Alternate Spike Ships · 2:21pm Mar 19th, 2016
I've tended to ignore or minimize Spike's possible ships with anyone other than Rarity because Spike is very obviously very much in love with Rarity, and Rarity seems to at least partially return the sentiment. She doesn't act like somepony who is annoyed by Spike's attentions: she clearly enjoys his company and is both emotionally and physically-affectionate to him on-camera. She sticks up for him socially. At a minimum, she sees him as one of her best friends.
But it's true that the rest of the Mane Six also love Spike, in their own ways. Fluttershy was fascinated by him when she first met him and has been shown seeking physical contact with him for comfort. Pinkie Pie likes to play with Spike, because he connects well with the more childlike aspect of her nature. Rainbow Dash's aggressiveness intersects with Spike's masculinity and Draconic instincts. Applejack has been shown to like Spike, though she is unusually physically shy of him (possibly because she realizes that while he's a child he's not a little child; she's treating him as an adolescent male to whom she doesn't want to give the wrong idea). And Twilight, of course, treats him like her own child or younger brother. Generally speaking, all of the Mane Six consider Spike to be at least their good friend.
Twilight's probably out of bounds for romantic love with Spike because she sees their relationship as familial. Though, of course, Twilight herself may be more capable than most of incestuous emotions, given her hero-worship of her elder brother -- I don't think that they've actually done anything sexual together, but I do think that there's a romantic overtone to her admiration to Shining. And of course Spike's not her blood relative.
Fluttershy is an obvious xenophile: her most important canonical relationship with a member of the opposite sex is with Discord, who is basically a tamed Eldritch Abomination. Compared to Discord, Spike is vanilla-normal -- he's a natural, symmetrical and sane being who has been canonically raised as a Pony (I speculate that Discord was raised as a Pony as well, but the cultural conditioning clearly took better with Spike). So yes, I think that if things had gone differently, she might have wound up with Spike, at least to the degree that Rarity seems to have done. The question is if Spike could tolerate Fluttershy's passive-aggressive tendencies in the long run. Probably yes, because Spike is used to dealing with emotional demands from mares, and it doesn't bother him that much.
Pinkie Pie is, well, strange. And very childlike. And tends to overlook minor things like species boundaries. Of course, Spike may grow up emotionally. Pinkie may or may not do so. I like to think that Pinkie is just very neotenous: she will remain eternally playful but become more responsible over time. So they might just grow up together.
I see no sign that Applejack or Rainbow Dash likes Spike that way. Applejack obviously cares about Spike very much as a friend, but she holds back on physical contact with him, compared to how she treats the Mane Six. This is probably because she knows he's at an emotional stage equivalent to a young adolescent colt and hence she has to be careful about accidentally giving him the wrong idea and causing him sexual excitement. As for Dashie, her affect toward Spike seems more "We're pals!" than "I want you!"
There are a few other possibilities as well. Spike is friendly with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and has points of emotional similarity with all three of them. The most obvious ship there is with Sweetie Belle, who might very well have a crush on Spike but (rightly) doubt her ability to gain his interest with Rarity around. His personality also meshes well with Apple Bloom's and Scootaloo's.
In the IDW comics canon, Mina (a young-adolescent female Dragon who is obsessed by comics and runs a comic store in Fillydelphia) admires and likes him, though this interest doesn't seem to be romantic -- yet. Mina may correctly perceive him as too young for romantic love right now, but smart, nice and high-status enough that she's aware that she might feel differently about him when he grows a bit -- and Dragons are long-lived, so Mina would probably be more patient in this regard than would a Human girl or Pony filly.
In short, while Spike's likeliest romance is with Rarity, there are other Ponies who like him very much, and might fall in love with him.
While there are many things pointing towards the Spike/Rarity ship being the most likely, there are also many things making it not likely to happen as well. More often than not Spike only goes on about Rarity's looks which points more towards infatuation than anything though it is true they tend to get along well enough. His 'Rarity can do no wrong' attitude would make this a bad paring as well since she needs someone to hold her back during the times when she lets her greed get out of control and of course there is also the problem of their age difference however much that is. Then there is also the fact that Rarity is constantly chasing after other stallions making it seem as if she doesn't seriously consider Spike as a romantic interest.
