>>/12168/
> Usually not a fan of Angel, but I do like how he here is firm with Fluttershy to get her to go to the brunch with Princess Celestia, and we get the impression that this is something he’s used to having to do with Fluttershy.
I really wish that we could have gotten more of this version of Angel Bunny, even if the pimp hand was funny.
> Fluttershy fussing over Philomena was fun, I see an alternative episode where this could've been some sort of lesson on animals departing and accepting loss, but as is, I enjoyed it.
That had been the original intention, so that figures.
> Now, this is where Tyrantestia comes into play as Twilight rattles off potential punishments. The fandom started to play into that, and in some cases, really ask, why would Twilight be so afraid of banishment? I think here it is more of the innocence of this setting here and Twilight's obsessive personality over any basis for anything rational in universe.
Twilight's punishment fantasy is likely Twilight being an irrational bundle of nerves, but it does establish that dungeons and banishment are things that are not unknown to the tiny horses, and given that Celestia had reigned for a thousand years it would seem likely that she herself would have prescribed those punishments at some point in history.  There is some lampshading in the show's humor in Season 1, but Faust's Equestria was a fairly narratively consistent place where the society's inner workings were hinted at when not outright stated.  Also consider that imprisonment and banishment, while certainly unpleasant, were less brutal than Queen Majesty's apparently lethal punishments from Gen 1.  Gen 1 ponies were on-the-sly metal like that.  It would figure if Faust, Gen 1 fangirl that she is, retained some of that early-80s brutality.
> This not only places Celestia as an somewhat of motherly authority figure which is the roll she is sort of playing, but this is the strongest I've seen it.
There is another interpretation there, namely that Fluttershy actually is a child and Celestia is just calling her what she is.  To quote Faust in her show bible, "(O)ur ponies, though independent, have an emotional range of anywhere between 10 and 15 with most seemingly about 12."  The Season 1 Mane Six were early adolescents.  If you look at the episode within that context, it makes a lot more sense.  It's why Mr. and Mrs. Cake were handling the real prep for the brunch while the Six were mostly just getting in the way and being silly.  It's why the moral of the story is about asking for permission before trying to do the right thing.  It's why Fluttershy's care-giving for Philomena is so pediatric in nature.
 >>/12169/
> This could easily be headcanoned, if not an outright logical inference, that Fluttershy pictured the recent experience when imagining a dungeon.
Good point.  I can see that.