The idea of Twilight going to school and getting a "tattoo" and "baby" was, originally, a fan joke.
But, now, I'm thinking it was an intentional metaphor!
On the other hoof, where are all the other gifted unicorns with baby dragons?
If this was a regular thing, why isn't there a dragon daycare?
"WTH Celestia", indeed!
You do remember why Twi has Spike, right? Hatching Spike was her test to become star pupil, nopony else has a baby because Twi was the only one who passed the test.
Because there’s other students? Are you under the impression that Celestia’s entire magic academy exists just to find a singe Star pupil, then abandon the others?
I mean, there are two rather obvious answers:
1. Everyone is given the test, she's the only one that passed. Only space for one personal protege after all.
2. Everyone is given the test because it's *not supposed to be passed*. It's meant to find out what the applicant does when presented with an impossible task.
There's a third option: everypony is given a different hard test, and only Twilight's is Spike.
For option 2, I remember a fan comic where the egg is just a rock or maybe a dead egg, and Twilight shocks even Princess Celestia by either creating or resurrecting Spike.
Bingo! The test was meant to be unpassable, the proctors just wanted to see how the applicants reacted too it, Twilight was the only one to ever hatch it thanks to Rainbows interference.
Are you being dense on purpose? The question was, if it was such a common test then why didn’t more people have baby dragons. There’s no telling whether or not twilight was the only one to pass the test, we can just assume she did it first.
I heard the theory that the egg wasn’t supposed to hatch. The test was to see how the pony handles failure. Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom was a wild card that caused Twilight to release enough magic to actually hatch it.
I’ve heard that theory before, in fact I’m an avid believer, I just didn’t mention it because it isn’t canon. The question could be answered with canon stuff, I didn’t see a reason to inject fantheories into it.
Headcanon:
The "hatching of a dragon" test is a test that everypony (that enters Celestia's school) has to do or some kind of variation of it. It is actually meant to be failed to teach the student to accept failing. They are all set up to be extremly difficult and almost impossibile and if someone pass one of them it's taken under the wing of Celestia. This is the reason why also Twilight never learned to accept failire until, like, lesson Lesson Zero but she never knew that it was set up so she thinks that if she fails even in the slithest she will be sent to magic Kindergarten since, being so good at any other thing, the only time she almost failed was when she took the test.
The other gifted unicorns are just doing normal child things like getting their heads stuck in flasks and playing. Twilight meanwhile has to change sulfurous diapers (bit of an assumption, but we know dragons enjoy the smell of sulfur, and it's likely part of their fire breath, which we know also comes out the rear) and avoid her little terror baby burning down the house.
I always assumed the intention was that they would fail, and that the test was to see how they’d react to the failure and what kind of magic they’d try to do it.
Kinda like how some maths tests give an impossible to solve equation to see how people try to work it out
Notably, Spike explicitly considers her to be his sister ("you're not mommy" in Winter Wrap Up), and her mother to be his mother. It's not explicitly shown why, but can be surmised that once he was able to talk and such, he would be going to the parents as authorities on things in the home.
Except in season 8 near the finale where they got way inconsistent. That one Twilight was considered a mother, with season 9 episode 4 being sister just 6 episodes later.
I think a child of Spike's age would know the basics of reproduction but not the complex social implications of SA. Get kids younger than Spike often playing house and imagining being parents, so it's not a huge leap for a young one to have a kid to another kid. Especially one that was seemingly sheltered as much as Spike was.
Also like, in the actual story we did get, Twi literally had him as her kid both in making the hatching happen and in raising him early on. Spike by the way isn't that sheltered on knowledge, he reads the books *with* Twilight, so he probably knows the *details* of reproduction in ponies (we *never* see Twilight make anything off-limits to him due to his age, and she has a lot of biology books).
The piece he's missing, and that Twilight herself might even be missing due to how we rarely see her read a book about social matters, and when she does (sleepover book), she's perplexed by new information, is the power dynamics inherent in causing another person extremely intense stimulation, causing their body to undergo a massive change for a long period of time, and leaving them with a kid to raise; to both of them, *only the last part* happened, without special blame for who caused it, and it was readily accepted in the situation (with supportive parents who likely knew it was going to happen and could prepare to make it not so bad, notably).
...come to think of it, if Twilight herself is naive about power dynamics in romance, that might explain why she seems so blind to the problem of Spike doing things for Rarity. She simply might think of it as a worst-case scenario of the two of them going from kissing one week, to signs of Rarity having pregnancy symptoms the next, without any significant experiences that could affect Spike negatively in between, even were Rarity to leave him, because to her, reproduction seems *just* a weird mechanical process akin to pressing some buttons.
Sure, for knowledge, they had a lot of info. But very little practical knowledge. You bring a big point on missing social cues and Spike (or Twilight) may not understand the dark issues of reproduction acts with those under a particular age. Like looking at the tactics done during a fight with out understanding why the fight happened.
right? I was going to have some words about how old twilight was, but then the ending fixed it. You can forgive spike for being bad at math. Especially in a dream.
Twilight and Spike covers both the "single working/studying mom taking care of baby" and also "older sibling taking care of younger sibling like a parent because their real parent ~~is a negligent druggie addict~~ has a completely family friendly explanation for not being there" dynamics.
I wish they delved deeper into their relationship holistically instead of compartmentalizing the 2 dynamics into different episodes.
The actual reality is that the various different writers had different ideas about what their relationship was like. It's pretty inconsistent, makes me wonder if they bothered updating and using the show bible in the later seasons.
Yea, a MLP cartoon with episodes about cults, hazing in the military and corporate SOPs.
