Dark Qiviut

Do you have a tough time saying "goodbye" to anyone? For the last nine years, Friendship Is Magic has been the flagship show for The Hub (later Discovery Family) and a staple for kids and adults alike. As the show grew, the characters grew, and so did their audience. Season 9 capped that growth, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Following the fight for their lives, it felt like an end of an era. The Last Problem marks the beginning of a post-Royal Sister Equestria and the magnificent farewell to an all-time-great, impactful cartoon.

From the opening shot, The Last Problem wasn't going to be like any other episode. The atmosphere was sunny, warm, and more pastel than before. This morning was unlike all other mornings. But more importantly, as Spike's larger shadow swoops over the land, all races were united in Canterlot. Dragons, griffons, hippogriffs/seaponies, ponies (Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi), changelings, yaks, and kirin are communicating cordially with each other. Why does this matter?

1. Back in the two-parter, Twilight promoted Spike as Friendship Ambassador and Royal Advisor as a token of gratitude for helping her grow and to show trust in him to help establish harmony far and wide. Her pendent promotes him as her equal and not the "little dragon" that slept more than half the day. Four quick shots established Spike's credentials as a very credible, trustworthy advisor to both Twilight and everyone else. Anyone notice how nobody shares prejudice to anyone? That's in part due of him.
2. Twilight's prophecy from the final battle comes true:

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   Twilight Sparkle: ENOUGH! Because of you, I almost lost my way! But everycreature here has reminded me of the true power of friendship! There will always be darkness in the world, but there will also always be those who find the light! The Pillars knew this! That's why they created the Elements of Harmony! The Elements showed me and my friends how strong our friendship could be! Together we worked to bring harmony to Equestria! But there will always be more to do! Which is why we teach others about the Magic of Friendship! Others who will continue our mission after we are gone! Now I truly understand! The Elements were just symbols! The real magic has always been right here! And the more who understand how powerful friendship is, the stronger we will all be! Together!

   From that day forward, she promised to continue spreading harmony far and wide and teach others about the Magic of Friendship. The end result's a successful utopia of everycreature embracing the Magic of Friendship and becoming better people. Her core promise as Equestrian princess turned into a royal success, making her the perfect successor to Celestia and Luna.

Continuing from Point 2 above, this matters just as much:

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Future Gallus: Your Majesty, she's here.

Future Twilight Sparkle: Send her in, Gallus.

Ponies ruled Equestria for generations, but Twilight took it one step further, promoting Gallus the Griffon as her Royal Guard captain. Those two lines and the way they spoke show trust and loyalty for each other. He was no token griffon, but someone she can count on to guard Canterlot Castle, its inhabitants, the rest of the capital, and beyond. He not only embraced the Magic of Friendship, but embodies it while being his own person.

Holy shit, the last line is super dark! DX

Like the original, Celestia brings the statue of Discord, but only to Fluttershy and Dash as the others aren't there. Rather than simply saying that Celestia would like to have Discord's powers used for good, she explains that she forgives Discord and believes that Fluttershy is the best pony to help him reform. In case he does anything evil, Celestia created a necklace made out of broken shards of the Elements of Harmony, which will cause him to wake up when it's donned on his statue. When he does something bad, he gets zapped. Only when he's committed to being a good guy will the necklace come off.

Not long after, Discord wakes up from his stone slumber, and right away, he's up to his usual chaotic tricks. Even though he's intentionally driving others batty, the necklace mostly doesn't zap him. But FS doesn't give up on him. During the tea party, he plays music loud and softly to play with them, ruining it. He explains that he's basically a chaotic guy and crashes on the couch because. Fluttershy had enough of his attitude and gave him the stare. Cue the next morning, our heroes discover he's no longer wearing the necklace, initially assuming the worst, only to find out that's not the case.

Cue a flashback. The stare contest between FS and Discord lasted all night through the morning, when he gives up. Soon, he discovers that beavers were trying to competitively build their own dams, which risked overflowing a nearby creek. FS convinced them to stop; Discord admitted it felt good being helpful. The necklace fell off. And he's allowed to crash on the couch anytime.

Needless to say, this episode is really, really crammed like the original. The fact that Discord's controlled until the necklace falls off really opens up several implications, such as slavery, "friendship = control," and so forth. In the final, Discord discovered his feelings and like for friendship when he realized he was manipulating her and regretted it, a much more satisfying conclusion over this. However, that infamous line from the actual episode suggests her friendship with Discord is a means to control, too, so it isn't any better.

Also, despite supposedly being a judgment of good and evil, the necklace is extremely incompetent; he's intentionally doing many bad things to get under everyone's skins, but the necklace lets him get away with it. However, everyone puts their trust and support for FS, and Twi doesn't try to find a spell to force Discord to reform. And I'm not sure about how the necklace is made up of broken pieces of the Elements itself, though I haven't read the other premises to see if that's true to that continuity at the time.

Honestly, the original premise and final are equal, but if I have to choose which is better, I have to go with the final by a small margin.