Spike's a dog...

...I held out hope that this was just a rumor, but the trailer confirms it to be true. I can't help but feel a bit sick. He is the lead character's closest friend, and has always been treated as the equal that he is. In Friendship is Magic, he has a long, undeserved history of degradation, neglect, and abuse from the fandom and the characters. His transformation in EG basically a slap in the face to anyone who cares about him as a character. In Equestria, dragons are on par with ponies just as griffons, zebras, mules, etc are, so if Gilda, Zecora, or any other such characters show up as humans, it will demonstrate that the producers of Equestria Girls have no idea how to handle their property.

His expressive reactions during said trailer hint that he may still have his normal level of intelligence, though, and will therefore contribute to the plot of the movie as a character rather than a pet, the same way Salem did in Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I desperately hope this is the case, just as I hope Twilight takes issue with his degraded evolutionary status like the fanbase initially did.

R.I.P. Pete Postlethwaite.