I have to disagree with you on some points.
The first, and major one is how you think the show is gearing towards the brony audience.
You are wrong. In countless interviews, the people who worked on studio B always said that they make the show to where they have fun making it. If that means putting an adult joke in then ok. The only brony things they do is fan service and thats it. As for the dark atmosphere, again, if they want it that way, its not because of the Bronies.
The final battle...Look, I love shipping, so seeing the power of love defeat them was amazing. Though, I think the reason that the defeat of the queen was bad was because, They used love and defeated her. Look at all the other villain's defeat. There was a lot more of a struggle when they were being defeated. But the queen was just blasted away...She is still best villain though.
Vinyl scratch has a confirmed eye color now...Though I have no idea what it was from that distance. That a big plus.
Overall, these were pretty amazing, almost perfect episodes.