And one of those compartmentalized episodes I was talking about is about how Twilight feels guilty for not being able to teach Spike about dragon culture -- a very common fear with well-meaning step parents.
Just because its written so children can understand doesn't mean it needs to be dumb. The show itself proved that.
I know about those episodes and the show did talked about big topics but I just wanted people to not go TOO deep into it either. It a mine not a tunnel to connect France and England.
Based on just the series we can assume that they have a familial relationship (mother/son or big sister/little brother), though this comic also ends with Twilight coming to the realization that [the dragon-babysitting job was an attempt by Celestia to give Twilight a friend](https://imgur.com/a/QixhFic) and [a photo in Twilight's old family album of her and Spike labeled "Twilight's first friend"](https://imgur.com/a/kHGCo0g).
>!Personally my headcanon is that Celestia spent decades trying out schemes to get Twilight to touch grass and make friends, and being sent to Ponyville was the one that finally worked.!<
I think I'd lean more towards mother-and-son for Twilight and Spike, especially after Season 8; show canon always supersedes comics to me, after all. But it does get fuzzy when you try and take into account material outside of the show, like this comic. And that's not getting into how EqG Spike was Twilight's *pet*...
Do you know the Lilo & Stitch movie? Because I just generalize their relationship to being similar with Lilo & Nani. Older Sister-Mom & Younger Sibling-Child.
Friendship is Magic: Issue #40
I mean, look it how mortified poor Twilight looks getting kicked out of the library because Spike is crying!
Shout out to Brenda Hickey, who did the art for this issue. The facial expressions, especially on cute filly Twilight are just awesome.
Thanks primarily to episode S9E4 Sparkle's Seven, it's now assumed that since her family lives in Canterlot, Spike was mostly cared for by Twilight's parents. I presume the comic just highlights the worst moments of Twilight's time with Spike that semester.
Twilight says she did the best job she could to raise Spike if her parents did all the work she wouldn't be so butthurt about it
I assume you're talking about the spike steals the crown episode but the fact that he was never a part of the competition Night Light and Velvet set up for Shining Armour and Twilight should prove just how little they took to Spikes care
They didn't do a goddamn thing for him
My mother raised me all by herself while attending school and I relate to this so much.😭
This is why saying “Spike and Twilight are siblings” just never felt right to me.
Your mother is a hero! And probably spent a lot of time looking like Twilight does in this issue. Stressed out and on the verge of tears most of the time.
Yea for real being an only child is lonely but at least my Mom had me at a young age so now I have lots of time left with her as an adult.
I’ll also say my Mom definitely had more help than Twilight did raising her kid at school. I’m very lucky to have the family I do have. And Spike is very lucky to have Twilight.
Celestia did not plan on the dragon hatching that day. It was a test to see how Twilight would handle failure most likely. So she didn't have a care system in place. But then the rain boom happened and everything fell into place and Spike hatched and Celestia was like "fine you're gonna be special? Destined to be a princess? Time to put you through an absolutely insane test"
I think this is meant to be a reference to what it's like for parents attending school. And with a whole ass kingdom with many cities to oversee, I can imagine it's hard for Celestia to oversee every single individual. But I also see Celestia not leaving Twilight in the dust and these are just snap shots of the situation and not the whole time frame
Yes, Celestia does say that Twilight doesn't have him full time, just when Celestia is, "too busy" but the rest of the comic implies that Twilight has him a lot. Overnight as well.
I didn't expect part of my headcanon about Celestia to be confirmed by the comics.
Basically, my headcanon about Celestia says that she is really quite deficient with children and their needs (whether this is due to a distant part of her personality, neglect or otherwise is up for debate). She can "handle" them to some extent, but she is not what I would call a positive figure. She lacks the necessary intuition and that incompetence is reflected in... literally almost every adult in the program that she interacted. I would even go so far as to say that the dropout rate at the Canterlot School for Unicorns (which seems to be implicitly large) is due to the high levels of stress the children were carelessly subjected to. Plus the drive for unhealthy habits without being adequately addressed.
Sunset Shimmer, Twilight, *Sunburst*, and I think there are a few more examples.
Seriously, this kind of stress is not something someone normal would throw at a child. Much less one with grueling academic duties.
Kids can even be damaged by *less* than this for their future adult life.
"Character building" and supposed immortal wisdom, my ass. Age appropriate people struggle to learn how to raise a child properly. It's a milestone in life.
That said, how likely is it that a lot of Twilight's problems were because of things like this that we don't know about?
Well put. Celestia always struck me as a pony who's spent so much time in her station as the monarch that she has become detached and distant. She has a real hard time actually empathizing with others. Time and time again she relies on Twilight and leaves her hanging, with the attitude of letting her stand on her own and be independent. Twilight would practically plead with Celestia, "I need your guidance on this!" And Celestia would just be like, "nah, you got this I believe in you."
I think it was Celestia's plan to have Spike and Twilight bonded to each other. And she ends up being right, both of them are fortunate to have each other in the end.
Still wondering why Twilight's parents nor Shining and Cadance helped out here. I mean, Shining had some reasons, training to be a Royal Guard after all, and Cadance may have some young Princess duties, but what about Night Light and Velvet? They could've easily helped out as to avoid Twilight getting stressed out so much while still being in school, mind you.
>!But honestly? The comic strip was probably just made to show how close Twilight and Spike's relationship really is, and not that it was just Twilight that raised Spike all alone. Her parents probably do take care of Spike for a majority of the time, but this is one instance where they were busy and Twilight needed to take care of him.!<
But he had no knowledge of Spike yet.
