Wow, so much to talk about in this one, definitely one of the better episodes so far imo. My only gripe is that the plot was extremely predictable. The moment I saw the empty bird cage I knew exactly how the episode would end aside from the phoenix thing( I thought it would just be some rare foreign bird that's naturally supposed to look dumb and sickly). I like that we finally get to see more of Celestia interacting with the characters, hopefully there will be more of that next week. And yeah, I "Dawwed :(" out loud when Fluttershy caught the bird ashes, she just looked so heart broken. @^@ Also does anypony else think Celestia might actually be ruthless dictator? I mean Mr./Mrs. Cake were tending to her every whim like their lives depended on it. Even Twilight, the character closest to her, thought Celestia would disown and sentence her to exile.