>>/11348/
> Is there a window of time when something is transformed that it can revert back? Like it needs to be held in place?
My reading was that a transformation needs to be complete to ensure something won't revert, and that the first step of a transformation is an object's appearance, as the least essential of it's characteristics.
> It seems like Spike himself also needed to have his attention on the Twilight/the rock for it to work. What roll does Spike play here?
If intentions, even of non-magic-casting creatures, can help focus or strengthen magic, then perhaps that gives us our answer to why the running of the leaves includes more than just Earth ponies. The underlying magic is being performed by the Earth ponies, but they are aided in what they're doing by the participation of others, strengthening the collective intent. It also gives us potential explanations for things like the power of friendship itself, holding the windigos at bay and manifesting as the most concentrated form of magical power this world has to offer when used by the Mane 6 - since we have an entire nation, Equestria, following the principles of this philosophy of friendship, we could have there the most extreme end example of the power collective intentions have in the magical sphere. 
 >>/11349/
> As for any theorizing, I am going to call a spade a spade and just say Twilight Sparkle doesn’t think straight in a panic sometimes as that explanation makes less sense to me considering what happened with Twilight’s brief confrontation with Nightmare Moon. 
I think the key difference is that when Twilight was confronting Nightmare Moon, she was temporarily isolated from the others and fending for herself in the immediate sense (iirc), whereas here she's defending her friends. It is strange, but people's self-preservation has been known to snap under certain pressures, and Twilight's mind is portrayed throughout the show as in a relatively fragile, snappable state, unfortunate as that sometimes is. I got a chuckle out of it, as it kinda felt like the culmination of Twilight's increasing neurosis throughout the course of this episode.
 >>/11350/
> The wording can be taken here with a very symbolic meaning albeit “leap of faith” doesn’t have to mean “faith” in a strong religious context but also as a figure of speech that just had an unfortunate timing/prescience.
The fact that this was taken at the time to be religion specifically rather than just spirituality or even just superstition I think speaks to the way in which that early-2010s redditor type of atheism was so hostile not just to religion, but to any type of non-empirical thinking or even hypothesis in general. That specific area of the early fandom that was both vehemently hostile to all forms of spirituality and who emphasised the show's value in terms of it's "cleverness" above all else I just find hard to stomach. I never saw MLP as just an ironic, clever commentary on society or something, and sometimes the way early reddit-type fans seemed to talk about the show, it sounds like they viewed it as essentially an early version of Rick and Morty. 
> spoiler
I more or less come from the complete opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to views of the world, so I think it's telling that both of us found the criticism a bit bogus. 
> Now it seems to be an afterthought in our current culture wars sometimes with unclear lines.
As far as MLP's status in the culture war goes, I feel like it's managed to occupy a less contentious space than most other fandoms I dabble(d) in, which is refreshing. I'm in regular contact with both extremes within the fandom (from congoing pride flag types to /mlpol/) and I feel I can more or less get along with both. There is conflict, but compared to something like Star Trek where the core idea of what it's even about is disagreed on, I feel like both extremes in this fandom have more they have in common with regards to how they view the show than might otherwise be the case.