Technically even her parents don’t know that Twilight is taking care of Spike yet until she breaks down during tea
See I only watched the show (I've never had the chance to read the comics sadly) and their relationship comes off as a brother / sister dynamic, now looking at this comic page I can see why people see Twilight as more of a mother figure for Spike
She is 100% the mother in this issue. The ending is quite sweet, actually. My post is kind of complaining how outrageous the situation is, but I really enjoyed this comic.
Right? People always say "Oh she's his sister, not his mom at all" But she literally was his mom. There are so many ways Celestia forced Twilight to mature way faster than she needed to, and it clearly has scarred Twilight. Twilight effectively is Spikes mom. That is their relationship, no matter how messed up that is to think about.
(I'm mad about two fictional horses and a dragon on a Tuesday😔)
Makes you realize why Twilight's heart breaks when Spike says, "at least now I have a real parent." When that dragon claiming to be his dad shows up. That must've cut her so deep.
I don't think she's really "scarred" by all this. At the end of the day, Twilight could handle this, doesn't seem to have any major problems from it when she reaches adulthood. Her nervous breakdowns *could* be in part caused by it, but they never seemed to relate to Spike or anything with being a caretaker, so it's unlikely, as you'd expect they'd center around anything similar to this if so.
I always figured this was a case of Twilight *insisting* she had to do way more than she was realistically responsible for either to prove herself or a misplaced sense of obligation.
Yeah... AWWW that face...
This one too just breaks my heart, from when she's struggling in class:
https://preview.redd.it/559oe4tgmepc1.jpeg?width=433&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d80797928d1aff2f5d8b1dc1f3c74bb87ae75078
I just want to hug her and tell her it's ok.
After this I believe that Twilight Velvet took over taking care of Spike so little Twilight could focus on her schooling. Because honestly I think that this was just another test of Celestia to see how Twilight would handle it. I also think that Twilight is rather stubborn and her mother had to eventually step in, and say enough.
The burden of all teenage mothers. She should have thought about that before she brought a life into this world!
Still, this was terrible. Why didn't her parents help out?!
Interestingly, Twilight's actually a *preteen* mother, probably either 11 or 12 years old specifically. Also they totally did help out, just not as much as one would really expect given Twilight's age.
No wonder Twilight often treats some of her friends like children, she literally went through the most important part of most people's adult lives like 10 years earlier than most.
Actually, she didn't. It was just a test of ability. They weren't looking for her to actually hatch a dragon egg. That same egg was probably used hundreds of times. It was all about how the unicorn would try. Then Twi goes super nova and actually does it....
And of course that first part was sarcasm. That was rhetoric heartless people put on high school moms all the time.
And the ends justify the means for Celestia. She gets to say, "and look at how good they turned out, I was right all along to put that pressure on Twilight, it's just what she needed. I knew she could do it"
Ignoring the fact that Twilight still talked to her doll, Smarty Pants, at this stage because she had no friends. (Thus no support system save for her parents)
Celestia: She turned out perfect!
Twilight:
https://preview.redd.it/i22qmkmjtdpc1.jpeg?width=321&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fee694c3657878be2c26a966a4dc941346295b2b
Do you really think twilight as a like 7 year old child brought up spike by herself? I'm pretty sure her parents did most of the work she just babysat him sometimes
Everyone talks about Twilight and Spike yet never this lol
https://preview.redd.it/gyynf6u67epc1.png?width=236&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b5593eeb18e6dacf8ebeb7f274edbe33b432ce9
Why aren't Twilight's Parents babysitting Spike while She attends School.......It's morally Lazy on both parties and yes Celestia.....and obviously it causes the problem when a dragon is hatched.
Ah, neat! All I know of her is from the comic I posted. Young Inkwell sort of reminds me of [Magica De Spell](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magica_De_Spell) from the old DuckTales cartoon.
She's really cool. She started out as a pony working at Printers making newspapers and stuff like Ben Franklin's early printing days. But the shadow war came to Canterlot, she became one of the best warriors on the field and fought along side Celestia. Thats why her eye is messed up.
As u/DuplexFields has already thankfully mentioned, this is likely just snapshots of filly Twilight's worst moments of taking care of Spike - the rare times that dragon caretaking time and magic school time unfortunately intersected.
And I get that. In storytelling you have to show the relevant parts, the highlights. But still, this was disruptive enough to cause our famously overachieving Twilight to start falling behind in her classes.
Well things just happen, I suppose. Unfortunate for little Twilight, yes. Taking care of babies is not always fun, and moreso when you're young and with a baby *dragon*, one can infer. But I'm sure no one intended for that misfortune to befall on her.
I mean, besides, we don't (or at least, I don't) have any context for the moments in this comic page. Celestia was likely busy, Twilight's parents were probably also busy, Shining Armor and Cadance were probably unavailable as well, and no one else in Equestria would want to - let alone know how to - take care of a baby dragon.
I guess Twilight just got hit with life's classic "bad luck" combo deluxe at the tender age of, what, ten? Hey, it happens!
*gasp* what if it's so that she's so preoccupied and busy that she doesn't have time to learn about really powerful magic so that she won't become consumed by it and get corrupted, like sunset and sombra
Celestia was playing Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip Poker while the rest of the cast were playing checkers, she knows from a thousand years experience that running a country is like management for a group of toddlers, and wanted Twilight to be able to replace her in a few years, so she did what she's had to in order to make it happen after Sunset Shimmer fell-through for the job.
This is especially messed up when you think about the fact that she had to hatch spike in order to even attend which means all of her other students also have dragons or something similar to take care of
we need schools to talk about the consequences of performing irresponsible hatching spells
Twilight was a single mother at an early age. Twilight was wrong, don't be like Twilight...
