Nice Job Breaking It, Hero?
I admit that King Sombra is a very respectible villain - with all the planning ahead and so - and that he was killed off far too soon and without much backstory, but...
Was he really that powerful? And didn't the whole episode just take place because of a lot of stupidity?
The Crystal Empire is important. If it falls into darkness, all of Equestria is doomed. So we need some pretty strong defenses. Royal Guards, maybe even Luna and Celestia themselves should do the trick - wait... Let's just send this Student in training along with some of her friends from the small village. Let's even call it a "test"... We may even give her some false clue ("You have to do it yourself") to make sure everything gets endangered.
Instead of fighting King Sombra directly, the princess decides to wear herself out with a force field so that she is too weak to fight when it matters (apart from being a projectile). Honestly: Luna, Celestia, Cadence, Shining Armor and maybe even Twilight should be strong enough if they work as a team - Luna and Celestia sufficed the first time. And even if Celestia and Luna decide to be "backup forces" - why wait until everything is too late? Is the fate of Equestria really less important than the homework of a pony having to see that sometimes you have to disregard orders to win?
It seems like King Sombra returning to his pony form (instead of shadow) seems to be the most dangerous. In fact, it is the most mortal and should be the easiest to defeat. Why not let him turn to pony and defeat him, then, instead of this whole force field stuff?
Again: I love that episode. I love how Shining Armor and Princess Cadence communicate without words at the end and how the solution to everything is having Spike have his day in the spotlight. Still I can't help but think that stupidity drove the plot the most time. Celestia has been around for a lot of time and fought quite some battles so she shouldn't be that stupid.
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They tried fighting Sombra directly. He responded by sending the Crystal Empire a thousand years in the future.
Just a quick correction (in multiple places, so I guess not that quick)...
The book Luna holds up at the end doesn't have Twilight's cutie mark on it. It has a bunch of star and swirls, an interesting but very different bit of foreshadowing.
Would you say this episode involves Cadence taking a level in badass? It was hard to see how strong she was in "A Canterlot Wedding" because she was so hurt and scared, but she really came across as a powerful mare here — still ladylike, but every inch The Determinator, giving it all to save the Empire even though she may not even have known what she was to it.