Personally I think Spike would more likely go with one of the CMC as they are much closer to his age, with Applebloom potentially being older than him even. In fact now that they have their cutie marks it is more likely that they may spend more time around Spike since they won't be as dangerous as before and less likely to send Spike running.
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If you look at the Spike-Rarity episodes in sequence, Spike has become less blindly worshipful of Rarity, and Rarity shows an increasing respect for Spike, most especially including her demanding that others respect him as well. It looks an awful lot as if Spike is maturing as he gets older, and that Rarity is responding positively to his increased maturity. It's very important in any of the character arcs on this show to observe the change over time, because one of the really strong points of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is that there is character change, but that it is usually a slow process by the standards of televised drama.
Spike will probably not get Rarity during the time covered by the Show, because it will probably end before he is old enough for Rarity to see him as an adult. However, for all Rarity's chasing after stallions, she never seems to actually catch any, which very strongly implies that her own search criteria are immature and unrealistic. In the Shadow Wars Story Verse, the turning point came about YOH 1503 (Season Three) when she saw Spike almost die fighting Sombra, and then later was saved by Spike from the Nightmare Forces. After these things happened, she was absolutely sure that she loved Spike, but not at all comfortable about her feelings for an early-adolescent (at most) Dragon.
As I said, Spike would be very likely to go for one of the CMC, as they are his good friends and are emotionally-compatible with him. In my opinion, the one most likely to be attracted to him is Sweetie Belle, who gets to see a lot of him because he hangs around Rarity so much, and who is liable to admire the exact same character traits in him as does Rarity.
I personally ship Sparity myself. However, my ship is based on the likeliness of Rarity becoming an alicorn. Otherwise, I believe that they'd end up with others. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to be certain in any direction though.
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She does give the impression that she's Pony Pretending To Be Anne Shirley by times. She functions in an adult setting but at the same time, there's a lot of kid left in her and said kid used to imbibe and act out romance comics back when those were a thing.
It is very strongly implied that Spike/Rarity dynamic is one of annoying little brother crushing on his big sister's friend.
That never works out in life, nor should it in the show.
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Thing is, Rarity isn't at all acting as if she's "annoyed" by the attention. She's not getting with your program.
3816070 yeah, she's not annoyed by it, but not being annoyed and actually even distantly considering the reciprocation are entirely different.
Seriously, Spike is what, twelve, if that? And Rarity is easily over twenty. Any sort of romantic interest between them is clearly impossible, unless you make Rarity a pedophile.Even considering them as a hypothetical future ship is a level of creepy equivalent to Jacob/Renesmee pairing in the goddamn Twilight series.
People always grow out of their childhood crushes, and getting it on with a guy you knew as a pre-teen with at least ten-year age difference, is... well, not necesserily morally wrong per se, even if it could easily be thought of as sex grooming, but at the very least is far outside mainstream.
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I assume an 8 year gap. Thus, he was 10 and she 18 when they met; he's 15-16 and she's 23-24 now (between season 5-6). By the shorter chronology that I think the Show writers are using, he's now 12-13 and she's 20-21 assuming those ages (that's where I think they actually were around the point of "The Secret of My Excess," 12 and 20).
The thing you're not getting is that time passes. Unless one of them does something that irrevocably prevents their union, or she is so creeped out by the fact that she can remember him being younger, the age gap makes less and less difference as time goes on.
Which is what the Show is depicting.
And as long as she doesn't drive him away, he's still there. He's a Dragon, and Dragons can be very PATIENT.
3816089 I generally asssume Twilight to be 11 at the moment of getting her Cutie Mark (since she is essentially getting her exam into First Form), making it an 11-year age difference. And I generally take Rarity to be older than Twilight even if not by much.
This makes sense, since, as I said, Spike is, even at the current moment of the continuity at best in his early teens and Rarity being an owner of two-store successful business cannot possibly be less than 22 (I put her as 25 at the end of fifth season).