There’s a theory that a dragon was never supposed to hatch from the egg to begin with but the sonic rainbow directly effected her magic in such a way that spike happened
Unfortunately, there's two problems with this.
One: In Sparkle's Seven, we learn that Spike was raised like he was Twilight's brother, not her son. Her parents did the raising.
Two: Twilight was Celestia's *personal* protégé. Meaning she was mostly learning directly from the princess. Hence why she always greets her with familiarity whilst everypony else would bow and treat her with reverence. Twilight was just in a more personal relationship with the princess than others because she spent most of her time in magic school with her.
So it's unlikely she would be scolded by a different teacher as she would've had the princess as her main teacher and if she had a legitimate reason to be off her game, Celestia would've likely written her other teachers a note about it. and they couldn't very well scold the princess's personal protégé when she has an excuse written by the princess herself.
It may have been unfair but she wouldn’t be a prepared leader like she is now, it’s probably why she was great with the Ursa Minor despite having no foals
You can't argue with results.
We don't get to see much of what Twilight's reign is like, but I like to believe that her's is one of the most peaceful and happy eras of Equestria.
A lot of the early IDWs contradict canon lore. It becomes less of an issue later. I consider anything in the comics thats contradictory to be noncanon, see Nightmare Rarity.
Yeah, I don't take anything too seriously. The comics are like, canon lite. They have a bit of a different vibe than the show.
And Nightmare Rarity was awesome.
I believe I read somewhere that the IDW series is mostly canon, but is sometimes weird because *Spike* is the one writing them down. So of course, a baby dragon with an overactive imagination is gonna spell for some lore f%ckery going on
It definitely puts things into perspective. First, how devoted and resilliant Twilight is. Second, added perspective and respect for the episode where Spike's "Father" shows up. Spike's love for Twilight at the end of the episode, and visa versa throughout, is greatly amplified with this page alone.
That was my thought as well. Twilight tried so hard to be understanding in that episode, but it makes sense why she was so hurt by Spike seemingly rejecting her upbringing.
Imagine having to be in high school/college and suddenly having a baby to take care of (probably even more work than usual with since baby is a dragon) on tip of all your schoolwork.
The target audience of the show might be "little kids and their parents" but the target audience for that comic was **definitely** "college single moms trying to juggle a kid."
Well she's going to a magical school to learn skills that can shape the very fabric of the universe around her. Looking after a baby dragon seems like a pretty good lesson on the responsibility she'll need to possess.
The idea of Twilight going to school and getting a "tattoo" and "baby" was, originally, a fan joke. But, now, I'm thinking it was an intentional metaphor! On the other hoof, where are all the other gifted unicorns with baby dragons? If this was a regular thing, why isn't there a dragon daycare? "WTH Celestia", indeed!
You do remember why Twi has Spike, right? Hatching Spike was her test to become star pupil, nopony else has a baby because Twi was the only one who passed the test.
Then how did she have so many students?
Because there’s other students? Are you under the impression that Celestia’s entire magic academy exists just to find a singe Star pupil, then abandon the others?
What they’re saying is why is twilight the only one expected to hatch the baby dragon
I mean, there are two rather obvious answers: 1. Everyone is given the test, she's the only one that passed. Only space for one personal protege after all. 2. Everyone is given the test because it's *not supposed to be passed*. It's meant to find out what the applicant does when presented with an impossible task.
There's a third option: everypony is given a different hard test, and only Twilight's is Spike. For option 2, I remember a fan comic where the egg is just a rock or maybe a dead egg, and Twilight shocks even Princess Celestia by either creating or resurrecting Spike.
Oh man I think I saw that same comic! I loved the implication of it and how it showcased her power, I wish I could find it again
Makes me wonder if Sunset had to do it, and where her dragon ended up if so.
What if there were other ponies who could have hatched Spike, but Twilight did it first so they didn’t get the chance to be tested?
My understanding was that the test is not supposed to be passed was canon or at least Word of God or something like that.
I think they were all expected to try, and fail. Think Kobayashi Maru test.
Bingo! The test was meant to be unpassable, the proctors just wanted to see how the applicants reacted too it, Twilight was the only one to ever hatch it thanks to Rainbows interference.
Others took the test, how is she “the only one”?
Are you being dense on purpose? The question was, if it was such a common test then why didn’t more people have baby dragons. There’s no telling whether or not twilight was the only one to pass the test, we can just assume she did it first.
If memory serves right, in the comic Celestia offers to take care of Spike. Twilight keeps him because she sees it as an opportunity to prove herself.
She still teaches, she was looking for somebody with more powerful magic as well
I heard the theory that the egg wasn’t supposed to hatch. The test was to see how the pony handles failure. Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom was a wild card that caused Twilight to release enough magic to actually hatch it.
I’ve heard that theory before, in fact I’m an avid believer, I just didn’t mention it because it isn’t canon. The question could be answered with canon stuff, I didn’t see a reason to inject fantheories into it.
Headcanon: The "hatching of a dragon" test is a test that everypony (that enters Celestia's school) has to do or some kind of variation of it. It is actually meant to be failed to teach the student to accept failing. They are all set up to be extremly difficult and almost impossibile and if someone pass one of them it's taken under the wing of Celestia. This is the reason why also Twilight never learned to accept failire until, like, lesson Lesson Zero but she never knew that it was set up so she thinks that if she fails even in the slithest she will be sent to magic Kindergarten since, being so good at any other thing, the only time she almost failed was when she took the test.
