Gigapony

There's some very valid and interesting points in the OP. However, one thing that must be kept in mind is that this show, for all its excellent character development, is also big on the comedy, and a big part of Spike's role is to provide it. So Spike being the punching bag every now and again is meant to give a few slapstick laughs but I don't see it as indicative of anyone "hating" Spike or wanting to deliberately hurt him. In the case of Twilight and Spike, I never saw it as abuse on Twilight's part. It really is like a brother/sister dynamic going on. In fact, that Twilight raps Spike on the noggin a few times is actually more indicative to me of the wonderful and intimate relationship they have, where Spike never takes any of that seriously and no matter what Twilight does to him, he knows her well enough to know how much she loves him (and vice versa) without her having to go out of her way to show it. With Rarity it's a little different. I really don't think she means any harm, and I do believe she genuinely cares for Spike (which she's shown more than once), but Rarity has a different way of showing it. Her naturally self-centred personality means she sometimes has trouble reading people, and Spike especially because she apparently sees him as just a "little kid" and treat him not unlike she does Sweetie Belle (though obviously lacking in the sisterly bond). For Spike's part, his massive crush lets him forgive (or even enjoy) the abuse.

Deadmau5 has come out saying that he isn't actually a brony and was just trolling/messing with people. Though there's speculation that he's just back-pedalling and is actually a closet brony. For my part, I think he's not a brony, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out he was. To those that say Andrew WK is faking it or trolling, I dunno, he seems pretty into it. He went out of his way to do a panel at Canterlot Gardens where he seemed to be expressing a genuine interest and admiration for the fandom and learning more about it. As well as doing videos of his own accord where he again talks about how much he likes the fandom and its philosophy and how he enjoys the show. He's still "new" and not too familiar with the lore, but he seems legit about being a brony. If not then he's putting amazing amounts of effort into a ruse. And as others have mentioned, Anthony Bourdain is apparently a brony despite initial attempts at distancing himself from the fandom. Though with him I'm still not 100% convinced he's actually into the show like we are, or if it's just become a sort of tongue-in-cheek thing he does.

Well, don't forget they also gave Applejack a truck, and Sweetie Belle got her own train car, neither of which have been in the show proper (well, Sweetie's train car has, technically, but it isn't actually hers). That said, it'd be fun to watch Twilight stumble through trying to run a palace, considering that this is the same pony who FREAKS OUT because she forgot to make a to-do list for the next month.

As I watched the film, I scoured every background to see if I could spot Lyra. I was sure that if any pony would get the treatment, it'd have to be her. Alas, no such luck. I saw one girl who had the same colour scheme, but her hairstyle and overall features really didn't match Lyra's; and another girl who had a similar hairstyle to Lyra's mane, in the right colour, but she was orange-skinned. And I was really hoping that they'd throw in a gag with Lyra sitting like a horse somewhere...

Only time I ever met any bronies in real life was when I specifically went to a meetup for local bronies to go watch the premiere of Equestria Girls. After the movie a few of us went to go grab some breakfast and it was overall a very nice experience. Apart from that, I've never had the pleasure of encountering any "in the wild", so to speak. I often wear pony shirts, both for my own enjoyment, and to try to set a beacon for any bronies to find me and hopefully make conversation, but so far it's been fruitless. So it's kinda like SETI, but with bronies. And with similar results. :/

I agree with everything @ just said. Also, I dunno if Twilight would be so curious as to try meat. At the very least, if she did, she'd be all nervous about it. Twilight is naturally curious, but she's also so neurotic and anal-retentive and by-the-book (literally) about everything, that she'd probably freak the hell out and start yelling about how "THAT'S NOT PART OF OUR BALANCED DIET OMFG YOU GUYS!" Then Pinkie Pie would shove a steak down her throat and she'd LOVE it. Also this:

I dunno about Blueblood, honestly. I suppose one could potentially shoehorn a good story into him, but I reckon his whole reason for existing was just to piss off Rarity for a few gag scenes at the Gala. Gilda could maybe be interesting, though if she did come back I'd like some more facets of her character to show instead of her just coming back to be a bitch some more. Maybe a reform? Flim and Flam I definitely want to see return. I don't know why, maybe it's their old-timey Vaudeville charm, but I LOVE those two. Maybe instead of trying to sell cider they can sell some other thing. Maybe conning the ponies into buying some ridiculously useless machine they just "gotta have", or they can be like snake oil salesmen and sell them fake medicines. The sky's the limit with these two.