So... yeah, when Spike reaches eighteen, assuming that dragons mature and grow up at the same rate as ponies, Rarity will be preparing to celebrate her thirtieth birthday and, given her matrimonial inclinations, highly unlikely to still be single. As is Spike highly unlikely to be consistently carrying the torch for what, six years?
And even if both those unlikely events would be true, the statistics are against this thing, since in our world we have about 4% of marriages where age difference between partners is above 10 years, and that's within one species.
That's actually how it works with humans. You growing up together actually prevents people from developing sexual attraction, which is an in-built natural barrier against incest.
And yes, establishing a strong emotional bond with a pre-teen child and then using that emotional bond to engage him romantically when he reaches the age of consent is still morally wrong as fuck. Even when done unintentionally.
No. No they cannot. Unless Spike has migrated from Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea, canon dragons are naturally greedy and impulsive.
There is not a single instance in the show of dragons being naturally patient, and numerous instances of the opposite being true.
3816095
What's so special about "eighteen?" It's the age of majority in most and of consent in some American states (it's more commonly 16 or 17 in most American states, something you may not know because Hollywood likes to pretend it's 18 everywhere) and consent in In the SWSV, it's neither the age of consent nor majority in the Vale of Avalon. Age of consent is 14, age of majority 21. (I base Equestrian age of consent on American age of consent c. 1910's - 1920's, which was 10-14, lower in the coastal and higher in the heartland states).
What? Did you think that an alien civilization used c. 2016 American age of consent laws? They do have age of consent laws, for functional reasons parallel to those for which we developed them, but the reasons aren't entirely identical, nor are the conclusions which the legistlators drew from them. For one thing, Humans don't have Cutie Marks, nor do they have marescent.
But age of consent isn't really the issue, as such is only enforced the way it was in America a century and more ago, which is to say only by parents angry at unwanted suitors for their children, or by the state in situations where child prostitution is expected. The questions are whether Spike's guardian (Twilight Sparkle) considers him old enough to be courted, and whether Rarity considers him old enough to court.
Rarity has been extremely eligible for years now -- certainly since she became an Element Bearer -- and yet she remains unmarried. My guess is that this is because she has very high matrimonial standards, in terms of both compatibility and wealth. In the SWSV, her standards have risen over the last few years, as she increasingly considers Spike to be a plausible prospect for matrimony.
You may not have realized this -- because a lot of fans don't, they like to see Spike as Poor Pitiful Low-Status Schlub -- but Spike is actually a very high-status member of his adopted culture. He is the brother of one Alicorn Princess and brother-in-law of another. In some systems of aristocracy this would make him a Prince himself; in most he would be considered at least the social equal of a titled aristocrat.
He is one of a very small list of people who can see any of the four Alicorn Princesses without an appointment, simply by walking into their Courts and announcing his presence. He's an official Hero of the Crystal Empire -- it's a small empire these days, just a city-state, but it's a very ancient and honorable one. He has friends all over the land and in all walks of life, including some of the highest. He is well-connected.
I think it may have already occurred to Rarity, who likes Spike and pays attention to matters of social standing, that Spike is actually of higher status than is Rarity herself. And that much of his status would also accrue to his wife.
And yet Spike and Rarity exist, and display love toward each other, within even vanilla canon.
Incidentally, I'm part of that 4%. I'm 51, my wife 32. Which is a nineteen-year age difference. And when we met we were 40 and 21.
You're talking about the Westermarck Effect.
That requires that the two parties involved be raised in close proximity together in the first few years of their life. This does not apply to Rarity and Spike. Rarity and Spike meet when they are 18 and 10, respectively in the SWSV, and close to that general range even in vanilla canon, and they are not raised in close proximity together -- they live in different homes in the same town.
Um ... I actually don't see the moral principle being violated here, either in our culture or in any plausible version of Equestria's. Do you care to explain it?
ADDENDUM: My wife points out that Rarity could be grooming Spike to trick him into marriage for exploitation later on, without loving him. This would be wrong.
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You're not suggesting a romance between 14-year-old Spike and 23-25 year old Rarity, are you? THat may not be strictly illegal, but come on. Spike is clearly shown as immature, and thus unable to have a consensual relationship, and that is not likely to change within one or two years.