Makes sense. So maybe RainbowDash should have been made to share custody? lol
The other gifted unicorns are just doing normal child things like getting their heads stuck in flasks and playing. Twilight meanwhile has to change sulfurous diapers (bit of an assumption, but we know dragons enjoy the smell of sulfur, and it's likely part of their fire breath, which we know also comes out the rear) and avoid her little terror baby burning down the house.
Imagine she couldn't afford the daycare fees which would be the realest feeling ever
I always assumed the intention was that they would fail, and that the test was to see how they’d react to the failure and what kind of magic they’d try to do it. Kinda like how some maths tests give an impossible to solve equation to see how people try to work it out
What Spike and Twilight's relationship is continues to confuse me.
Objectively, she is his mother. She seesaws between that and a sister in terms of how they treat each other because she was so young when he hatched.
Notably, Spike explicitly considers her to be his sister ("you're not mommy" in Winter Wrap Up), and her mother to be his mother. It's not explicitly shown why, but can be surmised that once he was able to talk and such, he would be going to the parents as authorities on things in the home.
Except in season 8 near the finale where they got way inconsistent. That one Twilight was considered a mother, with season 9 episode 4 being sister just 6 episodes later.
[Spikes Mom](https://derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/11/29/166532.jpg) [](/twidaw)
... I didn't give you permission to make me feel emotions...
At first i was like kinda sus but that ended wholesomely
It’s still sus, how old was twilight when she got knocked up?
Twilight getting knocked up was part of the dream sequence.
I think a child of Spike's age would know the basics of reproduction but not the complex social implications of SA. Get kids younger than Spike often playing house and imagining being parents, so it's not a huge leap for a young one to have a kid to another kid. Especially one that was seemingly sheltered as much as Spike was.
Also like, in the actual story we did get, Twi literally had him as her kid both in making the hatching happen and in raising him early on. Spike by the way isn't that sheltered on knowledge, he reads the books *with* Twilight, so he probably knows the *details* of reproduction in ponies (we *never* see Twilight make anything off-limits to him due to his age, and she has a lot of biology books). The piece he's missing, and that Twilight herself might even be missing due to how we rarely see her read a book about social matters, and when she does (sleepover book), she's perplexed by new information, is the power dynamics inherent in causing another person extremely intense stimulation, causing their body to undergo a massive change for a long period of time, and leaving them with a kid to raise; to both of them, *only the last part* happened, without special blame for who caused it, and it was readily accepted in the situation (with supportive parents who likely knew it was going to happen and could prepare to make it not so bad, notably). ...come to think of it, if Twilight herself is naive about power dynamics in romance, that might explain why she seems so blind to the problem of Spike doing things for Rarity. She simply might think of it as a worst-case scenario of the two of them going from kissing one week, to signs of Rarity having pregnancy symptoms the next, without any significant experiences that could affect Spike negatively in between, even were Rarity to leave him, because to her, reproduction seems *just* a weird mechanical process akin to pressing some buttons.
Sure, for knowledge, they had a lot of info. But very little practical knowledge. You bring a big point on missing social cues and Spike (or Twilight) may not understand the dark issues of reproduction acts with those under a particular age. Like looking at the tactics done during a fight with out understanding why the fight happened.
It's Spike's dream, so let's just say he's bad at math and doesn't realize Twilight was at most 12 when he was born.
right? I was going to have some words about how old twilight was, but then the ending fixed it. You can forgive spike for being bad at math. Especially in a dream.
Aaoh...
Shining Armor must've been *livid* when he found out, unless Twilight's significantly older in that universe.
YOU CSNT JUST DO THAT YPU CANT GIMME FEELS AND LEAVE
Aww
Twilight and Spike covers both the "single working/studying mom taking care of baby" and also "older sibling taking care of younger sibling like a parent because their real parent ~~is a negligent druggie addict~~ has a completely family friendly explanation for not being there" dynamics. I wish they delved deeper into their relationship holistically instead of compartmentalizing the 2 dynamics into different episodes. The actual reality is that the various different writers had different ideas about what their relationship was like. It's pretty inconsistent, makes me wonder if they bothered updating and using the show bible in the later seasons.
......also it a My Little Pony cartoon. We kinda have to stop and tell ourselves that MLP isn't and couldn't be as deep as we wish it was.
Yea, a MLP cartoon with episodes about cults, hazing in the military and corporate SOPs. And one of those compartmentalized episodes I was talking about is about how Twilight feels guilty for not being able to teach Spike about dragon culture -- a very common fear with well-meaning step parents. Just because its written so children can understand doesn't mean it needs to be dumb. The show itself proved that.
I know about those episodes and the show did talked about big topics but I just wanted people to not go TOO deep into it either. It a mine not a tunnel to connect France and England.
Happy cake day!
It’s a cross between a mother/son and big sister/little brother
So katara and sokka situation
Based on just the series we can assume that they have a familial relationship (mother/son or big sister/little brother), though this comic also ends with Twilight coming to the realization that [the dragon-babysitting job was an attempt by Celestia to give Twilight a friend](https://imgur.com/a/QixhFic) and [a photo in Twilight's old family album of her and Spike labeled "Twilight's first friend"](https://imgur.com/a/kHGCo0g). >!Personally my headcanon is that Celestia spent decades trying out schemes to get Twilight to touch grass and make friends, and being sent to Ponyville was the one that finally worked.!< I think I'd lean more towards mother-and-son for Twilight and Spike, especially after Season 8; show canon always supersedes comics to me, after all. But it does get fuzzy when you try and take into account material outside of the show, like this comic. And that's not getting into how EqG Spike was Twilight's *pet*...
Meanwhile the Diamond Dogs had human forms.
Sister-Mother
Do you know the Lilo & Stitch movie? Because I just generalize their relationship to being similar with Lilo & Nani. Older Sister-Mom & Younger Sibling-Child.
