@Background Pony #2CC2  
Well, I don’t feel strongly one way, or the other about the “Dinky & Derpy” thing. (I will admit it does have alot of cute fanart, and brought us the “Equestria’s Best Mother” tag.)  
I wouldn’t want them to make to much fanon into “canon” personally. Plus then the “harder-to-please” fans will start complaining about “pandering” again. I wouldn’t mind them fleshing out some characters, while still leaving some things about them vague enough for fans to have fun with.
 
While that fanon was kinda cute, admittedly it never made much sense to me. (Plus, both characters never interact. Much like Octavia & DJ.) People only assumed/made-up that “Dinky” was her daughter, because of their similar coloring. (And this was before it was confirmed in “Baby Cakes” that ponies could have babies of a different “race” then their own, depending on their parents, and ancestry. So admittedly I thought it was odd of her to have a “unicorn” daughter.)  
The only ponies I can think of that kinda resemble their parents in coloring are Rarity & Sweetie Belle. (Their Dad is a white unicorn like them, and their Mother has purple hair.) Most others’ colorings seem to vary, so coloring-alone doesn’t signify relations.
 
@Background Pony #3026  
Yeah, I think you’re right. While it sounds promising regardless, I doubt it’s going to be a like a huge “Derpy” episode, or something like that. (Though, she might have a bit part in it.)
 
I wouldn’t mind them to do something like “22 short films about Springfield” (one of my favorite Simpsons episodes) where many characters shown with short amusing stories, and some of the bits are even kinda “arc-ed” together, and some characters’ stories end up clashing.  
It could have many funny/amusing possibilities.

@Background Pony #FF1E  
Where are my Mane 6 Breezy toys, dangit?
 
@Beau Skunky  
Yeah, I really want a Prim Hemline toy, so she can stand on a shelf with my other MLP toys, silently judging them.
 
@Beau Skunky  
It’s confirmed that episode 100 will be about side/supporting characters; I think someone on the show said it’d be about “background” ponies, but the example they gave was Coco Pommel, so I suspect it’ll be more about minor (Mayor Mare) or one-shot (Iron Will) characters than about true background (Lyra) ponies.

@Beau Skunky  
I’d be okay with the shattering of the Derpy-Dinky parenthood connection.

@Niggoslav_Krawczyk  
Would be neat, but it would kinda spoil fanon a bit, if they give them to much personality/backgrounds, and part of the charm about some of the BG ponies is how fans are free to interpretate them however they want. (Like it’s never been said/shown/hinted that Dinky is Derpy’s daughter, but fans do that anyways, and have their own backstories for that.)
 
Plus, even if they do adapt some fanon aspects, then some fans will complain about “pandering.”
 
Rumor has it, that the 100th episode in Season 5 will focus on background/side characters.

@Red Yellow Moon I kinda always hope for the eventual day they go full Simpsons and start giving personalities to the backgrounders. It’s one of the things I loved classic Simpsons for, everyone in even a ‘full town group scene’ would eventually get a speaking part even if they were just in that group scene, and not seen again until the speaking part. Really made it feel like a ‘full community.’

“Cutie Mark Magic” is basically just resurrecting the Twice as Fancy Ponies from G1, by the way.

@Background Pony #2CC2  
Even with possible new locations, where it wouldn’t make sense to see loads of familiar background ponies like Lyra and Carrot Top?

@Red Yellow Moon  
Because the animators already have enough assets for crowd shots/speaking roles? Beats me.

@Background Pony #2CC2  
Speaking of HasbrOCs, I wonder why more haven’t appeared on the show, whether as minor characters or even background ponies, like Blossomforth did.

@Beau Skunky  
As a collector, I think the biggest disappointment is the lack of diversity.  
There’s only ONE male brushable. It’s Shining Armor. And his hair sucks.  
And most toylines are just the mane 6 released over and over and over and over again with maybe one at most two non-mane 6 ponies.  
I know it’s never going to happen, but I’d love an entire wave of brushables that are not the mane 6- even if they were HasbrOCs.

@Background Pony #2CC2  
Yeah, people forget the show always had subtle toy-etic things in it. (Like the hot-air balloon, train, and such.) Plus, nobody bashes TMNT and other shows for being even more toy-etic. (I love the new Nick TMNT, don’t get me wrong.)
 
One fan even pointed out that the Mane 6’s homes/houses look like they were designed intended with a toy play-set of each in mind, yet Hasbro oddly never made them for some reason.
 
Also, ironically some fans bashed “new” characters like Coco Pommel thinking they were only made in the show to be a toy, yet we still don’t have a Coco toy, (or Babs, or many other characters) yet. In fact, some collectors are rather disapointed by that.

@Background Pony #9924  
And it was the same thing with the Crystal pony forms. A brief thing to plug the Crystal Empire toyline.  
Call off the dogs, the toyetic aspect has been a part of the show since episode 1. It’s just less seamlessly integrated into the world and storytelling aspects now. It was bound to happen eventually.

@Background Pony #9924  
I don’t know, I liked their crazy hair-styles in “Rainbow Power” form.

@Background Pony #FF1E  
No shit we’re watching a commercial. It’s just that these horrid designs reek of “commercial” far more than the rest of the show.
 
Rainbow Power designs were really terrible, so I’m glad they were confined to 30-45 seconds of their episode. These are even worse. Oh wow, they’re taking the butt stamps and plastering them all over the ponies’ bodies…so creative.

@Toxicpinkiepie  
McCarthy does, Hasbro Inc. doesn’t.

This magic of cutie mark?
 
 

I just thought of something. If memory serves right in Digimon Greymon digivoled into skullgreymon because… I forgot sorry. But after they fixed the issue Greymon turned into Wargreymon. What if rainbow power is their greymon. A terrible power up. And this cutie mark power up is stronger then rainbow power?
 
Also we should remember this is all for the sake of selling toys so yeah we can’t treat MLP like any anime. Also this is my crappy theory.

@Background Pony #FADE  
Wouldn’t surprise me, the “CMC obsessing over cutie-marks” gimmick wasn’t shown much in S4 in their episodes. They don’t even seem phased anymore when Tiara & Spoon call them “blank-flanks” now, showing some character-development.

@Beau Skunky  
I think so too. I remember some panel this summer with the CMC question being asked. It was answered along the lines with the whole CMC thing has taken too long now.

Sense “Cutie Mark Magic” is going to be the new “gimmick,” think that means the CMC have a shot getting their marks? (Most likely, getting spoiled by the toy-line, if that is the case.)

@Sjogre  
That’s how marks are made though. It’s a symbol of how they recognize their own abilities, and they get one once they know this. Will and instinct still don’t power everything requiring magic, though. Just some things. It’s like with us getting blemishes. Instead of magic, we have energy powered by carbon that’s makes stuff happen to our bodies.

@thps48  
Eeeeenhhh…
 
Cutie marks explicitly run off of magic points in this show. No mana, no mark. Will power seems to be completely and totally independent, as no one drained by Tirek was affected mentally.

@Sjogre  
I said that-ish. Will and instinct operate most magicks in most franchises, when hands or speech aren’t required.

@PonyPon  

 
Well, Hasbro might’ve streamlined the process lately.

@Background Pony #FF1E  
I don’t think anyone is asleep on the notion.