>>5925
>Most likely I am going to make your eyes bleed sooner or later

Everybody is OCD about something; thank you for your understanding.

> making it harder for an outsider to judge this text properly

I suppose. That's *always* been my downfall -- I have intricate thoughts, thus my tales have subtleties that intrigue me but simultaneously to remind myself of certain factual realities I add heavy-handed and short-cut statements to "finish" the tale so I can get back to what I'm trying to say ... and it turns out other people aren't like me.
Imagine that.

It's a cultural thing, in part. That is, I was home-schooled but had no friends nor was I even vaguely accepted the few times I was in public school -- and then I had no friends at work until this last decade, and they mostly just put up with me as the bright-eyed outcast they occasionally talk over the top of.

I can speak, though, to the matter of 'glossing over' the moments of transformation. Partly, this tale isn't about Fred learning to be a pony, but Fred's unsullied and insatiable desire to be his own master; a Tom Bombadil of Equestria if you will.
And he knows (guesses correctly) that the official ponification route doesn't allow for personal mastery. Unfortunately, now that he's a god with a target on his plot & a price on his forelock that greatly precludes a simple life of personal mastery also.
"Oops" he might say to himself, centuries later.

Too, you have to consider this is the latter half of the first chapter of a NaNoWriMo effort. Are you familiar with that "program" ? 50,000 words in 30 days.