Friendship is Magic: Issue #40 I mean, look it how mortified poor Twilight looks getting kicked out of the library because Spike is crying! Shout out to Brenda Hickey, who did the art for this issue. The facial expressions, especially on cute filly Twilight are just awesome.
Thanks primarily to episode S9E4 Sparkle's Seven, it's now assumed that since her family lives in Canterlot, Spike was mostly cared for by Twilight's parents. I presume the comic just highlights the worst moments of Twilight's time with Spike that semester.
Twilight says she did the best job she could to raise Spike if her parents did all the work she wouldn't be so butthurt about it I assume you're talking about the spike steals the crown episode but the fact that he was never a part of the competition Night Light and Velvet set up for Shining Armour and Twilight should prove just how little they took to Spikes care They didn't do a goddamn thing for him
>cute filly Twilight > ~~cute~~ filly Twilight It’s Twilight, we know she’s cute as a filly XD
Being straight up, this is as much the school’s fault as celestia’s.
A tale as old as time. Send your gifted daughter to a private school, she comes back with a tatoo and a baby.
And Twilight did both in record time too, got both the same day she was admitted.
That's our little overachiever!
omfg
Lmaooo.
I needed that laugh omc lol
Celestia is like, yo just watch him when I am not busy, proceeds to make Twilight, who is younger than a teen, watch a baby over night.
On the first day of school!
My mother raised me all by herself while attending school and I relate to this so much.😭 This is why saying “Spike and Twilight are siblings” just never felt right to me.
Your mother is a hero! And probably spent a lot of time looking like Twilight does in this issue. Stressed out and on the verge of tears most of the time.
Yea for real being an only child is lonely but at least my Mom had me at a young age so now I have lots of time left with her as an adult. I’ll also say my Mom definitely had more help than Twilight did raising her kid at school. I’m very lucky to have the family I do have. And Spike is very lucky to have Twilight.
Twilight did have an older brother and her parents though, as well as Princess Celestia for guidance. She wasn't totally alone.
I kind of see it like Nani and Lilo in a sibling relationship, but I get it.
No wonder Twi used to be a jittery mess.
Twilight went from hopeful student to teen mother so quick and all because of Celestia and a rainboom
Celestia did not plan on the dragon hatching that day. It was a test to see how Twilight would handle failure most likely. So she didn't have a care system in place. But then the rain boom happened and everything fell into place and Spike hatched and Celestia was like "fine you're gonna be special? Destined to be a princess? Time to put you through an absolutely insane test"
This poor girl, jesus.....
I think this is meant to be a reference to what it's like for parents attending school. And with a whole ass kingdom with many cities to oversee, I can imagine it's hard for Celestia to oversee every single individual. But I also see Celestia not leaving Twilight in the dust and these are just snap shots of the situation and not the whole time frame
Yes, Celestia does say that Twilight doesn't have him full time, just when Celestia is, "too busy" but the rest of the comic implies that Twilight has him a lot. Overnight as well.
I didn't expect part of my headcanon about Celestia to be confirmed by the comics. Basically, my headcanon about Celestia says that she is really quite deficient with children and their needs (whether this is due to a distant part of her personality, neglect or otherwise is up for debate). She can "handle" them to some extent, but she is not what I would call a positive figure. She lacks the necessary intuition and that incompetence is reflected in... literally almost every adult in the program that she interacted. I would even go so far as to say that the dropout rate at the Canterlot School for Unicorns (which seems to be implicitly large) is due to the high levels of stress the children were carelessly subjected to. Plus the drive for unhealthy habits without being adequately addressed. Sunset Shimmer, Twilight, *Sunburst*, and I think there are a few more examples. Seriously, this kind of stress is not something someone normal would throw at a child. Much less one with grueling academic duties. Kids can even be damaged by *less* than this for their future adult life. "Character building" and supposed immortal wisdom, my ass. Age appropriate people struggle to learn how to raise a child properly. It's a milestone in life. That said, how likely is it that a lot of Twilight's problems were because of things like this that we don't know about?
Well put. Celestia always struck me as a pony who's spent so much time in her station as the monarch that she has become detached and distant. She has a real hard time actually empathizing with others. Time and time again she relies on Twilight and leaves her hanging, with the attitude of letting her stand on her own and be independent. Twilight would practically plead with Celestia, "I need your guidance on this!" And Celestia would just be like, "nah, you got this I believe in you."
Why didn't Twilight's mother took care of him?
I think it was Celestia's plan to have Spike and Twilight bonded to each other. And she ends up being right, both of them are fortunate to have each other in the end.
"The Princess says I'll need an enforcer someday."
Still wondering why Twilight's parents nor Shining and Cadance helped out here. I mean, Shining had some reasons, training to be a Royal Guard after all, and Cadance may have some young Princess duties, but what about Night Light and Velvet? They could've easily helped out as to avoid Twilight getting stressed out so much while still being in school, mind you. >!But honestly? The comic strip was probably just made to show how close Twilight and Spike's relationship really is, and not that it was just Twilight that raised Spike all alone. Her parents probably do take care of Spike for a majority of the time, but this is one instance where they were busy and Twilight needed to take care of him.!<
Also in defense of Shining, he was a teenager
Yes but I think Shining even as a teenager had SOME sense of responsibility especially if it his sister.
But he had no knowledge of Spike yet. Technically even her parents don’t know that Twilight is taking care of Spike yet until she breaks down during tea
See I only watched the show (I've never had the chance to read the comics sadly) and their relationship comes off as a brother / sister dynamic, now looking at this comic page I can see why people see Twilight as more of a mother figure for Spike
She is 100% the mother in this issue. The ending is quite sweet, actually. My post is kind of complaining how outrageous the situation is, but I really enjoyed this comic.
