Spike.

I haven't drawn in a while. MY BAD. Just unmotivated, my mind is in different places all the time. Trying different styles, pursuing different things... BLAHBLAHBLAH

ANYWAYS. I realized I haven’t drawn Spike. It’s because I didn’t know how. SO. I drew Spike. Honestly, doesn’t even look that different from his normal self. Then I realized I drew young Spike, so now I have to draw his adult design eventually as well. SIGH. But also, I didn't draw Spike, because I have no clue where he belongs in my AU. His potential role is so big I have no clue where to put it.

I always thought Spike as a concept was really interesting and spoke a lot to the division that the ponies have against other species. I will always remember in the first episode that Fluttershy is absolutely shocked to learn that dragons can even speak. That and their admitted minimal knowledge of dragons of anything but barbarians when they go to save Spike from them or whatever… I always thought the history between dragons and ponies must be interesting. I had a whole thing written out, but I’ll get to that in another post.

Basically, Celestia having a dragon egg laying around is no coincidence. I like to think dragon acquaintances actually used to be quite common, like how a witch has a cat as a familiar, a great unicorn might have a dragon as one. I’d like to think Starswirl the Bearded had one, even Celestia and Luna used to have dragons. Of course, those dragons weren’t exactly there by choice. They were raised by ponies. Made by ponies.

Point being, these dragons raised in Canterlot were the mark of a sorcerer in the making, because it was impossible to get a dragon egg to hatch in any other way besides dragon fire or volcanic levels of heat. It was a horrible test to give to a student LOL Celestia didn’t truly expect anyone to pass, nobody had passed the dragon egg test in years. It wasn’t indicative of getting into the school at all, but indicative of Celestia’s next protege. Technically, at the time of Spike’s hatching, there was already another pony chosen ahead of Twilight, Sunset Shimmer. Alas, Celestia liked having a backup.

SO! SPIKE IS BORN! THANK YOU TWILIGHT! Now get parentified and learn heavy responsibilities at an early age and get crushed by the weight of many expectations by raising a child as a child. Of course, Twilight’s parents helped, but Spike was largely Twilight’s responsibility. It was all by design. Celestia didn’t exactly brief them on how to raise a dragon. She only offered live laugh love platitudes like “he’s not going to turn into a bad dragon unless you let him. Raise him with lots of love and care and he’ll be okay.” Thanks, Celestia. What the fuck does he eat

Twilight raising a dragon with equally clueless parents and incredibly vague Celestia was pretty difficult but Twilight was determined to do it, and she did. Spike turned out okay, he could even speak! On par with a normal dragon, Spike’s development was extremely far behind. I mean, Twilight is a fucking adult when we meet her in the show, and Spike is still a "baby", even though they both met in what I'm guessing is equivalent to elementary school? I can assume she's 10 at the absolute most? WHAT? So I can only assume he is malnourished, stunted, infantilized at every turn. “Who knows, maybe they just age differently,” is what ponies would say. True. But he isn’t supposed to look like that at that age. In my book, Spike is supposed to look like Torch, they’re probably the same age. But due to Spike’s upbringing, that is not the case. (I feel like I might be explaining this poorly but idk)

And he’s none the wiser for a very long time. And he can’t blame those around him, either. He’s not mad at them, but he is a bit upset. This divide between him, his species, his culture, the ponies around him. They like him because he’s harmless. Because he’s not like other dragons. I mean, imagine being the only one of your kind, nobody to relate to at all, dependent on your sister/mom for pretty much everything while also being a servant type deal?

I don’t think Twilight ever meant to hurt, demean, or put Spike into such a precarious role of servitude and dependency. I always found the dynamic extremely interesting, especially in the first few episodes where Spike is largely responsible for Twilight due to her apathy for others LOL. Even having to remind her that it’s Moondancer’s birthday, it seems he even went and got the present himself, on Twilight's behalf. WHAT!!! I think Spike may really be Twilight’s only friend until she meets all the others. But it’s not like Spike really had anyone else.

Of course, I don't think it was all bad. They do love and care for each other, immensely so. They miiiiiight view each other as siblings? I never really thought of it that way, but I can understand why Spike would want it/push for it in those episodes, because he wanted to be something other than what he so blatantly is. He wanted family. The episode where Spike's dad shows up is one of my favorites, it highlights a lot of what Spike didn't get growing up, the lengths he's willing to go to get it. That shit hurt my soul. It showed he really is just a kid.

So I’ve been really trying to figure out how to navigate them in my AU, and it’s hard. LOL I think they have an amicable friendship but with how much inclusivity and such is coming to light in the world, the fact that Spike probably didn’t even go to school, the way he had everything he’s known drip fed through Twilight and her experiences, existing as an extension of her and not as himself until later seasons, I think there’s room for some really interesting stuff.

Yeah, this all might sound like a bit of a stretch, I may definitely be putting my own dark twist on their relationship as I do with literally everything ASJDFKL but Spike holds a lot of potential in my AU given his role in Twilight’s life and as a dragon raised among ponies in a world where species coming together is slowly becoming normalized… let me know what you think!

Art (c) @stimpower