I think one fan (upon the China release) said something along the lines of, "This just made the Sparity Ship a whole lot more stronger". Which one could agree with, especially when you take Pinkie's line at the end in or out of context. Also when one really thinks about it, episodes like this, have different points of view giving to them from the brony/pegasister community.
Some may look at it as a closing to the Sparity ship, others (as mentioned above), see it as strengthening it, some see it as an episode that didn't belong in this final season (along some pervious episodes before), and some see it as Spike possibly getting a new ship tease giving to him, in the form of Gabby, etc..., etc....And even through, I'm one of those that support the Sparity ship, and see this episode as indeed making it stronger.
I see Rarity's actions, as not of one just being selfish (at times she was) or jealous (which she mostly was), but I like to take DisneyFanatics2364's "Bride of Discord" (Chapter/Episode 6 [14:07-19:37]), as an example of Rarity releasing how Spike really means to her, and how much she's falling for him, but never really noticed till, 1. "The Best Gift Ever", the first 20secs of the mid-season 9 finale, and now with this episode, and him spending time with Gabby, instead of her, or even taking time to notice her.
This reminded me a lot/if somewhat of Applejack's reaction towards Spike spending time with Rarity, and not noticing her.That's how I take Rarity's reactions in this episode, somewhat of being in that same camp as Applejack's in "BOD". Heck @BornAgainBrony said it best: QuoteThis episode is playing with romance in the same way that "Tanks for the Memories" played with death. It's played as a friendship episode, but considering they used Rarity and Spike to set this off, and the fact that Spike clearly has one on Gabby now, it's pretty obvious that this story is a love triangle at its core.
They pushed things just far enough to make this episode into the ultimate shipping war without revealing for certain if Rarity is harboring feelings for Spike, and it's bloody brilliant! So just because it may seem otherwise, Josh Haber knew what he was doing.
In fact, if you saw the trailer for the finale (and possibly the final 2 episodes), there is some Sparity moment's snuck in there, as a bit of a follow-up to this episode (kinda), and pervious episodes before it (from earlier seasons, and the prior season), as well as "TBGE"So I sa