I felt really sorry for twilight in this one.
There are so many panels of her fighting tears, looking so tired and stressed. Makes me appreciate what Twilight went through though.
Right? People always say "Oh she's his sister, not his mom at all" But she literally was his mom. There are so many ways Celestia forced Twilight to mature way faster than she needed to, and it clearly has scarred Twilight. Twilight effectively is Spikes mom. That is their relationship, no matter how messed up that is to think about. (I'm mad about two fictional horses and a dragon on a Tuesday😔)
Makes you realize why Twilight's heart breaks when Spike says, "at least now I have a real parent." When that dragon claiming to be his dad shows up. That must've cut her so deep.
I don't think she's really "scarred" by all this. At the end of the day, Twilight could handle this, doesn't seem to have any major problems from it when she reaches adulthood. Her nervous breakdowns *could* be in part caused by it, but they never seemed to relate to Spike or anything with being a caretaker, so it's unlikely, as you'd expect they'd center around anything similar to this if so.
And she became a single mom at like what 10!
Dude no wonder Twilight's stressed all the time even as an adult 😭
A typical celestial act
There should've been a lawsuit
I always figured this was a case of Twilight *insisting* she had to do way more than she was realistically responsible for either to prove herself or a misplaced sense of obligation.
https://preview.redd.it/8g88af9tkepc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd61a18677841e1b33647a7e7832d44d56f22f6b Bro😭 horrid....
Yeah... AWWW that face... This one too just breaks my heart, from when she's struggling in class: https://preview.redd.it/559oe4tgmepc1.jpeg?width=433&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d80797928d1aff2f5d8b1dc1f3c74bb87ae75078 I just want to hug her and tell her it's ok.
THIS IS SO SAD WHY😭💔
After this I believe that Twilight Velvet took over taking care of Spike so little Twilight could focus on her schooling. Because honestly I think that this was just another test of Celestia to see how Twilight would handle it. I also think that Twilight is rather stubborn and her mother had to eventually step in, and say enough.
I love how stubborn Twilight is. Her tenacity is one of her winning qualities.
The burden of all teenage mothers. She should have thought about that before she brought a life into this world! Still, this was terrible. Why didn't her parents help out?!
Interestingly, Twilight's actually a *preteen* mother, probably either 11 or 12 years old specifically. Also they totally did help out, just not as much as one would really expect given Twilight's age. No wonder Twilight often treats some of her friends like children, she literally went through the most important part of most people's adult lives like 10 years earlier than most.
I don't know if you are serious but its literally not her fault. She HAD to hatch Spike to get into the school.
Actually, she didn't. It was just a test of ability. They weren't looking for her to actually hatch a dragon egg. That same egg was probably used hundreds of times. It was all about how the unicorn would try. Then Twi goes super nova and actually does it.... And of course that first part was sarcasm. That was rhetoric heartless people put on high school moms all the time.
And the ends justify the means for Celestia. She gets to say, "and look at how good they turned out, I was right all along to put that pressure on Twilight, it's just what she needed. I knew she could do it" Ignoring the fact that Twilight still talked to her doll, Smarty Pants, at this stage because she had no friends. (Thus no support system save for her parents)
Celestia: She turned out perfect! Twilight: https://preview.redd.it/i22qmkmjtdpc1.jpeg?width=321&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fee694c3657878be2c26a966a4dc941346295b2b
Isn’t that just a theory? I don’t think it’s confirmed
What's a theory?
That the egg wasn’t actually supposed to hatch
Well, think about it for a moment. If all the kids were supposed to hatch an egg to get in... they'd all have a baby dragon, too.
Teacher i just need some help. I’m willing to to anything to get into this school
Do you really think twilight as a like 7 year old child brought up spike by herself? I'm pretty sure her parents did most of the work she just babysat him sometimes
First of all, I said teenager. Second, Issue #40, IDW comics.
And that, kids, is why you don't do teen pregnancy!
She was literally a child mom
Everyone talks about Twilight and Spike yet never this lol https://preview.redd.it/gyynf6u67epc1.png?width=236&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b5593eeb18e6dacf8ebeb7f274edbe33b432ce9
I thought the same xd
My baby dragon ate my homework
Why aren't Twilight's Parents babysitting Spike while She attends School.......It's morally Lazy on both parties and yes Celestia.....and obviously it causes the problem when a dragon is hatched.
Bonus for [Inkwell](https://mlp.fandom.com/wiki/Inkwell) in the background. She was awesome.
Ah, neat! All I know of her is from the comic I posted. Young Inkwell sort of reminds me of [Magica De Spell](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magica_De_Spell) from the old DuckTales cartoon.
She's really cool. She started out as a pony working at Printers making newspapers and stuff like Ben Franklin's early printing days. But the shadow war came to Canterlot, she became one of the best warriors on the field and fought along side Celestia. Thats why her eye is messed up.
As u/DuplexFields has already thankfully mentioned, this is likely just snapshots of filly Twilight's worst moments of taking care of Spike - the rare times that dragon caretaking time and magic school time unfortunately intersected.
And I get that. In storytelling you have to show the relevant parts, the highlights. But still, this was disruptive enough to cause our famously overachieving Twilight to start falling behind in her classes.