Same reason Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6 were in high school when in the pony world they're all homeowning adults who work/own their own businesses. And Cheerilee is older than all of them and she's normally the same age. They're all age-modified in that world, apparently. Though the CMC, DT/SS, and (arguably) Snips/Snails at least were depicted as clearly younger than the others, so they were probably freshmen whereas the Mane 6 were seniors.

Fluttershy seemed to hold her own the best against Discord in the labyrinth. She continually brushed off his attempts to break her spirit and managed to frustrate him enough to make him give up and just hypnotise her, and she was notably the only one to do so. And of course she was the only one who, in all his centuries of existence, was able to reform him. Flutters was hand (hoof?) picked by Celestia herself for the task. Not bad for the wimpiest of the Mane 6.

I for one really enjoyed the movie and would absolutely love an EqG spinoff. Human Pinkie did casually mention that there was a person who looked just like Twilight who had a dog that looked just like Spike living in some other town or something. So Twilight "herself" probably need not come back through the portal...

Personally I never interpreted her defeat as being her just simply changing her mind suddenly of her own accord and deciding she wanted friends. The way I saw it, she was 'cleansed' of the evil that corrupted her by the Elements. I saw it the same way for Luna as well. Even if she would've been physically beaten, she still would've carried on being evil, but the Elements purged that hard shell out of her and instead left her as the sad lonely girl she was at her core. So it made sense to me that she suddenly went from megalomaniacal to lonely sad girl, because it was a resolution she could never have come to herself. She needed to be "exorcised". I have no idea if this was the writers' actual intent or not, but it's how I saw it.

My crappy job has a pretty tight dress code (company-issued polo, black trousers, black undershirt, black belt), so no pony shirts here. Even before I was ever a brony I used to wear a flag lapel pin on the shirt for years until they changed heart and told us we're not allowed to wear non-company pins on us either (and pissed me off in the process), so no pins now either. HOWEVER, I will not be stopped. They conveniently said nothing about bracelets, keyrings, and necklaces. So I wear my "BRONY" wristband (with RD on it) and my Rainbow Dash keyring every day. I also have three necklaces: one with Dashie's face as the pendant, one with her cutie mark as the pendant, and one with a (big) Rarity as the pendant. I alternate those every day and prominently display them (right now wearing the Rarity one most frequently).

I recall watching one of the previous generations eons ago when I was a wee lad, it was either G1 or G2 (more certain it was G2), I watched a couple of episodes because it happened to be on and I found the ponies cute. I recall enjoying it somewhat, but never seeing it again after that. I guess you could call it foreshadowing? I have a lot of respect for the old gens for not only birthing the franchise that would become the one we know and love, but through good and bad times keeping it afloat long enough for Lauren Faust to work her magic. But yes, if it hadn't been for Lauren, I very likely wouldn't be the fan I am today.

I'd be all for a Sea Pony revival. I've been jonesing for them to show up in FiM for a while because I think they're really cute. It'd make for a very fun and interesting growth for the MLP mythos and add a new race of ponies to play with. Maybe one of them could even become a supporting character like Zecora.

MLP didn't exist when I went to secondary/high school. But if it did, and assuming I was brony then, given the way I was back in school I probably would've been an open brony much the way I am, but if someone started mocking me for it, I'd probably feel ashamed.

I think Igneous Rock is an awesome name for Pinkie's dad. It reminds me of those really old-timey sounding Amish names, and as Pinkie's family is clearly meant to be Amish-looking, I'm certain this was exactly the intention. Her mum's name is also really fitting. No opinion here or there on her sisters' names. I like the fanon ones as well as these ones equally. Though keep in mind that these novels aren't exactly 100% canon, unless officially stated, so I don't think these names are any more canon than the fanon ones. I gotta wonder about where people got the notion that "Pie" was their definitive last/family name? I don't reckon that last names work in MLP the same way they do in real life.