We aren't talking just about a legalese, since if Twilight was willing, she could probably marry him off at any age, being one of four rulers of the country and all. We are talking about what would be actually reasonable and desirable.
Nope.
Just nope.
On paper yes, that may be true. He is number one assistant to the Princess, direct line to Celestia, hero of Crystal Empire and yada-yada-yada. Except nothing on show indicates that this in any way is translated into actual social status. In fact he is mostly delegated to menial jobs and is a butt of majority of jokes. Within the show this almost borders on Fantastic Racism, but that's besides the point.
We kinda have to conclude that in a culture where an actual Princess can't always catch a cab and can be a focus of school paper slander, being an assistant to one is pretty much pointless in terms of social standing.
Yes, Spike is a little brother to Rarity's closest friends. Nothing more has ever been shown, and in fact Rarity has explicitly stopped any attempts of him to initiate a more romantic relationship.
Good for you. How many relationships with a similar age gaps do you know?
Factor in that unequal (in terms of age) relationships favor heavily older men over older women, and that in fact all observed marriages are within single species, and you may understand the statistical unlikeliness of the pairing we are talking about.
Anecdote does not supersede statistics.
Why are kids forbidden from pursiung sexual relationships? Not because they are biologically incapable of it, but because they are deemed not sufficiently mature enough to make the choice to engage in one and can be easily manipulated by adults into relationships that are detrimental to them.
So getting in an emotional bond with a child and then using said bond to initiate a romantic relationship is only marginally less wrong than actually having sex with him or her when he or she is still a minor.
In an extreme case scenario that is like mother raising a child as her future sex partner, which is wrong. In a less egregious case, this is simply exploitation of inequality of power and social intellect between in adult and a child.
Even done inadvertently, that is still ill advised and at best a morally grey area.
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What? No, that wouldn't even be possible with an 8-year gap in their ages. When Spike was 14, Rarity was 22.
You're missing that I peg S4E01 as being four years (an "Equestriad") after S1E01, rather than merely one year later.
I disagree with your assumption that Spike is, as of Seasons 4-5, particulrly immature. He's still not psychologically adult, but he's not a little kid, nor does he act like one. The psychological transition to adolescence seems to have happened around S2-S3, based on his behavior.
You're missing that Equestria, while it has a formal aristocracy, is also a rather flat culture in terms of its status heirarchy -- flatter in some ways than modern America (which doesn't). You're also missing that he's not just an assistant to a Princess, but actually brother to one Alicorn Princess and brother-in-law to another.
He's doing "menial jobs" for royalty. That is what, traditionally, younger aristocrats did. Read up someday on "Gentlemen of the Bedchamber" and "Ladies in Waiting."
Come to think of it, who -- aside from Twilight and Rarity, who both in different ways love him -- is getting him to do menial jobs for them?
I'm not missing it, I am pointing it out. The fact that he is related to royalty means squat, not in the least part exactly beacuse even being an actual member of royalty seems to grant very little social status as compared to how Royalty is treated IRL.
And Twilight pre-Princesshood. And others of Mane Six. And others as plot dictates.
There is a reason why he's compared to Humdrum in the Power Ponies episode.
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You are obsessing on the most superficial aspects of social status and ignoring the deeper ones, something Rarity is (by S4-S5) far less likely to do. When all is said and done, Spike has friendly access to the four most powerful Ponies in Equestria, to two of whom he is closely related. You are also missing the entire point of the "Power Ponies" episode -- Humdrum turned out to be the hero of that episode. It would be extremely difficult for Rarity to find anyone higher-status thn Spike who was male, single, emotionally-compatible with herself and of higher status.
I'd say "Fancy Pants" except (1) he's probably married and (2) he's actully of lower status than Spike will be in few years -- he's just better at acting upper-class.
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I'd actually say that it's you who is focusing mostly on nomenclature that seem analogous to real world, without accounting for the difference in meaning they have in a different world.
In our world having an ear of two out of four tetrarchs of the country is of immense importance. In pony world Princesses stoop to save little fillies from their regular nightmares and do not coin in favors even to catch a taxi. The systems are entirely different, and just saying "well, he's related to Princesses, he must be important" is silly and not at all supported by canon material.