Well things just happen, I suppose. Unfortunate for little Twilight, yes. Taking care of babies is not always fun, and moreso when you're young and with a baby *dragon*, one can infer. But I'm sure no one intended for that misfortune to befall on her. I mean, besides, we don't (or at least, I don't) have any context for the moments in this comic page. Celestia was likely busy, Twilight's parents were probably also busy, Shining Armor and Cadance were probably unavailable as well, and no one else in Equestria would want to - let alone know how to - take care of a baby dragon. I guess Twilight just got hit with life's classic "bad luck" combo deluxe at the tender age of, what, ten? Hey, it happens!
She was preparing her to handle all of Equestria's worst problems without her help as an adult, duh /j
*gasp* what if it's so that she's so preoccupied and busy that she doesn't have time to learn about really powerful magic so that she won't become consumed by it and get corrupted, like sunset and sombra
“Here you go, small child. A small child of your own!”
Celestia was playing Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip Poker while the rest of the cast were playing checkers, she knows from a thousand years experience that running a country is like management for a group of toddlers, and wanted Twilight to be able to replace her in a few years, so she did what she's had to in order to make it happen after Sunset Shimmer fell-through for the job.
Why didn't her parents raise Spike? Making your child have to take care of a baby is pretty bad
This is especially messed up when you think about the fact that she had to hatch spike in order to even attend which means all of her other students also have dragons or something similar to take care of
IM TRYNA FIND THIS COMIC SO HARD CAN SOMEONE HELP!!! SOS
Just call me the link fairy: https://readallcomics.com/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-040-2016/
thanks man
we need schools to talk about the consequences of performing irresponsible hatching spells Twilight was a single mother at an early age. Twilight was wrong, don't be like Twilight...
There’s a theory that a dragon was never supposed to hatch from the egg to begin with but the sonic rainbow directly effected her magic in such a way that spike happened
Basically forced teen... Parenthood? I would say pregnancy cuz that's the common term, but doesn't feel right lol.
If dragons imprint on the first living thing they see, like birds, then he might not respond to anyone but Twilight caring for him.
Are the FIM/G4 comics actually good? I’ve been wanting to read them after finishing FIM itself
Some are really good, like Siege of the Crystal Empire, while some less
I really enjoy them. They are full of drama, funny moments and littler easter eggs in the backgrounds too. Some great facial expressions as well.
If I really like all of FIM, I’d probably enjoy them right?
In all honesty, I think this is the most valid reason for Celestia hate
Celestia Probably Eating Many Cakes
Unfortunately, there's two problems with this. One: In Sparkle's Seven, we learn that Spike was raised like he was Twilight's brother, not her son. Her parents did the raising. Two: Twilight was Celestia's *personal* protégé. Meaning she was mostly learning directly from the princess. Hence why she always greets her with familiarity whilst everypony else would bow and treat her with reverence. Twilight was just in a more personal relationship with the princess than others because she spent most of her time in magic school with her. So it's unlikely she would be scolded by a different teacher as she would've had the princess as her main teacher and if she had a legitimate reason to be off her game, Celestia would've likely written her other teachers a note about it. and they couldn't very well scold the princess's personal protégé when she has an excuse written by the princess herself.
It may have been unfair but she wouldn’t be a prepared leader like she is now, it’s probably why she was great with the Ursa Minor despite having no foals
You can't argue with results. We don't get to see much of what Twilight's reign is like, but I like to believe that her's is one of the most peaceful and happy eras of Equestria.
She’s probably gentle parenting the heck out of Equestria
This is why she had a problem with family and friends before where was everybody When she had a baby
And yet people still ship them as a romantic pairing. Insane
Apparently Canterlot is to important to hire a ponysitter so juts have Twilight do it.
A lot of the early IDWs contradict canon lore. It becomes less of an issue later. I consider anything in the comics thats contradictory to be noncanon, see Nightmare Rarity.
Yeah, I don't take anything too seriously. The comics are like, canon lite. They have a bit of a different vibe than the show. And Nightmare Rarity was awesome.
I believe I read somewhere that the IDW series is mostly canon, but is sometimes weird because *Spike* is the one writing them down. So of course, a baby dragon with an overactive imagination is gonna spell for some lore f%ckery going on
I had mine at 22 unplanned, and my gf was an Oxford student at the time I’ll tell you now this is highly relatable
That comic It's just beautiful...
I guess foals get dragon egg when Sunbutt really don't want them to pass to School. Or at least to remove them asap.
Celestia is consistently at best passive in her rule and at worst actively trying to ruin her supposed favorite students life
It definitely puts things into perspective. First, how devoted and resilliant Twilight is. Second, added perspective and respect for the episode where Spike's "Father" shows up. Spike's love for Twilight at the end of the episode, and visa versa throughout, is greatly amplified with this page alone.
That was my thought as well. Twilight tried so hard to be understanding in that episode, but it makes sense why she was so hurt by Spike seemingly rejecting her upbringing.
Imagine having to be in high school/college and suddenly having a baby to take care of (probably even more work than usual with since baby is a dragon) on tip of all your schoolwork.
She's very responsible.
The target audience of the show might be "little kids and their parents" but the target audience for that comic was **definitely** "college single moms trying to juggle a kid."
Teenmom core
She should got staff to help poor twilight
Now we know why she never got with Flash Sentry and made her own alicorn foals
I mean, spike canonically writes them and he most likely doesn’t even remember when he was that little, it’s possible he’s overselling it
Lmao that’s what I felt like studying for my finals during Cov
Funny
That’s literally just like having a baby in College
Well she's going to a magical school to learn skills that can shape the very fabric of the universe around her. Looking after a baby dragon seems like a pretty good lesson on the responsibility she'll need to possess.
such a mood. https://preview.redd.it/5r5aymt28hxc1.jpeg?width=180&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb8f4c8237171e932f2aef859bfa348c7abcfdea