are his most favorite food, as with all dragons, though he has also been seen eating hay (of which he says that he likes grass just fine, but wished that restaurants would serve gems), doughnuts (prefering a favorite doughnut shop back in Canterlot), and even muffins dug up from the trash that had previously poisoned half the town, in Applebuck Season.

Relationships
"...Well, I started out as a cute little purple and green egg..."

- Spike, discussing his life to Fluttershy


 * Twilight Sparkle - Although Spike is ostensibly Twilight Sparkle's assistant, he, at times, takes on the role of baby brother or adviser. He's never shy about pointing out her failings - often with sarcasm and jokes. However, the two share a sincere affection, and he is always ready to support her when she gets in real trouble. It's also worth noting that the two have known each other since the moment Spike was hatched, as shown in the The Cutie Mark Chronicles.
 * Rarity - Spike developed a crush on Rarity the moment he saw her, and he sometimes goes to great lengths for her attention. In Green Isn't Your Color, he gladly offers his body as a pincushion for Rarity to use, while she designs a dress. 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 thinks that maybe the mustache wasn't enough, and he considers adding a beard, too. Because he loves her so much, Spike is also shown to be protective about Rarity. This was especially shown in "A Dog And Pony Show," when he tried his best to protect her from the Diamond Dogs, even though he was ultimately defeated, and Rarity was ponynapped, anyway. However, throughout the rest of the episode, Spike still tried to find ways to rescue her, like using the gem Rarity gave him earlier as bait for the Diamond Dogs, and even having his own fantasy of him rescuing her from the dungeon as a strong and muscular knight. Despite all of this, his utter adoration of Rarity is practically unnoticed by her, even though she is affectionate towards him, but only because he is adorable to her.
 * Fluttershy - After an awkward first conversation with Twilight, Fluttershy sees Spike, her timidity almost immediately vanishes, and she gains an utter fascination over him. Because she has never seen a talking baby dragon before, she requests to learn everything about him, and Spike proceeds to tell her his whole life story up until the day that they had met. Spike is quite close to Fluttershy, looking after her animals for her in Dragonshy, and he hugs her in relief after thinking she was in danger in Feeling Pinkie Keen.
 * Pinkie Pie - Spike is often shown reacting positively to Pinkie Pie, if only because he seems to find Twilight's annoyance with her amusing. During Fall Weather Friends, the two share announcing duties, where Spike obviously struggles to keep up with her rather odd commentary. He also helps her out in Over a Barrel by playing the piano during her song. In Party of One, Pinkie's bizarre nature strikes fear into Spike when the former, under the false impression that her friends are avoiding her, aggressively interrogates Spike to find out why they are seemingly ignoring her. Fortunately, Pinkie's spirits are uplifted later when it's found that her friends were getting ready to throw a surprise party for her, and Spike seemed to quickly forget Pinkie's moment of madness as he casually feasted on the gems she promised him if he talked.
 * Applejack - Spike and Applejack regularly have a dismissive attitude towards each other; this is especially noted by the fact that they don't share much spoken dialogue. But Spike has cheered on applejack twice in Applebuck Season and Boast Busters. Although tension is unfelt between them, Applejack appears to be fond of him, alongside Spike's childlike nature. She seems to take some of his antics in good humor though, such as when he nearly kisses her in A Dog and Pony Show.
 * Rainbow Dash - In the first episode, Spike instantly thinks of Rainbow Dash as an amazing athlete when he and Twilight Sparkle first meet her and see her clear the sky of clouds in ten seconds flat.
 * Scootaloo - In The Cutie Mark Chronicles, Scootaloo said that Spike told her zip-lining was awesome.

Appearances
Spike appears in most episodes with exception of the episodes Look Before You Sleep, Call of the Cutie, Sonic Rainboom and Stare Master.

Gallery

 * Image gallery for Spike

Trivia

 * Spike's appearance is based on his Generation 1 incarnation rather than his Generation 3 version, with a few modifications done by Lauren Faust herself. He is also the second member of the main cast who was part of the original My Little Pony. This is because Hasbro lost the rights to nearly all of the original character names, with the exception of Applejack and Spike (who was never a pony at all).
 * Spike also appeared in My Little Pony: The Movie, but his scales were pink at the time, and he had a different voice actor. He was a close friend of the movie's main character, a young pony named Lickety Split. He also appears on a variation of the movie's boxart which features the generation 2 ponies Ivy, Light Heart and Sweet Berry, although none of those ponies are actually in the movie.
 * Interestingly, the voice actresses of Spike (Cathy Weseluck) and Rarity (Tabitha St. Germain) have both voiced characters in the anime Death Note. Weseluck voiced main character Near while St. Germain voiced secondary character Naomi Misora.
 * Fluttershy calls Spike a "baby" dragon in Friendship is Magic, part 1, and later it's shown in The Cutie Mark Chronicles that Spike was hatched from a dragon egg by Twilight when she was a child, which makes him a few years younger than her. Coupled with the hundred-year nap of the dragon in Dragonshy, it's evident that dragons mature very slowly and may possibly live for thousands of years.
 * Spike prefers to eat gemstones over pony food, as shown in The Ticket Master and subsequent episodes.
 * In the episode Owl's Well That Ends Well Spike is shown to be very sensitive and easily worried about Twilight not loving him and/or losing his job.
 * Twilight could be seen as a surrogate mother to Spike, as while she is not his biological mother, she hatched him and takes care of him (albeit she often treats him more like a younger brother than a son).
 * In the first episode, while telling Fluttershy his life story, Spike says he was hatched from a purple and green egg. In the episode The Cutie Mark Chronicles, it is seen that his egg was lavender with darker purple spots.
 * In the episode 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.
 * Spike lets every pony know how he feels about what he considers overly-sentimental, heart-warming situations by sticking his tongue out and pointing a finger into his open mouth to show disgust. Towards the end of The Ticket Master when the mane six hug each other, Spike's reaction to the situation coupled with the fact he is about to belch out a message from Princess Celestia delivers a rebuke from Applejack (as she does not know he is about to belch out the message).
 * In the episode Griffon the Brush-Off, Spike had been humming the show's theme song while he was collecting the scrolls prior to being pranked by Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash.