>>/10860/
> both in terms of how quickly the nuances of her character were lost, and in terms of how drastically she changed. 

I remembering thinking that Pinkie Pie was wirtten  badly more often on a episode by episode basis but I didn't feel that she was totally destroyed. Albeit, my memory, especially of the mid seasons, is less (as I have noted) and I could very well see myself a similar case to yours.

> I'd suggest that a good analogy for how Unicorn magic seems to work is music. 

I have heard this before but haven't thought about it in awhile, yes, that is a good analogy!

> Do we actually know for sure that those Parasprites made it to Fillydelphia? I think you're probably correct that it was implied, I'm just curious as to whether something actually confirms it.

That is how I have always took it, and have seen it at least alluded to by others. Though, this makes me want to go check around and see, just in case, if I can find anything to disprove it. 

 >>/10863/
> Plus it explains why she can't use them when they'd be really, really useful, like in Discord's maze. 

My thoughts exactly!

> but both of those don't really fit with the episode where she has those sixth-senses to me.

I will refer to this when we get to there. 

> I could even go further, saying that since they tap into the land and the universal principle of this plane is harmony and harmony is expressed in living creatures through friendship and we see both tight-knit Earth Pony communities fostering friendships, 

> that can branch off into me asserting that unicorn magic derives from chaos, 

Weirdly, I know of a moment, if I remember right, that would put unicorn magic sort of the way you describe earth Pony magic here. I still think it is an interesting idea of unicorn magic being chaos (transforming things being technically a "corruption" of sorts on the universe). My personal conception is... less detailed, harmonic magic and dark magic (but I have liked the idea of the dark magic being some sort of alicorn mgaic... I am about to go nuts on speculation too, I'll cover some of this later). 

> The thing is, in life generally I don't tend to go all that much for objective quality in terms of things I consume.  

> I go out and find stuff that I LIKE, at the end of the day, not stuff that's good. Most people are like that if they're honest with themselves, life is short and it's better to actually enjoy yourself than spend all day reading The Iliad and such 

The funny thing is, I might have an almost anti-intellectual attitude towards "higher art" in personal disposition (or more like, I disagree what qualities should be admired in art).

What I mean in regards to an episode,I sometimes get bogged down if there are some traits that should make me rate something lower even if I personally was okay/enjoyed it. I think I am increasingly in the enjoyed it camp. For example, I never cared about the Mysterious Mare Do Well's treatment of Rainbow Dash I still liked the episode even if still agree if it is off. I would get hung up if something like that on my arbitrary score calculations (this can occur in the other direction, me not liking something that I see as a objective positive). 

 >>/10864/ 
> is that she wants her subjects to live lives unafraid of existential threats like these.

That and perhaps keeping a disparity of information from general knowledge (as you suggest), does feel like the most logical answer. Even if some parts to me feel... hard to explain for whatever reason or another.

> I'll probably get onto the next episode sometime next week. It depends on how much I write for it - I had so much I wanted to say about the last two, that it was really quite an effort to get it all down.

Take all the time you want and make it as long as you want. I'll hopefully have Winter Wrap UP before that point. /)