I admit, I personally like to think that Smolder and Spike are either friends or getting there.

@QueenCold  
[offscreen]  
Ah yes, the fire breathing contest that made Rockhoof have a PTSD episode. But the most I’d be willing to say in terms of a “friendship” is “they can interact without fighting”. Then again, Spike gets along with anyone.

Whether or not people see Spike and Smolder as friends based on their interactions seems to rely entirely on how liberally individuals apply the term “friendship”, so it’s kind of pointless to argue about. They are on friendly terms.  
We know they spend some time together off screen, but nobody knows exactly how much. Smolder seems to have stronger relationships with the other members of the young six, but at the same time we don’t often get to see how she would choose to spend her time or who she would choose to spend her time with because of the restrictive and coercive environment we see her in most of the time.

@Daneasaur
 
“I think a lot of folks here are jumping the gun on a “friendship” between spike and smolder. Other than the two being dragons, they have no connection. Molt Down is the first time they have any sort of extended 1 on 1 interaction and it’s not exactly friendly.”
 
Say, what? Spike and Smolder are very good friends. What about Father Knows Beast? I’d say that definitely proves Spike and Smolder are friends. They chatted and she helped him fly, and he talked to her about his problems, and she helped him with Sludge, and she was really sympathetic at the end. If that doesn’t say “friendship” to you, I don’t know what would.

@LightningLazer  
[Crystal heart]  
I watched Crystal Empire part 1 and 2 recently. All of the mane 6 are helping, Cadance and Shining armor are helping, and Spike is helping. No one saw anything that happened inside of the castle. Now, during the episode, Celestia tells Twilight that “she alone” must fix the problem. Twilight, naturally obsesses on this and won’t let anyone help her. Spike tags along due to Rarity being concerned about her. Spike proves Twilight does need help, but that’s the keyword here, he HELPED. At the end of the situation, Twilight found the heart and reached it but couldn’t escape the boobytrap. She throws it to Spike, Spike grabs it and falls off the castle. Cadance is thrown by Armor and catches him. This was an event that required no less than 4 characters to accomplish, with Cadance’s catching of Spike being seen by all. However, Twilight later on is seen lying by outright saying “I did nothing, it was all Spike.” because she’s so self depreciating about having “failed her task”. The problem here is it stuck with the (rather dimwitted) crystal ponies.
 
[Fire]  
Spike’s fire has always been green. Dog and pony show had his fantasy scene, which depicted him in a form he’d never actually grow into, and since he likely doesn’t pay attention to the color of his fire, just imagined the typical fire of a fireplace. That said, it was no excuse for the animators to fail in coloring his flame right for the finale when he’d been messing with his flame for a fair deal of the episode.
 
[Saving thorax with a song]  
It’s easy to overlook but the episode easily could have been two episodes long. The basis of the song is him risking being labeled as a traitor to equestria to prove that his friend is innocent and was one of the few ways they could end the episode in 3 minutes, but it can be jarring if you don’t pay attention to the stakes Spike mentions he’s making in the lyrics, such as saying that Thorax is more valuable to him than all the crystal ponies because thorax cares about Spike because he knows him as a friend, not because he heard some story about how great he is.
 
[Not “my little dragon”]  
I’m aware and, honestly, I’m somewhat happy that G5 doesn’t look like it’ll have Spike in it.
 
 
@SmolderTheDragon  
I think a lot of folks here are jumping the gun on a “friendship” between spike and smolder. Other than the two being dragons, they have no connection. Molt Down is the first time they have any sort of extended 1 on 1 interaction and it’s not exactly friendly. Dragon society has shown that the more ruthless and cruel you can be to other dragons, the more respect you earn. Even after learning that Spike has, indeed, spent his entire life with ponies, she take the opportunity to throw him under the proverbial bus and make him feel horrible because that’s just how dragon society works. Father knows beast never happened.
 
As a whole, I disliked Smolder’s introduction to the show as a staple because I knew the writers would use her as a substitute for Ember. Spike made friends with Ember by showing that his kindness and the friendship he offered was powerful and Ember learned that he was not like other dragons at all, thus he was unfamiliar with dragon customs, but she was willing to kindly explain them without berating him. Even Ember discussing things with Thorax showed she has a soft spot in her heart that other dragons DON’T have where she showed she has the capacity of compassion and empathy for making other dragons feel bad.
 
Smolder doesn’t have this and, in fact, is much more callous and closer to the typical dragons, but the writers will just randomly slam smolder into scenes with spike because she happens to be staying at ponyville and she’ll suddenly be taking roles that should have been given to Ember, such as explaining dragon growth process.
 
