I think many fans blur the line between "fan pandering" and "writing characters-in" A prime example would be when Luna came back for "Sleepless in Ponyville". SO MANY BRONIES got butthurt about that, because they thought it was "fan pandering". ...Friends and neighbors, did it ever occur to us that maybe the writers wrote Luna in because she was part of the episode. Not EVERYTHING is a shout-out, and not everything will. Heck, Trixie coming back is not a shout-out, because they are both RE-OCCURRING CHARACTERS. They have nothing to do with fan demand, because the writers technically aren't even allowed to follow our demands. Fanfiction is NOT inspiration to the writers, as that would be ILLEGAL in many senses. In general, the MOST fan pandering we've seen is Derpy's original appearance, and that was more of a shout-out than pandering. Besides that, I have no idea where people are pulling that the writers are "pandering" to us. Anybody who's concerned about this is as hysterical as Twilight Sparkle. And you DO NOT want to be as hysterical as Twilight Sparkle...