Spike's Family/Origin

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

I haven't seen any threads about this or heard anyone bring it up, but something that bothers me is that where Spike came from is never addressed. We see Twilight hatch him from his egg in Cutie Mark Chronicles, but how did the egg end up in Canterlot? In Dragon Quest, Twilight says that very little is known about dragons, so it can be assumed that they don't come across dragon eggs very often. Why would they essentially give away this egg- as far as we know, the only one of its kind ever possessed by ponies- as part of Twilight's test? For that matter, how did they know that it would be an appropriate test to have her use magic to hatch the egg? More importantly, how did they come across the egg to begin with, and why does Spike seem to have no connection to his family? In Winter Wrap-up he mentions "Mommy", but no-one we've seen, other than Twilight (who he specifically says isn't "mommy") could fit that role.

 

Anyway, my question is where do you think Spike came from and what happened to his family?

[Tall_But_Short_37 233]

Perhaps there's some agreement between the Princesses and the dragons that they give them some amount of dragon eggs every year in exchange for being left in peace or something else we don't know about, sort of like in the Inheritance series (Eragon) with the Dragon Riders.

 

Hatching a dragon egg could be a common test for the school. If they succeed, the dragon is given to them as a companion. This companion would help them in their learning, act as an assistant, and the program would build positive pony-dragon relations in the long run.

 

Additionally, we really don't know whether or not dragons maintain close family bonds at all. My guess is no, or at least not after they're at a mature enough age to care for themselves. Personally, I don't think we'll ever find out who Spikes family is, nor do I really hope to. I think he's much better off with the new family he's found in Ponyville.

[Spring Storm 276]

I've heard that Lauren Faust said Spike was given to Twilight for her to raise because ponies don't know much about dragons and Celestia wanted to learn more. 

[Silverwisp the Bard 2,353]

...sort of like in the Inheritance series (Eragon) with the Dragon Riders.

Don't remind me of that trainwreck

 

Anyway:

-The egg was given to the royal Sisters as a security when they made peace withe the dragons.

-Students were told to hatch the egg, but the test was more of a "Kobayashi Maru" kinda deal, meant to see how the applicants would approach the problem rather than have them succeed. Twilight is the first to ever do so. (there don't seem to be any other dragons living among ponies)

[Tall_But_Short_37 233]

I've heard that Lauren Faust said Spike was given to Twilight for her to raise because ponies don't know much about dragons and Celestia wanted to learn more. 

 

But if they wanted to learn more, why give it to a filly to hatch? Why wouldn't Celestia watch over and study it herself?

 

Don't remind me of that trainwreck

 

Anyway:

-The egg was given to the royal Sisters as a security when they made peace withe the dragons.

-Students were told to hatch the egg, but the test was more of a "Kobayashi Maru" kinda deal, meant to see how the applicants would approach the problem rather than have them succeed. Twilight is the first to ever do so. (there don't seem to be any other dragons living among ponies)

 

I enjoyed the books, the movies was just... trainwreck.. yeah...

[Lateon2 14]

Anyway:

-The egg was given to the royal Sisters as a security when they made peace withe the dragons.

-Students were told to hatch the egg, but the test was more of a "Kobayashi Maru" kinda deal, meant to see how the applicants would approach the problem rather than have them succeed. Twilight is the first to ever do so. (there don't seem to be any other dragons living among ponies)

 

I really like this theory.  If hatching a Dragon egg was the standard test to get into magic school, there would be more dragons around Equestria- it seems like Celestia should have one to do the same tasks Spike does.  Spike has something to do with Twilight's destiny, that much is sure.  I hope his backstory gets explored more, personally, because I'm sure that it intertwine's with Twilight's somehow.

[Silverwisp the Bard 2,353]

I enjoyed the books, the movies was just... trainwreck.. yeah...

I really liked the first book but then we got:

-the most obvious ´"surprise reveal" I could think of

-naked twin elves making out

-furries

-wizards popping up everywhere

-more furries

-a third book that was just unnecessary

-Roran turning into Conan the Babarian

-the Razac turning from awesome birdmen into bugs that ride winged moles

-The bad guy actually being morally superior to the Warden

-Roran turning into the Hulk (crushing a steel breastplate)

-the Superlance of +15 against Dragons noone ever mentioned before

-dwarf wizards

-the stupidest villain defeat I can recall, since that guy from The Incredibles

-living dragonheaded statue of plotconvinience

-Eragon figuring out his true name by sitting down and thinking for a while

-The Warden financing themselves by selling lace TO THE ENEMY, IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR

-best way for two immensely powerful spellcasters to neutralize a forcefield set up by inferior mages? Hit it til its gone

 

I could go on, but yeah, lots of potential, kid should have hired an actual editor.

Movie was even worse, agreed.

 

I've heard that Lauren Faust said Spike was given to Twilight for her to raise because ponies don't know much about dragons and Celestia wanted to learn more. 

One post on her dA page read that Celestia raised him until Twilight was old enough to actually care for him. Agreed on the learning part. She might also want to make a point by showing that dragons can live peacefully alongside ponies.