Therefore, this episode can’t be good. Just look at that image:  
-Spike is holding a tattered and burnt blanket, likely meant either as a gift or a picnic blanket  
-All the “teen” dragons are present, but Ember is, once again, nowhere to be seen, but instead there is Smolder, indicating some instance of Spike being in the dragon lands with her for some reason when he clearly established in several episodes that he likes reading about what Ember has to say about things dragons do, but he’s in NO hurry to actually go to the dragon lands.
 
This can only lead to utter utter disaster on the level of a josh haber spike episode.

@dontebell
 
I think that would offer legitimate character development for Smolder! I have always wondered how Smolder would balance her newfound friendships in Equestria with her desire to keep up that “tough” look in front of other dragons. To what extent would associating herself with Spike and her friends in Equestria make herself look weak? Would she stand up to other dragons at the expense of looking weak to them, or would she give into them at the risk of losing her newfound friendships?

@dontebell  
I’d be so mad if that actually happened.

what if this episode is about Smolder trying to act all tough in front of the dragons and end up hurting Spike’s feeling

@SmolderTheDragon  
Yes.
 
And my goodness, this pic has turned into a full blown discussion board

Let me just say that I am very hyped for this episode. The friendship between Spike and Smolder was hands-down the most compelling friendship introduced in season 8. These two have such a unique relationship: Spike knows little about how dragons normally live, and Smolder is curious about how other creatures live. It thoroughly melt my heart to see Smolder defending Spike the way she did in S8E24 “Father Knows Beast”. Yes, “dragons are rude and rebellious, but they aren’t lazy lumps who take advantage of their kids.”
 
Spike and Smolder simply complement each other in a really powerful way, and I love it. I’m so ready for seeing more of these two together in season 9.

@Daneasaur  
Is that the only problem is because his character hasn’t developed, now I’m not against Spike not developing as a character that’s all I ever want for him is to actually develop and discover himself and pursue his own goals as does the main six. Now I wanna go over some details about Equestria Games, to point out the things I can and don’t agree with.
 
Firstly when did Twilight lie about Spike being the sole savior of the Crystal Empire, he was the only to receive the Crystal Heart when Twilight couldn’t and entrusted Spike to do so and besides what would happen if Spike wasn’t able to break Twilight out of her trace while under Sombra’s spell, what would happen if Twilight failed to retrieve the Crystal Heart if Spike wasn’t around. You should realize Spike played a bigger role in that episode, sure Spike had help getting the Crystal Heart to safety but that doesn’t change the fact how much he contributed and saved everyone in the Crystal Empire.
 
Now for the part of Spike being in front of massive crowds: Yes Spike has been in front of massive crowds before but during those times he was acting as the play’s narrator in Equestria Games, he was given the honor to light the torch not just because he happens to be the savior of the Crystal Empire but because he was there to represent and to have all that pressure be put on him and the fact he has to make a good impression is what causes Spike lose his grip in the first place.
 
While some of the moments where cringe inducing and unbearable to watch which I can agree, here’s another thing about Spike’s character he’s always constantly trying to prove himself such as being a good assistant to Twilight, trying to be good help to Applejack (an episode I do not like to remember or just trying to be helpful and useful in general, it shows how determined he can be. Which was why he’s always trying to make up for his mistakes despite he never let anyone down and I’ll get back to your statement about unicorn’s and princess’s magic being locked down for convenience sake and Power Ponies.
 
Also overexaggerating much? You claim the CMC was pestering Spike but are they really pestering him or they really just trying to see if he’s okay, because for the most part of that episode it shows Spike constantly beating himself up because he felt he let everyone down. I still question if the Mane 6 or any of the ponies care about or see him as an equal, I’ll never know.
 
Now I won’t lie about Spike’s fire appearing in a different color due to it being from green to orange, his fire being green for the most but this wasn’t the first time his fire was drawn in a different color, back in the episode of the first season A Dog and Pony there was a scene of Spike fantasizing about being a muscular knight saving Rarity and with that there was a scene of him breathing fire and the color of his fire was also orange. Nitpicking aside, I won’t argue with this as much because it shows the writers can’t seem to get it together with consistency though I don’t mind some of the characters being off model mostly for comedic purposes.
 

 
I will also get back to this. Now about Spike’s character developing since I’ve never felt he developed in that episode, but he actually did learn something, if you paid attention to the moral of the episode it’s that even though you didn’t let anybody down you can still be your own worst critic and you’ll never feel good about yourself if you keep putting yourself down, and every once and awhile you should give yourself more credit.
 

