So.
Yeah.
After a second watching of Griffon the Brushoff, I have weighed my opinion, taken into account the various possibilites, the portrails in fanon, the causes of such behavior and have come the conclusion Gilda, with all due consideration, must still burn!!!!
Nopony - nopony - makes Fluttershy cry.
It's definately a mind-affecting effect, since me, being a Lich, am completely immune to the transmogrification. No, that should be "transponyification."
Yeah, okay, the "immune to polymorph" probably helps.
Exactly.
Unless...
When ponies grow old, they...turn...into...trees...
...
...
That is a thought both truly horrifying, and, at the same time, would disturbingly explain so much. Granny Smith is the only old pony we see. Maybe she's the exception (too ornery or just not quite ready to go yet). That thought raises new terrors about the origin of Sweet Apple Acres - and perhaps why Applejack was so attached to Bloomberg...
...
Well, I ain't meditating tonight.