If anything the social status of Equestria seems to be much more reputation-within-an-area-based than connected to wealth or nobility.
Who will only be even hypothetically eligible in five years (again, assuming he does not stay a baby dragon for next three hundred years, as is entirely plausible for ostensibly long-lived species), and is of different species.
And what exactly "emotional compatibility" you're talking about? They have zero common interests, his main infatuation with Rarity stems from his entirely superficial crush due to her appearance, and he has a character that is well-suited to a teenage boy. There is no "emotional compatibility". There may be some potential for it, just because Spike is generally a nice person, but there are absolutely zero specific traits that they either share or that are complementary. Definitely nothing that cannot and would not change over the next five years.
If you just meant to say "he's not a dick like Blueblood", while I'd agree, I would definitely say that it's not exactly a sufficient basis for a relationship.
P.S. do you want my SWSV review or not? I've written a pretty expansive one, and can either send it to you directly, or publish it in my blog with a link to your stories.
P.P.S. if you don't answer me soon-ish, I might be unable to resist my urge to publish it anyway.
I wrote 1500 words, and it would be sad to just throw them away.
3817490
Spike wins on reputation within his local area as well, because he's very good at making friends with Ponies, and he's known to be the good friend and associate of the Mane Six -- the local heroes. His "local area" includes both Ponyville and Canterlot, in part because he canonically makes fairly frequent journeys back to Canterlot, often to confer with Celestia or Luna. He also, apparently, has an even better reputation in the Crystal City.
The status hierarchy is fairly flat because of the Equestrian emphasis on Love and Friendship, which tends to make abuse of those lower than oneself in the hierarchy an action promoting considerable unpopularity. This doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Nor does it mean that Rarity -- who is an expert social manipulator, is unaware of its existence or of Spike's fairly high position within it. Though I do theorize that, until sometime in Season 4, Rarity took his status for granted. You can see her treating him with increasing respect in S4-S5, which may also be because he's growing up.
Several other writers have pointed out to me that the reason why Spike is outshined by his friends is that he happens to have, as his very best friends, what amounts to a team of superheroines -- and they're full adults, while he's merely an adolescent. I'm talking about in the main vanilla canon verse here, not the Power Ponies AU. By normal Pony standards, Spike is high-status (pals around with Princesses and elite champions), personally-powerful (super-strong, scale-armored, temperature-resistant and fire-breathing) and extremely charismatic.
The super-powers he gets from being a Dragon, but most Dragons aren't high-status or well-liked in Equestrian society. From the POV of both the average Equestrian Pony, and the average Equestrian-assimilated Dragon (such as Mina) he's freaking awesome. There are also hints even in vanilla-canon that he is very powerful for a Dragon of his age and size -- for instance, other Dragons don't seem to have the ability to teleport objects with their Dragonflame.
As the series has progressed, there are hints that Rarity has taught Spike a lot about the fashion industry, and that he's found it interesting. If things work out between them, Spike will go from being Twilight's Number One Assistant to being Rarity's.
You may find that terribly exploitative of her, but then this is Spike's CONCEPT of Love. Why?
Because that's how TWILIGHT SPARKLE raised him.
Oh yes, would love to see your critique / review, either PM or blogged. If you blog it, please do link to the stories. Remember, I'm a Shameless Self-Promoter.
Yes, this applies even if your review is mostly negative!
I'll probably wind up commenting on it in any case.
I could only see Rarity and AppleJack being closest to him in the MLP series (except Twilight but as comics susggest, it's really more of a mother/kid relationship) to be infautated with him. Rarity seek a romantic knight and noble while Applejack seek a trusted and responsible good friend as her mate(and practical one who can cook, work etc). Spike may fulfill both these roles and he has connection with them. I don't need to mention Sparity scnees. But there are also plenty of Spike/Applejack interactions in "Spike at Your service"(Aj repplaces Rarity in the script and both save eachothers life), "Dog and Pony show"(Spike almost kisses her mistaking her for Rarity), "Princess Twilight Sparkle" (Aj is the first one to hold uncounsciouss battered Spike rather than Rarity) or "Twiligh Kingdom" (Aj smacks Spike head when he say something stupid like an old wife would do her husband)
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There you go, a review.