 
While I admit it was brave and noble of Spike to risk and sacrifice everything to help a friend, it’s still pretty stupid to have him convince everyone that a changeling can be good through a song in one episode. Now your statement about how Fire breath, flight and a super power doesn’t mean anything, it actually does especially if it’s useful and can be used to help others. Let’s use your example about how Spike used his fire breath to stop the ice block this is what Spike said “It’s just so happens that I can breath fire …if any one of you can, you would’ve done the same”, this shows and proves that Spike is able to do some of the things that the Mane 6 and the ponies can’t, understand that there’s a balance. Not only did he used his newly gained wings to outmaneuver a Roc but safe Rarity from falling to her sudden death. There are characters who use their abilities as well as their wits.
 
Now back to your statement about how the princesses, unicorns, griffins, pegasi being regressed for Spike to take the spotlight, try to compare that to Power Ponies. The stallion launching an ice arrow toward a cloud was an accident no one expected this to happened and it was inconvenient that all the other unicorns and princesses aren’t able to use their magic because of this. Now let’s compare that to Power Ponies where the Mane 6 were regressed in order for Spike to take the spotlight, here’s why Power Ponies doesn’t work for starters Applejack doesn’t know how to use a rope and lasso properly despite the fact she’s very talented when using a rope and can lasso quite well, Rainbow Dash has a hard time controlling the weather even though having the ability to manipulate the weather is very common for most pegasi and controlling the weather is basically her job then there’s Twilight who can’t seem to cast a spell properly despite specializing well in magic, that …and she’s the Element of Magic. You can argue that they’re not used to their new powers which is rubbish because they’ve been doing this all their lives and Euqestria is literally magical world of ponies and mythical creatures. If it was the opposite where they get overconfident and get captured due to hubris only then it would work and allow Spike to shine, Equestria Games did something right what Power Ponies did wrong and it feels like you’ve got them mixed up.
 
Now I’ve mention before that Inspiration Manifestation, Equestria Games and Gauntlet of Fire didn’t develop Spike’s character but shows more of Spike doing the right thing and Gauntlet of Fire didn’t really develop Spike but rather it had Spike develop someone else, that being Ember. I understand your frustration of Spike being underutilized, regressed or just written inconsistently for plot convenience sake, I even resent the writers and eventually got tired of waiting for them to get better. Still I feel like you’re throwing Equestria Games under the bus because you didn’t get what you wanted from the episode or that you had your expectations too high and like before you state your opinions through pessimism to the point and no offense but it makes you come off and sound like a petulant child. Again I understand your frustration and I feel the exact same way you do, but we both know the show is still called “My Little Pony: Friendship is Mgaic” not “My Little Dragon: Spike is Magic” though it would be a good idea for a spin-off series but in the end of the day with Season 9 being the final season all we can best do is wait and see what happens, whether one of us prepare for the best or the worst when the show finally ends.

@Daneasaur  
I agree for the most part. I believe that Spike has plenty of qualities that allow him to shine in his own episodes that are underutilized and instead we get implausible circumstances that only exist to elevate spike for a moment.
 
One thing I disagree with: I don’t think it was that unreasonable for Spike to have stage fright here. Yes, he’s performed in front of pretty large crowds before, but never in front of so many thousands of adoring fans who look up to him as their national hero. The scale had never been so grand and he had to maintain his image in front of all of these ponies who idolized him, so the pressure was higher.

@LightningLazer  
I’ve gone into elaborate details elsewhere as to why equestria games was not a good epsode, and it honestly didn’t have to do with it not featuring the games.
 
It started fine; games are gonna take place, but there is an OBVIOUS focus on Spike and how the crystal empire kiss his feet because twilight lied to everyone and said Spike was the sole savior of the crystal empire, therefore we gather that the episode will focus on Spike. Weird but okay.
 
So, during the games, they want to honor him with several privileges, such as lighting the torch. Wups, he suddenly has stage fright.
 
Here is the first problem. Spike has been in front of crowds… massive crowds, and commanded them with royal levels of skill. Such as the Canterlot Hearthswarming play, of which he narrated the entire story. But now, he… can’t spittle fire to light the torch? Character backpedaling to cause an issue. A running theme writers often do with Spike in removing his milestones of worth and character to cause a plot to happen.
 
So after that incident, we’re introduced to the magic locking device to prevent cheating. Even the princesses are locked down. Boy, good thing there aren’t violent invading races like changelings lurking around, and accidents never ever happen. We’ll get back to this.
 
