When Lauren Faust agreed to produce this series, she wanted to create a new version that dealt with her concerns about the franchise's notorious bad writing that often pandered to sexist stereotypes. As such, she created a new version with characters who were a wide range of personalities in more original stories so the parents of the target girl audience could watch with them, much like Sesame Street (1969) is designed to be.

With that creative approach in mind, this series benefited from defying the scornful popular assumptions of this franchise and the word spread around online at how this series was radically different and far superior. From that attention, the series drew attention from a wide swath of demographic groups, including men, who sampled this series, enjoyed it beyond their expectations and spread the word. One thing led to another and the Brony fandom was created.

For a more in-depth explanation of the series and its fandom, there is a documentary film called Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony (2012).

The fans themselves have also created (freely available) videos detailing the appeal of the show, such as Ballad of the Brony: A Documentary on Bronies and Friendship is Magic or Why My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is so good and why you should give it a chance. The two creators of those videos are also currently working on a kickstarter funded documentary called The Brony Chronicles with a similar scope to Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony (2012) but focusing on the fan perspective instead of an outside view.

In the second season episode "The Last Roundup", Derpy has her first real dialogue. In the scene in question, Rainbow Dash witnessed Derpy's goofiness for the first time. On one hand, the entire scene is incredibly hilarious. But then again, this scene attracted the attention of a group of parents much like the PTC (Parents Television Council); their complaint was that the character of Derpy ridicules of the mentally disabled. As absurd as this accusation is, Hasbro simply panicked and altered the scene.

According to letter/post from Lauren Faust, the opening scenes were supposed to be/ or contain Rainbow Dash and Derpy jumping on the rain clouds, causing the lightning strikes, and Derpy gets a little carried away. This was in the original airing, but had this been in later airings (and subsequent Netflix streaming), it would have made the scene after the opening credits make more sense. Another change was that, instead of being referred to as "Derpy" as she originally was, she is now called "Ditzy Doo". It was also mentioned in the letter that for just about every parent that complained, about twenty praised the show for finally introducing Derpy as a full-fledged character.

Sadly, it has been rumored and possibly confirmed, that due to these close-minded parents who complained about poor Derpy Hooves, she will no longer receive any dialogue parts, but she still has the potential to make quick background appearances in episodes, as she did in the third season finale, "Magical Mystery Cure".

This has been proven untrue though, as Derpy receives several lines of dialogue in Season 5, episode 9, Slice of life. HEr name however has been changed to Muffin.