Amply linked back to your account and specific fics, as requested.
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But also Fluttershy is fascinated by him as a friendly example of a Dragon -- a race she normally fears. We see this in the very first episode of the series, and also in at least one other episode she hugs him to gain emotional comfort from him (in the SWSV, of course, she's also draining a little Love). Pinkie Pie views him as someone she can play with. And Rainbow Dash sees him as a pal who accepts her extremely butch attitudes. I would judge Twilight and Rarity as the two who love him the most (in different ways) then I suppose in some order Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie and Dashie. They all at least like him an awful lot.
3817541
Dude, I am sorry, I am pulling out of this argument. You've repeated your argument that Spike's familiarity with princesses makes him "high status" severral times now, something I do not accept at all, and seem to ignore my counterpoints.
I think I made my case clearly enough, and that repeating ourselves several times over will not yield any new insight here for any of us.
3817587
Your only counterpoint boils down to "Ponies are sometimes disrespectful to Spike." Problem is, they are also sometimes disrespectful to Twilight Sparkle as well, and she's very obviously high-status. This is how a relatively flat hierarchy works.
Access to the Princesses is important beause they are the rulers of the country. We've seen in vanilla-canon that high-status Ponies will literally line up for the privilege of touching Celestia's hoof. Spike can pretty much talk to Celestia any time he wants. Some subcultural status hierarchies might consider this unimportant, but by definition these will be themselves fairly unimportant ones, unless they do very specialized work (such as high-energy physics, and even then they would see why knowing someone like Spike would be useful come grant application season).
3817700
Exactly. That's how flat hierarchy works. If a highest-level person does not get all-that-much respect than her step-brother-underling gets almost none.
Relatively speaking it is high status, absolutely speaking this and five bucks will get you a cup of coffee.
As can most ponies if they have actual reason. And do you actually believe that Celestia will do things for someone she knows, that she would not do for anyone of her little ponies? Or that anyone actually believes Celestia to be biased and nepotistic?
3817719
You have an entertainingly-naive concept of how relative flatness of heirarchy works. You especially fail to grasp the role played by self-interest. Or the implications of a tolerant society with numerous sub-cultures on any heirarchy (how much respect would Michelle Obama get at Baen Books, for instance?).
I can't write an Equestria that silly.
3817722 again, this is a universe where multiple-times saviour of Equestrira, defeater of Nightmare Moon and Discord, Bearer of Element, Friend of Celestia's protege gets bullied in a village store for two bits.
I hereby rest my case.
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That was Fluttershy, who is prone to be a doormat, and easily-underestimated by Ponies who don't know her. And "Putting Your Hoof Down" was Season Two, and if you recall the outcome of that episode, she wound up dominating everyone else in that episode. And getting exactly what she wanted, which is Fluttershy's usual ability. Which was a good thing for the Ponies who annoyed her, because she was obviously very close to firing up The Stare.
In fact, part of the reason 'Shy's so upset in A Robust Solution is that, in the events of Fluttershy's Night Out, she did not get what she wanted.
I'm not surprised that you, too, badly underestimate the Element of
Passive-AggressionKindness.None of which had anything to do with her supposedly high status, and everything to do with her personal qualities.
3817738
Wait, you actually don't get the many clues in vanilla canon that Fluttershy comes from a rich and probably aristocratic Pegasus family? In addition to the status she derives from being the Element of Kindness?
3817743 which further enhances my point rather nicely.
And what would be those "clues" exactly?
3817744
Her lack of any visible means of support while she maintains what is economically an expensive hobby, her extremely ladylike mannerisms despite the fact that she is a semi-hermit who almost became a Crazy Cat Lady, and indeed her obsession with caring for animals and ecology (which implies wealth in our own culture).
3817746
That is utter bull.
She is clearly town vet and wood creature caretaker in a culture where almost everyone has a pet and environmetn is 100% controlled. That could easily be her full-time paid job.
Besides, Pinkie Pie runs multiple full-town parties of seemingly her own funds that she seems to earn of part-time job in a bakery, and Trixie buys Alicorn Amulet from her earnings as an unqualified labor in a rock farm
So economics just don't have to make sense in the show.