So Spike learns he didn’t light the torch (duh, the fire is orange, his fire is green) and feels he let the crystal empire down. So he goes to make it up since the air relay race is over and surely Ponyville won. I mean, they have Rainbow Dash. So, why not let him sing the anthem of the town of the team who won? Sure, that’ll work. Oops, it’s cloudsdale and he doesn’t know that one. Commence humiliation, all because he wanted to do something nice in return to the ponies who worship the ground he walks on.
 
So Spike retired to his hotel room and utterly refuses to leave so that no more bad things can happen. CMC pester him and he says no, he’s not going. Twilight shows up and very nearly drags him out to the closing game and closing ceremony.
 
Suddenly, ice arrow archery, which has magically never had an accident in the years it’s been in practice. Days since last ice arrow accident: 0 as a stallion under stress fires one straight up into the clouds and said ice arrow, which is supposed to cover a little bit of a wooden target, turns a cloud into a massive iceberg. Too bad the princesses and all the unicorns got no magic and it’s too heavy for the pegasus ponies to stop. Guess everypony will have to die (nevermind that the iceblock, at most, might cover part of the stadium floor). Thus, since every pony from the crystal kingdom, ponyville, canterlot, and even griffonstone are totally stupid, Spike is the only one with any ability to stop the iceblock; an event the animators got exceedingly lazy about and colored his flames the wrong color.
 
So what was Spike’s character development? Was it that he learned anything? No, it just had the rest of the cast become so incredibly stupid that he was the only one who could help out. In fact, his character took a backpedaling by having weak knees in front of a crowd. His fire breath isn’t his character strength, and most writers who write spike poorly focus on topical useless stuff like fire breath and wings, when Spike’s strengths are in his view of the world, knowing the deeper emotional parts of his friends, and being a realist.
 
Fire breath, flight, super power, none of that mattered when he put himself on the line to prove thorax was innocent. Spike had nothing but the determination to protect his friends during the gauntlet of fire, where those attributes I mentioned meant nothing. Even power ponies showed that spike is SMART; stuck in the role of humdrum, who can’t do anything of worth in the source material, his wits allowed him to take out half of maniac’s hencheponies before freeing the mane six, something humdrum could never do.
 
Equestria games is bad because it throws out spike’s actual character progression for a “moment of awesome” that is somewhat forgotten, as well as making the entire cast numbskulls.

@LightningLazer  
Who says Starlight hasn’t earned it? She literally saved Equestria twice and was a brilliant friend to Twilight and everypony else.

@FurriesandFlurries  
It’s almost like Trixie is a performer, showing off your skills and talents is exactly what a performer does and stated she wouldn’t have become evil if technically Snips and Snails didn’t overestimate her talents and got her life completely ruined. When I said Starlight literally sold and gave her life away I meant that cart she own was not only her home but also her stage where she goes from town to town to perform and entertain others. It goes to show that she lives her life as an entertainer but if you considerate that karma then I guess Discord constantly screwing over Starlight in Matter of Principals must be karma too for all the times …forced others to regress and ruining other’s lives.
 
As I stated before, even though Rainbow Rocks was a movie Sunset already went through a redemption arc, and while you’re asking what is Sunset supposed now that she went and overcame her internal conflicts, well what’s Rainbow Dash gonna now after she finally became a Wonderbolt, what’s Rarity going to do now that she’s finally but slowly expanding her business, what’s the CMC gonna do now after finally getting their cutie marks? Just because one’s arc is over, doesn’t it’s over. There are characters that go through a phase once they’ve resolved and fulfilled something in their previous one, there’s always a new era for the character to enter through each phase.
 

 
That’s funny because Starlight was GLUED to that one person she saw as her closet friend way before did any of this and that led her to forming a cult all because one friend left her after getting his cutie mark before her and leaving her for a school for the gifted rather than making new friends on her own. Amending Fences pretty much summed up that episode better.

@LightningLazer  
Being selfishly inconsiderate does not mean Starlight is automatically going to become evil again. Plus, Trixie sort of had this coming to her because, at least to my knowledge, Trixie never received any sort of karma for her actions in Magic Duel. So to have her be put in a situation like that is what I consider karma for that…and her constant boasting. Maybe Starlight did go a little too far, but in the end, everything worked out.
 
Also, in terms of internal conflict for Sunset, I’m more or less referring to conflict after her complete reformation from Rainbow Rocks onwards. In Friendship Games, it was still there with the whole thing about magic (and in the alternate cut, her decision on whether or not to go back to Equestria), but after that, it seems like there’s nothing really there for her except “I’m a leader and I’m an awesome friend whose always there for you…always…always…”. Like, Forgotten Friendship is the only exception as of late to have Sunset resolve something without the assistance of her friends and give her an internal conflict and now that the whole thing with Celestia has been resolved…what even is she going to do now?
 
