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> It makes a lot more sense to me looking it as "It's okay to be girlish! A lot of the boys are mean anyway!". Extreme stereotypical behavior and simplistic morality are used in children stories all the time and I think fandom (along with many adults with other childrens media) often forgot this. It why I have such a hard time judging such childlike sudden shifts in morality as bad as it is in service of the lesson and to make it easy to understand.* 
that mindset is annoying to say the least (and really painful to watch in media in general, not only in MLP). What I appreciate about later seasons is about its grayish tone and adding subtleties and layers that would make more difficult to say those kinds of claims: "X is good, Y is bad!" and the maturity in its tone would avoid these stereotypes without resorting to them too much.

> I still find the lesson questionable and I would probably have preferred a bit more nuance but that is what I bet their mindset was.
I am going to even go even further with the moral and there is even a more awful perspective than it seems. 

>  this episode below average. 5/10 I think it was somewhat lackluster with a questionable moral but it should be judged under a childhood storytelling lens and not under as a racist attack or coordinated feminist attack against masculinity 
okay, that´s a fair rating. If the message didn´t lead to such interpretations so clearly, you could basically describe this as an average plot that would come from the 90s. It´s not that big of a deal by itself because the gang and the ponies are acting properly here and even there are bits of humor such as:

> I still enjoyed the dragon costume and found those brief moments funny.
especially when TS,RD and Rarity wave goodbye to Spike while they are smiling and Rarity asks to follow him and TS answers with an "Of course". I am also adding the moment when Garble asks himself about the disguised dragon by asking: "Who´s that weirdo?". Yeah, you can find a few chuckles at certain points.

> I think it is a shame that Peewee wasn't included in the rest of the series as it could have been used as a arc of Spike learning of adulthood and responsibility. 
Peewee did appear in Molt Down completely grown up and it served as a sign of foresight for Spike´s adulthood (by getting his wings). But yeah, now that you are  mentioning it...

> Wouldn't that have been a cooler Spike and Apple Jack episode in Season 3?
there are many ways to write a much better episode than Spike At Your Service...

> Does this contradict me saying that lands felt distant and that now everything just feels a train ride away? I don't think it does completely as it never was established how long Spike traveled and that it was still treated as dangerous and far away.
Watch Sweet and Smoky, Gauntlet of Fire or Shadow Play, the Dragonlands don´t feel as distant anymore. The show uses the cliché of travelling far away from home when it´s portrayed for the first time but then, as soon as you have discovered it, you gain the ability of instant teleportation or quick access (like a video game). You don´t contradict yourself with your theory...the episode DOES disprove itself when Spike has to climb a snowy mountain. It leaves you the impression that the Dragonlands are located in the Frozen North, beyond the Crystal Empire. 

The show used those moments of travelling far away as if we were watching a movie and play a little bit with the comedy when Spike grows a beard but as soon as he sees the Dragonlands, the beard is removed as soon as he rushes to that place. It´s all built up in order to make a joke or see the reactions of the character himself. It doesn´t take the worldbuilding seriously at all.