Oh my god if you are talking about what I think you're talking about I'm going to strangle you.
I won't harp on about it, but just at least
try to remember that you self-admittedly enjoyed the vast, VAST majority of it before descending into hatedom, k?
Look, as a fan of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series, I
KNOW what being cheated out of a decent ending twice in the same story feels like (Evangelion not only literally defined
Gainax Endings, but also produced an apology replacement ending in the form of a full-length feature-film to attempt to rectify the mistakes they made in the last two episodes of the original TV show itself - and instead created something so abominably awful that it literally beggars belief as to why they even bothered) - but I've never allowed myself to be blinded by that to such a degree that I've forgotten how brilliant the series was up until that point.
I can guarantee you that re-reading it in as few sittings as possible will help.
Oh, and thanks for making me link you to TVTropes; I just got locked in a loop because of that... 
Plus the subplot with the feather was done even better than it was when Building Bridges tried it.
It was similar to Building Bridges to the extent that I almost laughed. I mean, seriously, the whole "Pegasus feather" thing came in, and I was like "Building Bridges much?" - and there was, in my eyes, zero difference in the quality of the implementation of it between the two stories, either.
Kindness' Reward was, all told, extremely derivative - unfortunately not bettering that from which it was derived, and being vastly over-reliant on the uniqueness of the ship over the uniqueness of the plot and plot devices.
And was dropped in the reader's lap basically without warning. TwiLuna setup, character building, ship building, character building, ship building, character building, ship building then BAM! Cloning blues, Twilight's an alicorn, political drama, revisionist history, etc. All in the span of half a chapter. It doesn't hurt the story too much, but it almost seems like she got to the penultimate chapter and realized that she didn't know what she wanted to do with it.
TVTropes? NNNNoooooooooooooooo- *swallowed into another loop*
In all fairness, the plot was thickened fairly evenly and progressively up until that point, and while mingled in quite subtly with the character development, was just apparent enough that the epic plot twist didn't feel forced or abrupt when it finally hit, though remained ambiguous enough that what eventually transpired came as a surprise; I was shocked into awe rather than being put off by the massive antagonist shift in the final stages of the story, and the battle that ensued was exceptionally well-executed to say the very least.
It felt more like Twilight growing some proverbial balls and being forced by her new-found love into becoming adaptable to protect Luna than an attempt at a quick-seal band-aid deus ex machina ending, to be honest.
I have to say that the actual purpose of Spark, the basis for why Twilight was there in the first place, got lost towards the middle of the story only to come screaming back in in the last chapter.
It formed a powerful undercurrent throughout; Twilight's every action in that fic was basically governed by her love-driven need to find a solution to Luna's illness - and the Alicorn transformation and ensuing epic brawl in the final chapters were Evilestia pressing Twilight's
Beserk Button and thus making her
badass. It worked brilliantly (and TVTropes vengeance is SWEET).
And it is so much fun to discuss this crap with someone as crazy as me again.
I concur. Though it is 4:30AM where I am now, and I still haven't finished reading Fell Into the Right Hooves yet...
*checks dA*
Nope, nowt.
*checks Molestia*
Nice plot, but nothing new.
*checks LoveTomorrowLove*
O_O
*wingboner*
Swag.
)
