Jordan D

I think theirs a few instances in the comics, but the only one I remember off the top of my head is "Friends Forever #21". In it, Twilight Sparkle got sick from a fungus-based food poisoning that affected almost all of Ponyville. She mostly rested in bed while Spike and Zecora teamed up to find a way to cure it. Scan. Not quite the same thing, but theirs a number of times where they got cursed or inflected with weird "magical diseases", like in "The Night of the Living Apples", "Ponies of Dark Water" and "Chaos Theory"/"Accord".

And even then Rainbow Dash's "moment" only served to screw over the main cast. I still think the movie is pretty decent, but it really was Twilight's story and Twilight's story alone. There are rumors of one or two more theatrical films being released, if they're true, then I hope they learn from their mistakes and make something that's more character driven. There was a discussion like this in the Adventure Time subreddit a year or so ago when discussing the status of the Adventure Time theatrical movie (which is probably canceled by now). Someone made good points that might be relevant here, since the movie was going to be a wide-release theatrical film, it would have to cater to audiences who've never even seen Adventure Time, so it's highly unlikely that the film would've dealt to much into the characters pasts, because random movie goers wouldn't know enough about the cast to really follow, or even care. It could've been similar here. Notes left in the official art-book imply the film was going to be more character driven that dived into the established lore of MLP but expanded on it. Instead we got a relatively safe, but decent enough adventure film that didn't really fit the lore of MLP to appeal to more audiences. But at least it expanded on it in interesting ways and introduced interesting characters like Tempest and Capper. Sorry for rambling!

Weirdly enough, a considerable amount of the concept art for The Movie featured Spike and Applejack together. Most notably, Applejack was shown to comfort Spike after Twilight was kidnapped in a heartfelt way. Shame that they were scrapped. Personally, I think Dashie has good chemistry with everyone, given how much their personalities tend to clash. Dash and Pinkie Pie, Dash and Applejack, Dash and Spike and Dash and Rarity tend to be my favorite pairings. Rarity too, to a lesser extent.

Man, I hope not. The way Season 8 was handled and constantly leaked made keeping up with release dates a nightmare, but it probably will anyway.

There's a blink-and-you'll miss it scene in "Princess Spike" where Spike is trying to escape from a window when the mob catches up to him in Twilight's room, trying to runaway from his responsibility and pinning it all on Twilight. I'm not gonna say Princess Spike is a good episode, it's stale, predictable, unfunny and boring, but that one scene turns it from a boring, but generally in-character character piece on Spike's self-esteem issues to an unfunny comedy that disrespects his character development up until that point.

When Equestria Girls first came out, I remember seeing a lot of fanfics with Dog!Spike Winona, but it was mostly just crackfics. I still see new ones on Fimfiction sometimes, but not as much. Dog Spike gets around, and I don't want to think about that anymore then I have to.

The reason why and how Luna became Nightmare Moon is way more complicated than it should be, and has been retconned and altered at least 8 times. The latest explanation I'm aware of is from Legends of Magic which changes it to where Luna was corrupted by Stygian from another timeline in order to use her as a tool to reshape all of reality into his dark image after she accidentally opened up a portal to a world he destroyed, unleashing his darkness into Equestria. Apparently, Luna is known as "The Destroyer" in other world and was described as having "infinite power of destruction", which is why she was chosen to become Nightmare Moon. Celestia too, but I guess she was stronger willed? Older explanations have been: -The narrative the show explained, which is the "most" canon one, I guess. -That Nightmare is actually an alien being from another world/the moon who affected Luna, the king of Anugypt and...all the apples in Sweet Apple Acres once -"Ethical Cancer" (yes, that's seriously what they call it), which turns good ponies bad by exaggerating their good traits to absurdity.The same story says NM isn't "actually" a byproduct of that disease, but it's left as a possibility -Generic dark magic

I always liked the idea that Spike would grow up to be a guy who would just help anyone in Ponyville with their problems if they asked and, given his longevity, would become like a record keeper of sorts who would write down every happening in the town for future generations. It's not as big or profound as a lot of ideas, but I like it, it's a nice, homely and humble destiny.

I wouldn't panic either. Hasbro likes making money and completely shutting off several demographics G4 attracted by making an inclusive setting, will just lose them money. Personally, I'm just gonna wait and see if I like G5 after it comes out rather than getting swept in any vague rumor that pops out.