I think general consensus is that it's about pet death, which is something that seemingly every kid has to deal with at some point.

If it was pet death. Then they would have said anything about not coming back. I know this is the first time they are introducing season change sense winter wrap up. I think this season is going to fallow more of a close continuity. But again it took two seasons to go back to winter. So we will see.

I honestly think you should check your autocorrect feature

I would like to add that many people think that MLP will never have a true death due to its Y rating.

I'm sure 3am post haves nothing to do with this.

I would define the theme more as coping with loss and coming to acceptance than pet death. It is a theme that had not yet been approached in MLP and one that many cartoons don't even attempt. However, some have done it very effectively without actually having a death (see the Sleeping Giant episode of the Care Bears in the late 80s, for example), and the parallel lessons that are taught from it can be very valuable, especially here when we see how friends will support you through times of grief.

I was, admittedly, bothered by the fact that Gummy, who is also a reptile, did not have his winter routine addressed in the episode. I figured Pinkie would have at least had a humorous explanation for how he gets through winter.

Wow, I was so caught up by Rainbow Dash and Tank that I forgot about Pinkie Pie's Gummy.

I don't know. I liked the episode, but I was more drawn to RD's excessive response to a situation she had to know she couldn't change given all the winter's she has seen and caused in her time. I suppose taken in the context you suggest it'd be nice if they approached such themes more often, but I recall that Lauren Faust had wanted to tackle the subject of death with Applejack's parents, but hasbro declined and never addressed it.

If that was the case, or if someone had suggested that RD is autistic, I could appreciate it more. Having dealt with pet death myself, I think that I'm not sure if it really hits the mark of losing something if Dash knows she'll get it back in a few months. Maybe I'm just not thinking for a Y rating, but I haven't a real solution. I just know my head has a dissonance between the fact that I liked the episode but it didn't seem to make full sense to me.