That was one of the saddest endings to a My Little Pony story I’ve ever read.

@scoots2  
IIRC, it’s implied he still loves her… Which could be worse, given that he’s evil now. If you leave your evil boyfriend, nine times out of ten he become psychotically obsessed with you and hunts you down wherever you run.

@Bronitarian  
High and mighty, aren’t we?

@Background Pony Number 17
 
It is your belief, you can’t prove your theory correct just as I cannot prove mine. Try, and you yourself will be called “evil” for imposing your view on others.
 
You can’t win this. Its a wasted endevour. So why try to pretend its some kind of objective critique when its purely subjective?

Don’t worry guys. Queen Chrysalis is there to comfort him and help him control his dark impulses.

@Bronitarian  
It’s not just my belief. Rejecting dualism has been a major point in Western ethics for nearly two thousand years. I think that’s a reasonable position from which to complain about the story’s moral compass.

@Background Pony Number 17
 
That’s your belief. And that’s fine. But does that really actually translate to being able to object to a stories moral compass? I know I wouldn’t object to a story that promoted your world view. Why must it not conforming to your outlook mean its objectionable?

I expected tl;dr. I was not disappointed. :3

@Bronitarian  
Except that good is not the absence of evil. Good exists on its own, independent of evil. To the extent that evil exists, it does because an preexisting good has been corrupted.

@Background Pony Number 17
 
To say it doesn’t exist however equally invalidates the concept of good at all. Good is the absence of evil, and is judged relatively to what is considered evil.
 
Without that ability of distinguishing scale, anything could be considered good under your belief that evil in it of itself is imbalance.

@Bronitarian  
Because it’s Manichean. Evil is not a counterbalance to good; it is a destroyer of balance. To say it is necessary is to make it co-equal with good, which makes “good” and “evil” have no real meaning.

@Background Pony Number 17  
A sacrifice doesn’t always mean death.

@Background Pony Number 17
 
How is that bad exactly? You cannot have light without darkness, heat without cold, or life without death. One is the state of absence with another, and the transition between the two can create wildly different effects then one or the other.
 
So why is it that evil, a state which many consider to be the absence of good, should work differently? Without evil, what is it we can actually say about our actions? What do we have as a reference for is and is not good? Is everything we do good, because evil no longer exists? Is everything we do evil, because the absence of one means the absence of the other as well?
 
What’s so bad about balance requiring evil and good?

@Background Pony #B12D  
I actually didn’t mind the change of pace or even Celestia acting like a hormonal teenager. What I found terrifying was the implication that in the “balance” between Equestria and alt-Equestria, evil was a necessary element.
 
Since apparently turning alt-Celestia and alt-Luna “good” upset some cosmic balance which would destroy the universe, Sombra’s “solution” to the crisis was to “become evil”. And Twilight calls it a “sacrifice”. Seriously, WTF???

@Background Pony #B12D  
You do release that one of the many gripes people have with this arc was Katie’s “meta” comments, right? “Don’t think about it.” That would be bad on it’s own but then she expects to be invested in the Celestibra ship.
 
Not only that, but she turned Celestia into a stupid horny teenager that resolved none of the issues. And this story was supposed to make her into a deeper character but does the opposite.

@Background Pony Number 17  
Honestly? Being serious this time. Don’t think about it. If you want a Celestia who will pick duty over love, even after 1000 years of lonliness, watch episode 1 again. If you want a Celestia who would plan something out or call the right people for the job, go watch any of the Premiers/finales, or just episode 1 again. If you want Celestia, the show is right there, with the real version.
 
But hey, every other comic or episode has been fun adventures/slice of life stories with the characters we love, and they always get a good ending. So, Katie decided she wanted to try new waters with something that was the opposite of that. No adventure, instead of no romance it’s all romance, a bad ending, and she wants you to treat Celestia like all those other appearances didn’t happen. She said “I know you guys seemed to like this, but I’m going to do the opposite and see if you still like it.”
 
Did it work? I’d say no. But hey, learning experience! Until this gets referenced on the show, just laugh it off as being a really weird AU story, which is really how you should view it.
 
I admit having fun with a romance that’s self destructive and ends on a low note where the happy ending is “We never speak of this again” is a little hard, but some people do like those stories. Nothing wrong with occasionally trying a new thing.
 
Just roll with it. Don’t like the book? Cool, you’re not in the minority from what I’ve seen, but try not to think too hard about it. Shrug it off and go read you some real Celestia with her Micro or FF issues. It may not have been good, but at least she tried.

Actually, I don’t see why it would be necessary for him to hate her. In fact, I don’t even think it’s necessary for him to stay evil indefinitely. The important thing was to heal up the bridge between the worlds. Contact, I’d think, would be unacceptably dangerous.

@Background Pony #B12D  
Am I the only person who thinks the moral implications of this story arc were terrifying?

Nahhh, don’t worry! You just have to get that mysterious black goo out and-
 
Wait, shit, that means the worlds will explode. Uh… maybe Celestia could come over and- wait, shit, making it worse again.
 
…Well, give this storyline points for going against the grain. Not in many stories you get to see “no, seriously, the world as a whole will be better if these two guys had never met, and if they try to meet again it will make things worse for everyone.”
 
Kind of weird to see this from a My Little Pony story, but hey, someone probably enjoyed a adventure free romance with a downer ending. Good for them. I’m going to imagine them smiling and giving the thumbs up, glad they finally got what they wanted.
 
It’s a good feeling.

Canon Sombra: Took you long enought to get into the right path.