@Background Pony #68A0  
Well season 1 background lore needs to be dug up from Lauren since she was the one who set that up, and at that point, she had said Spike was raised by Celestia and had been groomed to be Twilight’s caretaker and realist to ensure Twilight didn’t JUST study her books, but actually ate, interacted with others, and took care of herself.
 
Breadcrumbs of this were sprinkled through season 1, such as the 1:1 scroll sending via spike (A way for the princess to contact Twilight directly without needing to be there in person and over a secure line), Spike “somehow” having enough political pull to be able to get very famous and high ranking canterlot ponies to show up in Ponyville (and Hoity Toity twice ), and finally, the breadcrumbs in Best Night Ever where Spike mentions he has access to The Crown Jewels and “The Princess’ golden apple tree”.
 
All was lost once season 2 hit and Lauren was no longer in charge. Spike was never consistent after that.

@Daneasaur  
He was raised by everyone and no one: Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Twilight Velvet, Night Light… In the first episode he have trouble spelling many words, in the third episode he doesn’t have any trouble. Was he self-studying? Did Twilight teach him?

@Dustcan  
That twilight may have spent time with Spike but she didn’t raise him. Spike viewed himself as a sibling to Twilight and Armor, but was never properly treated that way by twilight or armor.

@Daneasaur
 
He played second fiddle in the family?

What an abuse

@Background Pony #68A0  
Especially with the reveal showcased in “Sparkle’s Seven” how the actual childhood of Spike and Twilight and Armor actually played out.
 

@Background Pony #2873  
It is officially licensed IDW comic. FiM show tend to ignore comic events, though, so it bears zero significance and completely ignorable.

@Background Pony #2873  
Canon.

Is this just a fan comic or is it actually canon?

@Daneasaur  
Right on the mark.

I found that the concept of Spike’s caretaking being assisted with by Twilight to not be very good and this comic treats spike more like a pet than a person, which is something I’ve always detested when the writers make him a sub sapient when they don’t feel like writing emotions into the character.
 
But back to the topic, Twilight got praised and accepted as a student by Celestia. She was at the GRINDSTONE when it came to her studies and would most likely frequently meet up with Celestia, thus see spike as she raised him, when making her reports on her studies. This gives ample time for Celestia to groom Spike and to learn to make certain scrolls that could be sent via his fire breath. When Spike was old enough and while Twilight got a job at the canterlot library, Celestia didn’t need to greet twilight in person for every little thing, she could message her via Spike’s exclusive messaging system, but ALSO, she groomed Spike to keep Twilight’s head out of the books so DEEPLY. During all of season one and early season 2, Spike spends most of his time making twilight put her head on straight because she’s too much of a bookworm and worry wart about impressing celestia.
 
This comic is trying to ape Lesson Zero far too much, but instead of a “friendship problem”, it’s that Twilight is a kid who is trying to raise a kid and obviously has no clue what she’s doing and is downright abusive about it because Spike is a baby and doesn’t know anything yet.
 
It makes Celestia and twilight’s parents look like total idiots and that is the biggest insult.

@Background Pony #E392  
? I never said that Faust had Spike call Celestia mommy. I said imo Faust’s original idea of Celestia having been the one to raise Spike would’ve worked fine and served to avoid a situation like this.
 
@kztxl7  
@Background Pony #2C21  
Surprisingly, people often draw their conclusions from what its actually shown through the issue, instead of grasping onto a single line that isn’t reflected at all in the plot itself, to happily ignore what they don’t approve.

@kleptomage  
Celestia has had well over a thousand years of experience training young ponies to be the champions Equestria needs. Over the generations she has become exceedingly proficient at it.

@Background Pony Number 17  
I don’t want to believe Celestia is that cold.

@kleptomage  
And you don’t think that was Celestia’s plan all along?

Twilight could have made friends with her classmates if all her time was not occupied taking care of Spike and struggling with her classes. It’s really no wonder Twilight turned out to be so neurotic.

@Dustcan  

Now this is good, useful criticism.

@kztxl7  

 
Now, I’m of two minds here. On the one hand yes, Celestia did straight up say that Twilight would only be taking care of Spike for when Celestia’s own workload became too much (This naturally is rarely to never mentioned by the detractors. Gotta preserve that narrative!). On the other hand the actual progression of events we see in the issue makes it look like Twilight pretty much took care of him 24 hours a day for several days in spite of that.
 
I’m sure the characterization they were going for was Twilight taking on more than she could handle (which could probably serve as the basis for why she ends up so OCD later in life), but the lack of even a single panel of Celestia taking care of Spike or Twilight’s parents offering to help is the issue’s real shortcoming.

@kztxl7  

 
^ This  
Alas, facts never stopped the IDW Hater Club from making up stuff to bash the comics.

@Ekhidna
 
@Spiked Punch  
I don’t recall Ms. Faust ever saying that Spike calls Celestia “Mommy” when they are alone. That’s certainly another bit of her vision that didn’t make it into/was discarded by the series. Do you know of a place where it says that that I can get a look at it?
 
 
@kztxl7  
You are correct. Celestia certainly does say that she only wants Twilight’s help… more than once! Anderson was clearly going for the “Twilight takes on too much responsibility” trope that often defines her character.

@Background Pony #2C21  
Interesting. How many times you copy-pasted this answer?

@kztxl7  
People with an hateboner for IDW reading the comics ?! Preposterous! Next time you’ll tell me they have to buy the comic instead of whining on FREE screencaps and thread and still asking for IDW to change for a demographic who dont bring them money

You shouldn’t married to infant then, Twi.

You guys did read the comic right?
 
Twilight Sparkle was never solely responsible for raising Spike. She was merely to help Celestia.

@Ekhidna  

Fully agreed.  
Never quite understood why they didn’t decide to go with it. What, were they scared of little girls having a bad reaction to the protagonist’s mentor having a son or something? It just seems like they had a very good chance to explain who raised Spike without ending up with the negative “child raised by a child” situation we have now, and they just decided to write it off for no reason. It would’ve made everything better by making Celestia Spike’s mother, with him and Twilight growing up together with a well-established big-sister, little-brother relationship.