Also Rarity's parents are entirely and utterly of non-noble background, which in no way impeded her from being one of most graceful and elegant ponies in Equestria.
Those are not "multiple clues", those are weak indicators at the very best.
3817752
Everyone doesn't have a pet. All of the Mane Six have pets. Sort of (what Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy have are essentially familiars). And I really doubt that the ecosystem is managed to the point of healing woodland animals.
She's a baker and caterer, and one of the most Talented ones you'll ever see. By encouraging frequent parties she makes the Cakes rich. You didn't notice this?
Her parties are probably going to put Pumpkin and Pound through college.
Yes, because Rarity's Talent is for pattern-manipulation and one of her specialties is social manipulation, and she's spent many years studying how to act upper-class. And you can see the mask slip in some episodes.
Fluttershy's mask never slips, even though she's eccentric and anti-social, because it isn't a mask. She was born what Rarity wants to become. Which is probably, originally, why Rarity first befriended her.
Rarity is a social climber. Which, also, is one of the reasons Spike actually has a chance.
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Every well-developed character has a pet, and some have multiple. It is clearly a societal norm, rather than exception.
The ecosystem is canonically managed to the level of ponies personally waking up critters from the hibernation and hoof-making personal nests for birds. Obviously semi-sapient creatures in an Utopian country must have a way to get medical help when they need it, and even more obviously it is a job for a state to provide it.
Yes, that's how I usually take it. But I would say that Pinkie taking money to throw a party for someone, or even worse, charging party attendance or buffet fees is a bewildering and weird idea.
And she clearly does a lot of them for free, including giving away Cake produce in bunches.
And I didn't "miss it". There is no canonical indications of her selling anything at any of her parties, unlike, say, Applejack. It would be a reasonable assumption that she occasionally does paid jobs as party-planner, but there is nothing explicit on it in any episode.
Suuure it doesn't. Tell that to the critters from the Gala. Or badly beaten up Rainbow who tried to force Flutters to go watch dragon migration.
The point is that if Fluttershy wanted to act nice and socially prestigious manner there would be absolutely no barrier to learning it. In fact, it could have been something rather akin to Cognitive-Behavior Therapy for her social anxiety, either self-administered or provided by her school.
And it is Fluttershy's cutie-mark-ish sort-of-tallent to be fluttery and delicate.
It's definitely an interesting concept. My fave ship is AppleSpike.
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Applejack likes Spike for many of the same reasons she likes Twilight Sparkle: they're both brave and honorable. One obstacle in the SWSV is that AJ is older than Rarity -- 22 as opposed to 18 in YOH 1500 -- the time of Luna's return, and hence 12 rather than 8 years older thn Spike. AJ's morals are also stricter than Rarity's; she wouldn't be willing to excuse herself into canoodling with Spike the way Rarity starts doing around YOH 1504-1505, when Spike is technically legal but still really not yet an adult.
On the other hand, had AJ not been able to rescue Landscape Carrot she would eventually have fallen in love with someone else, and Spike is definitely on the list of males she likes the most. This rescue takes place in the SWSV in YOH 1508 -- 8 years after Luna's return, when AJ is 30 and Spike is 18. Had, say, Landscape been slain by Chrysalis -- something that nearly happens in the main timeline -- Applejack would have been badly bereaved. (In the main SWSV timeline, this is the same years Spike actually marries Rarity).
The Apple mares on the senior lineage of Dawnflower's have tended to marry late. It's highly plausible that Applejack would still be single in YOH 1511, when Spike turned 21. At that point, she'd be 33, and the age gap would start to look less and less significant to her as time went on.
The main requirement for this sort of thing to happen is simple -- Rarity rejects Spike. Why does she do this? Maybe Spike gets a little pushier than in the main worldline of the SWSV, possibly in YOH 1502 or so, before Rarity knows that she loves him romantically. Maybe Rarity lets things go too far, too fast, and backs away in horror from what she perceives as an immoral lust for someone much younger than herself. (She's not entirely comfortable about this in 1504 and after either, but by that point she's much more hooked on Spike).
