Fighting With Shadows

As you can see I was very liberal with my depiction of Pony of Shadows - thing is, since he's made out of well, shadows, I felt like he can easily make some shapeshifting and be bit more "liquid" in his presence. Aside from that, every time I see him I can't help but to think about Venom from Marvel's comic books, which adds to his coolness factor.

So what to say about the finale...I really enjoyed it. Was it best finale? hmm I don't know about that, but it surerly brought some new elements to be it's own beast and was very fun to watch. Also, it had much better team-up, more tension and memorable moments than "To Where and back again" last season. 
I really liked how the Mane 6 teamed up with the Pillars in order to save the day. 
The conflict which was the core of the finale was very good as well. Neither side felt like being 100% wrong or right, 
I think it's easy to understand both Starswill's point of view, who was driven to save Equestria no matter the sacrifices, as well as Starlight's doubts about his plans, being reformed ex-villain she hoped for more peacful way. There was a lot of grey area in how to solve the problem. That's what made the struggle more interesting, as Twilight, who always worshipped Starswill, and goshed whenever mentioning him, was driven by the need to impress him but also confronted with what she taught Starlight. The fact that it was the mix-up of both conversation + banishing spell approach that saved the day was neat idea as well. In general, I lean towards the idea that it's basically Twilight/Starlight finale since both of them faced toughest decisions and problems here. Starlight, given her past exprience, had her doubts about Starswill's plan, but wasn't confident enough to take any action, and thus remained somewhat passive. On the other side there was Twilight who while was ready to act, was somewhat misguided and facing self-doubt in her own judgement given the fact she accidentaly freed Pony of Shadows. I loved the moment where Twilight leaped right into the Pony of Shadows to save Stygian, before anypony realized what was going on - that was certainly a wake up call for her and her own exprience winning over the need of impressing Starswill - acting in a moment somepony had to do something in order to save him. And as said before it was great to see that team up. A really solid finale for great season.
Episode Ranking so far:

1) The Perfect Pear (e13)
2) Fame and Misfortune (e14) (very close second)
3) Once Upon a Zeppelin ( e 22 ) 
4) Celestial Advice ( ep1 )
5) Shadow Play ( e 25 & 26 )
6) Parental Glideance ( e7 )
7) A Health of Information ( e20)
8) Flurry of Emotions ( ep3 )
9) Secrets and Pies ( ep 23 )
10) It isn't the mane thing about you (e19)
11) Uncommon Bond ( e24 )
12) Triple Threat ( e15) 
13) Discordant Harmony ( e12) 
14) Honest Apple ( e9 )
15) Campifre Tales ( e16 )
16) Not Asking for Trouble ( e11 ) 
17) Rock Solid Friendship ( ep4 )
18) A Royal Problem ( e 10 ) 
19) Forever Filly ( ep6 ) 
20) Fluttershy Leans In ( ep5 )
21) Daring Done ( e18)
22) To Change a Changeling ( ep 17 ) 
23) Marks and Recreation ( ep 21 ) 
24) Hard to Say Anything ( e8 ) 
25) All Bottled Up ( ep2 )