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

Perhaps there's some agreement between the Princesses and the dragons that they give them some amount of dragon eggs every year in exchange for being left in peace or something else we don't know about, sort of like in the Inheritance series (Eragon) with the Dragon Riders.

 

Hatching a dragon egg could be a common test for the school. If they succeed, the dragon is given to them as a companion. This companion would help them in their learning, act as an assistant, and the program would build positive pony-dragon relations in the long run.

I would agree with that theory except that Spike is the only dragon ever seen among ponyfolk and the fact that no-one knows anything about dragons seems to indicate that they have only a very distant relationship with them.

[dreaper 136]

I have a theory about Spike's origins and is rather grim. But before talking about my theory, lets talk about other origin stories that I come across in the fandom and why they, in my opinion, don't make sense... (and please forgive me for any grammatical mistake, English is not my first language  )

 

1. Spike's egg was given to the Princess by the dragons as a sort of a political agreement: If that were the case it would imply that ponies know a lot about dragons, after all is pretty stupid for two parties to make an agreement about something if one party know next to nothing about the other one. Also this would mean that Celestia would have to be very very careful with Spike, she has to avoid anything that will affect him in any negative way in order to a avoid any possible conflict with other dragons. It's a pretty bad idea to use a politically critical egg as a test device for a school and giving the newborn child to the care of an OCD unicorn with bad social skills.

 

2. Spike's egg was given to Celestia by his mother as her last wish or something: If that happened, then Celestia would have take extreme care of that egg, putting it in an appropriate environment condition in order to successfully hatch the egg and not let it die. She would have NOT used that egg as a device to test raw magic from little CHILDREN, that basically spells doom for the egg.

 

3. Dragons eggs are common test for the unicorn academy: If that were true, then there would be a LOT of dragons in Equestria, dragons that are in the same situation as Spike. Therefore Spike would have other dragons friends and hence he wouldn't have had the identity crisis he had in Dragon Quest. 

 

My Spike origin theory is this: His egg was meant to be used as a device to test the magic prowess of little unicorns in order to find the next bearer of the element of magic. and nothing more, Spike birth was unexpected, he wasn't meant to be born. Celestia probably stole that egg from Spike's parents.

 

[bunnybuzki 45]

I wish I saw this post before I created a similarish one. 

 

Maybe Spike is a Dragon Messiah and Celestia kidnapped him in order to mold him into being pony sympathetic, making him an excellent negotiating tool when he ultimately is discovered by dragon-kind. 

 

It's strange that Twilight, thirsty for knowledge, never asked a lot of questions about Spike. 

 

Spike has something to do with Twilight's destiny, that much is sure.  I hope his backstory gets explored more, personally, because I'm sure that it intertwine's with Twilight's somehow.

That is an interesting theory, which ties into 

 

My Spike origin theory is this: His egg was meant to be used as a device to test the magic prowess of little unicorns in order to find the next bearer of the element of magic. and nothing more, Spike birth was unexpected, he wasn't meant to be born.

 

It reminds me of the Harry Potter Prophecy, where he really wasn't born special, it was just the reaction to a prophecy that made him so. 

 

But yeah an episode where Celestria tries to hide the truth from Spike and Twilight would be awesome, with Luna finally explaining it all. Just because I like Luna.

Edited December 17, 2012 by bunnybuzki

[Spring Storm 276]

But if they wanted to learn more, why give it to a filly to hatch? Why wouldn't Celestia watch over and study it herself?

 

One post on her dA page read that Celestia raised him until Twilight was old enough to actually care for him. Agreed on the learning part. She might also want to make a point by showing that dragons can live peacefully alongside ponies.

 

What Silverwisp said. Sorry I didn't post the Celestia raising him part - I didn't go back and re-check the quote, just posted what I remembered about it off the top of my head. On a slightly unrelated note, Lauren said that Celestia taught Spike the letter-sending technique. Thought somepony might find that interesting ^-^

[FlareGun45 2,221]

I say Spike was lost during an event that caused Dragons to flee a scene, and Scorpan discovers his egg, and gives it to Celestia to keep safe. Celestia would think it would be a great advantage to not only know about Dragons, but to make peace with them! I think that's why Celestia gave Spike to Twilight, since she knew she would be the new Princess of Friendship in the future, her learners would rube off on him, so he could make peace with the Dragons... only it was more successful than she thought when he also helped Equestria make peace with the Changelings too!

 

We got ourselves a future ambassador! I say we'll know for sure about his origins in seasons 7 or 8!

Edited February 20, 2017 by MegaSean45

[Tilgoreth 1,915]

I haven't seen any threads about this or heard anyone bring it up, but something that bothers me is that where Spike came from is never addressed. We see Twilight hatch him from his egg in Cutie Mark Chronicles, but how did the egg end up in Canterlot? In Dragon Quest, Twilight says that very little is known about dragons, so it can be assumed that they don't come across dragon eggs very often. Why would they essentially give away this egg- as far as we know, the only one of its kind ever possessed by ponies- as part of Twilight's test? For that matter, how did they know that it would be an appropriate test to have her use magic to hatch the egg? More importantly, how did they come across the egg to begin with, and why does Spike seem to have no connection to his family? In Winter Wrap-up he mentions "Mommy", but no-one we've seen, other than Twilight (who he specifically says isn't "mommy") could fit that role.