Another possibility, of course, would be Spike going for Apple Bloom. She's even within a year of his age. She's brave and forthright, qualities Spike admires. It's possible.
So, while I wouldn't make it a front-runner alternate Spike ship, it's not a totally-implausible one.
3818200 Okay.
Waitwaitwait! The comics have another young dragon in Equestria? Was she raised by ponies, like Spike? Where can I find this?
3818314
Mina is a bit older than Spike. She's part of an immigrant community of peculiarly small and weak Dragons (most of them are bigger but less powerful than Spike) who live in "Dragontown," a neighborhood of FIllydelphia. My headcanon is that these are "dregs," who have been cast out of their parental nests and been unable to establish themselves in Dragon society.
Mina seems to be very impressed by Spike and the glory he has won in Equestrian culture. She may even have a bit of a crush on him but be waiting until he gets a bit older. She, unlike Rarity, would have a very good instinctive sense of his developmental path.
It's from the Friends Forever where Spike teams up with Luna.
Actually, I've been re-watching the EQG-verse, and I dare you to find a significant difference between how human Rarity treats dog!Spike as opposed to how pony!Rarity treats dragon!Spike
3817577 Yeah Fluttershy and rest like him too, but so is for example Dash and Rarity toward Discord in his recent episode. Is just tolerance and general kindness of Fluttershy. Same could be said about every character she interact with. Iron Will, Bulk Biceps or Tree Hugger. It doesn't mean she is attracted to them all. She would prove it by interacting with them on more than one occasion and on more emotional level.
3818448
Pony Rarity is perfectly aware that Spike the Dragon is sapient and able to talk, from the beginning, so her caressing him in public and private means a lot more in terms of exposure on her part. Humanoid Rarity actually becomes more reserved in her behavior toward both Spike in Dog Form and Spike the Dog when she realizes that they are sapient and can talk.
This is because Pony Rarity is a good friend and possibly romantically in love with Spike the Dragon, while Humanoid Rarity does not feel this way toward either Spike -- though she does like him a lot, implying that there is something about their oversouls that instinctively draws them together.
3819444
No. Watch the first meetings between both Fluttershys (Pony and Humanoid) and Spike the Dragon. In both cases, Fluttershy fawns all over him; in the first case wanting to hear his whole life story; in the second case, reacting very strongly even for Fluttershy toward a cute animal. IMO, if Spike hadn't so obviously and strongly crushed on Rarity when he first met her, he might very well have wound up falling for Fluttershy simply because she paid him a lot of attention, and very flattering attention.
That Fluttershy is beautiful, kind and intelligent also would have helped matters. As for Spike, he's very obviously sexually attracted toward female Ponies, in general.
3820429
yes she is. Yet all affections Rarity shows to Spike are rather symmetrical, in fact reenacted almost scene-for-scene.
That's because for Rarity the pony, considering Spike the underage boy as a romantic partner is as ridiculous a notion as for Rarity the human is to consider Spike the sapient dog.
Otherwise I'd dare you to find the case where Rarity in MLP somehow shows different attitude for Spike than EQG Rarity. Which you won't since it's obviously the conscious decision by authors to underscore the similarity as sort of Law of Dimensional Symmetry
3820435 Fluttershy seen him as a cute child or just a cute animal. There was nothing sexual in her behavior. You have to rewatch the series.
3820522
Yes, that's what Fluttershy saw him as at the time. That was the very first episode of the show. Had Spike not fallen for Rarity, however, it's quite possible that in time he might have wound up with Fluttershy. Among other reasons, because Fluttershy is a xenophile in near-vanilla canon. Keep in mind that Spike is a lot more normal than is Discord.
Honestly, it's like you think the whole show happens in one instant of time, and don't get that years are passing.
3821975 Nah, no matter what fiction or canon series. Fluttershy just saw him as cute animal, the real dragons scare her. It's like being afraid of all kind of insects but still seeing Ladybugs and butterflies as cute because of their harmless adorable shape and color. There was just nothing sexual. And WHAT COULD be is meaningless. Fluttershy COULD BE anything and attracted to anything when given certain additions to her backstory. Her canon Hasbro version is aromantic at best and asexual at worst.