Spike and Sweetie Bell are so adorable. ^-

@candrew
 
Same to you. :)

^ Then we will just have to agree to disagree on this point. AJ ran off, when it looked like she would have to actually tell her friends what was happening, she ran off again. She was going to send money, but her shame was keeping her out of Ponyville.
 
I will not deny hat he’s meant to be Twilight’s kid brother, but I do not believe he’s meant to be portrayed as substantially younger than the mane 6.
 
At any rate, happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate, happy Thursday if not.

@candrew
 
I can give you that with Spike (it’s been a long time since I watched OWTEW), but I still think it was at least implied really heavily that Applejack was planning on coming back when she won the money. She talks about how she didn’t want to let everyone down and how the mayor was counting on the money, and so she finds a job… I’m pretty sure she would never leave her family for anything and just wanted to show them she could take care of them no matter what.
 
And yeah I know what you mean. Spike’s writing and the way they handle him tends to fluctuate a lot, depending on whether he’s just playing the part of comic relief or not, but still, at the end of the day he’s meant to be like Twilight’s kid brother I think.

^ At no point does Applejack hint at planning to come back, that’s why her family was worried. When they found her the others weren’t even allowed to talk of Ponyville. Plus, Spike wasn’t running away so they’d appreciate him, he wasn’t planning on coming back either. Both left because they thought that they’d failed, Spike as Twilight assistant, Applejack as a dependable rodeo pony.
 
Yes, he’s younger, but they don’t really treat him that way with any regularity. He doesn’t go with them all the time, and ‘It’s About Time’ clarified that he doesn’t want to, but he still obviously part of the group.

@candrew
 
Well, kind of not really. Applejack didn’t run away as much as she left to earn what would have been her prize money to help out the town and her family, but she was planning on coming back when she did. Spike’s situation was the classic ‘kid gets jealous and leaves to teach everyone a lesson to appreciate them’ story.
 
I agree with you that spike is usually mature for his age, but the writers have gone out of their way time and time again to make it obvious he’s supposed to be a kid in comparison to the others. That’s just a fact.

^^ Well, it has only been six times that he’s been referred to as a baby, seven if you count the time Garble said it but Garble was being a dick. Of course the fact that gets me is if he is meant to be on a different level they do a crappy job of showing it.
 
Certainly, he tends to act like a kid, as do the mane 6, because its a kids show. Even the biggest childish action he’s ever taken, running away from home, was mirrored by Applejack.

My head-cannon is, in maturity terms;  
The Mane 6 are early 20’s.  
Spike is an early to middle teenager, so 13 - 16.  
The CMC’s are 9 - 12.  
(I just had to throw in my two cents)

@candrew
 
Spike has been referred to by the mane six as a baby and kid repeatedly. However you try to justify it, he’s meant to be on a different developmental/maturity level from the ponies.

@ WhiteKnight
 
They don’t say who got him back the second time, but since Spike is the only one that’s been mentioned to talk to him, that’s the logical conclusion. Spike is more social than Twilight and was shown attempting to attend a party in Canterlot, which is full of influential ponies. Spike’s not exactly working class either, so him meeting ponies at the top of the social strata isn’t hard.
 
Hoity Toity raves about about Rarity’s work, and then a few episodes later an article about her work shows up? That doesn’t seem connected to you? The show doesn’t have firm continuity, but it consistently (if sparingly) builds off of stuff in from previous episodes.
 
Rarity freaking out when asked to design an outfit for a celeb shows that it doesn’t happen often. While she has claimed to make outfits for ponies going to the Gala, not everyone that goes to the Gala is a high roller. The Mane Cast, for example, only scored invites because they knew Twilight. Her previous Gala going clients could have consisted of just Matilda and her date, which doesn’t really translate to designing for the elite of society.

@Sjogre  
It wasnt Spike who asked him the second time, and even if it was I highly doubt Spike is some kind of well connected social butterfly.  
It’s possible that Rarity had a reputation so he was willing to give her a second chance since in the scene where he agrees to do so he can see her own Gala dress and how much better it was than the custom dresses.
 
And the Clotheshorse article is in no way indicated to be because of Hoity.
 
Rarity is reduced to a squealing schoolgirl when asked to design for celebrities because it’s a big deal.
 
She says in Ticket Master that she designed ensembles for the Gala every year.  
The fact that those invited to the Gala would pick her for that over more well known boutiques says a lot.
 