Starlight is more humble in this regard as she’s not trying to be the new face of the show and what I appreciate more about Starlight is that she’s more independent, forming her own little group of friends (Trixie, Sunburst, Maud, etc.), compared to Sunset whose almost always GLUED to the Human Six. I know they’re her friends, but at least expand your friendship circle so that you can be more of a dynamic character, like her partnership with Trixie in Forgotten Friendship.

@FurriesandFlurries  

 
There’s difference between holding a grudge and being distrustful to those that wronged you, some people are quick to forgive and some aren’t this applies to both teenagers and adults. If you do something bad, serious or even heinous are you expected to be easily forgiven or trusted again? It’s never okay to assume that you’ll be easily forgiven and be trusted again especially when you’ve done something to wrong that said person.
 

 
Well neither it was Twilight’s school when she followed Sunset to the EG world and this was way before we got Sci-Twi, and I think the reason she never returned to her world because fans could say she can’t bear to face Celestia again considering Sunset was Celestia’s student before Twilight and that she needed to work herself out more before she even could. Starlight left her village because her plan was thwarted by Twilight and the Mane 5 because she was controlling others and forcing them to give up their identity, talents and cutie marks while forming a cult that claims to be about “equality” and later on returned to ruin Twilight and her friend’s lives as a act of revenge for ruining her cult.
 
Also Sunset did had internal conflict, with the struggle of understanding magic, trying to earn the forgiveness of others for the past mistakes she made, it showed that she had a lot of them that allowed fans to sympathize with her.
 
It’s funny when you say that Twilight doesn’t expect her to turn evil again, in Season 8 most notably in “Road to Friendship” she showed signs of slowly relapsing, acting selfishly again and being inconsiderate of Trixie which lead to the breaking point of literally throwing and selling Trixie’s life away to the point of making her cry, I don’t think that’s something Twilight can hand wave.

@FurriesandFlurries  
Finally someone that I can relate to.

@LightningLazer  
How old are the students at CHS, teenagers. Of course it’s more than likely that teenagers are going to hold a grudge. Now, how old are the majority of the ponies in Starlight’s village, adults.
 
Also, unlike Starlight, Sunset never left the school and that was never HER school. So of course, there’s obviously going to be some cold shoulders on her end. Starlight left her village for an extended period of time to let it recuperate. And when the time came, they made the call to forgive and resolve the issue peacefully. Plus, Twilight never had to worry about Starlight becoming evil once more as Starlight changed under her own merits, not by being blasted with rainbow power or whatever and being stripped of her magic, she could have ripped apart that scroll, but she didn’t as she made the right call. Also, while I will admit Sunset’s reformation was handled well, her character more or less suffered as a result because she turned a complete 180 in her character. No hesitation to reformation, unlike Starlight, just like “oh, I’m reformed now. Welcome me into the group.” Maybe I’d care more for Sunset’s reformation if they gave her more of an internal conflict like they did with Starlight.

@FurriesandFlurries  
It’s actually funny you say that because I was never thinking nor referring to their flaws but their redemption arcs and how they’ve earned such credibility, originally in Rainbow Rocks while the Humane 6 were able to forgive Sunset others wouldn’t forgive her that and were very distrustful, even if it was a movie we were shown that she was working to earn that trust not just from the Humane 6 but from everyone else, this allow fans to sympathize with her and she’s appreciated more.
 
Can’t say the same for Starlight, her redemption was not only rushed but it felt like she wasn’t even going through a redemption arc. Not only the Mane and Spike forgave her despite debating if they should but almost everyone easily forgave her even those from her village despite forcing them to give up their cutie marks, talents and identity for the sake of one pony that left her because she didn’t get her cutie mark yet and probably due to a superiority complex.
 
It’s not cause Starlight overcame her flaws but the fact she was easily forgiven and was given a redemption arc that never worked and the shows seems to spoil her for all inane reasons.
 
There’s a difference in writing a redemption arc the right way and the wrong way.

@LightningLazer  
Yeah, but Sunset’s character as a result of “earning it” has pretty much eliminated a number of flaws, most particularly after Friendship Games.

@FurriesandFlurries  
Yeah but unlike Starlight, Sunset actually earned it.

@LightningLazer  
Yeah…except Sunset now hogs the spotlight in the EG world as a result.

@FurriesandFlurries  
Well, except something like this was done before, you know …like with Sunset Shimmer except it was done better.

@LightningLazer  
Well, seeing as Starlight is in the company of the Mane Six and is under their supervision and guidance, it’s only natural that something like this was bound to happen.