I enjoyed this episode. It was a very nice way of giving Gilda more depth to her character, and it's now understandable why she acted so mean. She is much more likable now and kind of a sad character. Not only is she living in poverty, but she lost her only friend and has been alone and treated like nothing for most of her life.
Overall it was pretty good, one of the best of the season so far.
My biggest complaints are kind of just nitpicks. I was looking forward to seeing the griffon kingdom and it turned out to be slightly underwhelming, but that's my own fault for hyping it too much.
It just seemed like they could have done more. The griffons were clearly suffering and in a state of poverty. Their homes are falling apart, the economy is terrible and no one is happy. While it helps, I don't think 'friendship' will be an automatic fix to all their problems. Twilight has a very high status, couldn't she maybe send some help to improve their standard of living as well? I don't know, just a thought.