Yes she was not terribly well known, but she was being watched with somewhat dispassionate interest.

Spike’s age is relation to the others is hard to pin down. On the one hand, he is employed as Twilight assistant, and beyond that has gone to Canterlot alone as part of his duties. He is left alone overnight on at least three occasions in season two, and has been left in charge of Fluttershy’s animals at least once. On top of that, he isn’t treated like a tag along character, despite how much fanon wants to portray him that way, and has been shown as part of the group at several points.
 
On the other, he is definitely younger, and while not any less mature than Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, or even Twilight on occasion, his viewpoint is often discarded. He is however consistently treated as being substantially older than the CMC, who I would put at about 7-8.
 
I’d say he’s somewhere in the area of 15-18 to the mane 6 at about 20-22.

It doesn’t matter what age the characters are, because none of us have any way of proving ages one way or another. All we can prove, based on canon material is how old they are relative to one another. The Mane Six are all young adults, based on the fact that they all work and/or live alone and support themselves, and Spike is a child because they refer to him as such (Rarity and calling him a ‘little one’ liking to get his face painted in the Crystal empire ep as a recent example). It doesn’t matter if he’s mature for his age, just like it doesn’t matter if he’s actually a baby of his species despite not acting like an infant because he’s meant to be on a different plane from the other characters… if nothing else the show has made that very clear again and again.

@ WhiteKnight
 
Or he trusted Spike. Given that he came back when Spike asked him the second time, that would seem to be the case.
 
Clotheshorse didn’t run that article until after Hoity Toity attended the second fashion show. Whether Hoity wrote a review that was published in it or they looked at Carousel because of his review is unknown, but it seems likely that they are connected.
 
At any rate, Rarity’s reaction makes it clear that Sapphire is the first celeb to ask her to make something.
 
I think that Rarity is currently unknown because she acts like she isn’t famous. Anytime that someone with a reputation gives her the time of day, she’s reduced to a squealing school girl.

@Sjogre
 
Hoity Toity was there because Spike old him about her fashion show, she would have to have a reputation for him to take time to check her out.
 
Sapphire Shores was there because of Clotheshorse, which isnt Hoity Toity.
 
And Photo Finish was there because she saw Rarity in a hat and they talked for a bit.
 
The only thing that indicates she is an unknown would be the Elites in S&E but they proved to be utterly unaware/disdainful of anything outside of Canterlot (not knowing about Dash despite performing the mythical Sonic Rainboom).
 
But at the same time Hoity, Sapphire, and Photo were all seen in the Becoming Popular montage so who knows.
 
S&E was modelled after an Audrey Hepburn movie where the protagonist lies to trump herself up a little while in the presence of the elite class.  
So I think the writers just followed the source material too closely even though it didnt make too much sense.

Arguably the CMC are around 70, so case in point.

@ ThatGuyImpious
 
I’ve always thought that Pinkie was the second oldest, to be honest. Her environment would make it the hardest for her to get it, so being older than the other made sense to me.

@WhiteKnight
 
Well originally it was about whether Spike was closer to the Mane Six or the CMC in age…

I dont even know what exactly we are arguing about. Rarity as a business owner or how old she is?

@ Dumb Rock
 
One of the three celebs went to her shop because he was looking for new talent. The other two went there because of his review. And one of them referred to her as an up and comer, which does make it sound like she’s new.

Shit, I forgot about that.
 
But then, Fluttershy is only a year older than Pinkie. And Pinkie is the most immature of the six. It’s a tossup guys.

I see Fluttershy as the oldest because she looked like a preteen when she got her cutie mark while the rest of the Mane Six all still looked like children, plus she’s the only one we know for sure is a year older than one of the others. She’s not necessarily the most mature, but age doesn’t always equal maturity.

@Dumb Rock  
Oh I sagree with your point, I was just thinking her Gala dresses where never used before that is all but she was just planing ahead, good business sense.

@ Dumb Rock
 
That just means that she’s had her business for more than one year. And aside from the question of whether there’s a pony high school equivalent, I wouldn’t be surprised if she started making clothes before graduating.
 
I’ve seen some people estimate the mane’s ages as being in the fifteen to sixteen area. That doesn’t strike me as too bad.
 
The only official word is maturity levels between twelve and eighteen, so that works.

Uh, I read that wrong, disregard the first statement.
 
My point still stands.