 

Anyway, my question is where do you think Spike came from and what happened to his family?

Regardless I can't help but feel Spike is still a slave to Twilight. He was literally born in to servitude. And assuming dragons have thousand year life spans then he's going to be serving her for awhile.

[FlareGun45 2,221]

Regardless I can't help but feel Spike is still a slave to Twilight. He was literally born in to servitude. And assuming dragons have thousand year life spans then he's going to be serving her for awhile.

 

He is NOT a slave! He's a very independent dragon who just chooses to help Twilight out cause he's such a loyal and caring friend! After all the Princess of Friendship stuff she's been doing, Spike OFFERS to do the chores and such for her, cause he knows she would overestimate herself if he wasn't there to assist her. He can leave her at any time, it was proven several times! But he's not going to, cause he doesn't want to!

[Tilgoreth 1,915]

He is NOT a slave! He's a very independent dragon who just chooses to help Twilight out cause he's such a loyal and caring friend! After all the Princess of Friendship stuff she's been doing, Spike OFFERS to do the chores and such for her, cause he knows she would overestimate herself if he wasn't there to assist her. He can leave her at any time, it was proven several times! But he's not going to, cause he doesn't want to!

Then why did Twilight freak out when he choose to help Applejack? He is a slave. Twilight just pretends that he's her best friend. Twilight obviously loves Spike. But he's still a slave.

[pony.colin 156]

Are we still lacking an origin story for Spike? I've forgotten. I used to make snide jokes that Celestia foal-napped when he was still an egg or that she found Spike's egg lying on the side of the road and decided to bring it home with her.

 

Going back to your topic.

 

I want to say, that Spike was probably a lost dragon egg that by chance, Celestia came across/happened upon. Because Spike seems to be the only dragon born into Pony society, it seems like he come upon his situation through unique circumstance. I'd imagine that Spike's egg somehow got separated from the rest of his family's den and somehow Celestia managed to get a hold of him. Perhaps she didn't actually know what the egg was, but could determine that something was living inside of it, so it needed shelter. Perhaps Spike's egg was separated from his family's den through some sort catastrophic event? 

 

I wonder, if that was the situation, did Equestrian officials even know it was a dragon's egg that happened to come upon? What happens if they were trying to kill two birds with one stone.

 

1. We'll use this egg as part of our entrance test for our school for gifted unicorns... AND

2. We can learn what's really inside of the egg with the new applicants trying to hatch it open!

 

Or did they already know it was a dragon's egg?

 

I would hazard a guess, Spike's situation might very much be similar to that of his own pet phoenix, Peewee, where through some circumstance, the egg got separated from the family, but they may have not noticed. Or if they did, they searched in vein. So maybe there's a possibility that Spike's biological family does or does not know that he exists. 

[cmarston1 5,951]

I don't think the show is ever going to address his biological family, or how Celestia got his egg in the first place.

[Rhapsody 112]

I haven't seen any threads about this or heard anyone bring it up, but something that bothers me is that where Spike came from is never addressed. We see Twilight hatch him from his egg in Cutie Mark Chronicles, but how did the egg end up in Canterlot? In Dragon Quest, Twilight says that very little is known about dragons, so it can be assumed that they don't come across dragon eggs very often. Why would they essentially give away this egg- as far as we know, the only one of its kind ever possessed by ponies- as part of Twilight's test? For that matter, how did they know that it would be an appropriate test to have her use magic to hatch the egg? More importantly, how did they come across the egg to begin with, and why does Spike seem to have no connection to his family? In Winter Wrap-up he mentions "Mommy", but no-one we've seen, other than Twilight (who he specifically says isn't "mommy") could fit that role.

 

Anyway, my question is where do you think Spike came from and what happened to his family?

 

Well, if ones just carelessly use these eggs for tests, then I don't think Spike is a real dragon. He doesn't even have wings! So my theory is that Spike's mother is some sort of captured, or genetic experiment dragon who isn't a real dragon whose sole purpose is laying eggs for these tests. However that theory leaves a disturbing whole if you consider that every student at Celestia's school would then have one, or would have chosen to... leave it to die I guess? I don't know, but you gotta admit that they would NEVER have been able to steal a dragon egg from a nest, right?

[FlareGun45 2,221]

I don't think the show is ever going to address his biological family, or how Celestia got his egg in the first place.

 

I wouldn't go so far to saying it'll NEVER happen. That said, it might not happen anytime soon, but it'll happen before the show ends! It's gotta! Seasons 8 or 9, perhaps! I mean what were the odds of AJ's parents being on the show? If that happens, Spike's origins ain't too far off!