First, getting irks out of the way
-Felt really sudden for Candance and Shining Armor to both be very important characters in Twilight's life and to only appear now. There weren't any forms of foreshadowing, so it feels sudden.
-Ending was still spectacular despite feeling of rushedness, but the power of love had me thinking. Can it truly be THAT powerful? More powerful than MAGIC? Needs more SPIRAL ENERGY to make it totally acceptable.

Now onto to the main stuff:
-Songs. Songs everywhere.
-Shining Armor calling Twilight "Twily". Awww.
-Candace with filly Twilight. That scene gave me diabetes in the good way.
-Shining Armor's magic was highly appropriate to his name. I can quite imagine he'll be an amazing asset on any battlefield, or the last line of defense.
-LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNA!
-Candace already felt a bit weird when she was so opposite of what Twilight portrayed her as. Foreshadowing, dun dun dun.
-Mind rape magic. Mind rape everywhere.
-LYRA HAS VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOICE!
-Then thought my guess was wrong on Candace being a SPY. BUT THEN TURNS OUT SHE WAS A SPY ALL ALONG. Then things got dark reeeally fast.

-When saw the REAL Candace, I thought "must be an evil twin of some sort!" or "It's the remnants of Nightmare Moon!".
-DAT VILLIAN SONG.
-That lol solution to getting past Lyra and the gang. Throw a bouquet of flowers.
-When wedding got crashed, my face when it was a Changeling. Now DnD buffs would probably complain at the Changelings getting power from LOVE and looking so much like the Ponies. Mutated race of Ponies?
-MFW Celestia couldn't stop the Changeling Queen. If only she went all out it could have ended right there.
-Oh boy that clone fight. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie's bits made me lol the most.
-But then Pinkie Pie using Twilight like a machine gun was even better.
-Bah when the Elements of Harmony room was already guarded hard by a swarm of Changelings.
-THE POWER OF LOVE CONQUERS ALL. Bye bye, Changeling Queen.
-lol at Rarity grabbing the bouquet from Candace. Goes to show even with all the awesomeness Rarity has, she's still a romantic at heart.

Overall: Just have to give this 10/10. I admit ending was rushed and sudden introduction of two new characters (and very important as well) could have used more foreshadowing, but I would agree this finale really toyed with the MLP formula in a good way. Never expected a huge fight nor a trek into rather dark territory. At least Discord was silly and chaotic. This Queen meant serious business though. Also, goes to show one of the few ways to beat villains is not to fight fire with fire, but make them let down their guard. The Queen thought she already won, but failed to keep everyone in check until it was indeed over. But due to how long the episodes were and how much happened, it would have had to EITHER go into a 3-parter, OR end the season with the Queen winning and therefore force all of us to wait 5-6 whole months for Season 3 on a hell of a cliffhanger. And that would have been in insane taste as well as force tons of hype to be built up. Again, really good two 2 episodes. Lots of crazy moments, introduction of new characters and species, not to mention a possible returning villain.

Shining Armor wasn't too bad, and Candace at least wasn't that Mary Sueish as Twilight initially 1st made her out to be.

Also, for a decayed swiss cheese creature, the Changeling Queen is surprisingly pretty. Incoming fanart of her being hot/saucy.

If changelings feed off of love, then how did love defeat them.

Cadence's love only boosted Shining Armor back into shape so he could cast his spell again.

Just because they can feed off a source of power doesn't mean they are necessarily immune to it. Also the fact it was Shining Armor's barrier magic that sent them all away.

And I thought the first two episodes were girly, I guess I'm the only one that didn't love these episodes, too many songs (I hate that type of musical since I was a kid), obvious villian (the freaking magic color was way different, plus that attitude) and things that just didn't make sense, Twi can tele but not out of the cave even when she already did that huge mass teleport on dragon quest? Her friends just took a dump on lesson zero and not to mention that the ever weak Celestia strikes again (how is she still the ruler of that place after a thousand years?) plus a whole other bunch of things, though other little things did made the episode pretty nice.

I never rate episodes (or as far as I remember) but I'll give this one 7.5/10