Cavalier's Banner ability and the definition of "Allies"

The Cavalier's Banner ability is written as such (bolded emphasis mine):

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/cavalier#TOC-Banner-Ex-[/url]]At 5th level, a cavalier’s banner becomes a symbol of inspiration to his allies and companions. As long as the cavalier’s banner is clearly visible, all allies within 60 feet receive a +2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear and a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls made as part of a charge. At 10th level, and every five levels thereafter, these bonuses increase by +1.

My question is, does the Cavalier herself gain the bonii granted by her Banner? Does the Cavalier count as her own ally in this case?

From a fluff standpoint, it seems counterintuitive that a Cavalier might run away from battle more easily than her allies (she has bad WILL progression, no other bonus vs fear, and WIS is a dump stat for her). Depending on her Order, she can easily be seen as a paladin or knight type figure, or a general leading her troops. It'd be really embarassing if she flees before her allies do.

On another note, are there any official suggestions on how to use the Leadership feat to improve the Mount of the Cavalier? And also, is the Mount allowed to use one of its ability score increases to raise its Int from 2 to 3? And if so, does it then get to benefit from Teamwork feats just like any other ally?

You are not your own ally.

Animal Companions are better than cohorts in a lot of ways; animal companion cohorts would be utterly overpowered. There are no rules for combining them.

Yes, animal companions can raise their intelligence to 3 (an exception to the standard, very stupid I might add, rule that animals cannot have Int > 2). Yes, that means they can take the Teamwork feats. They could already benefit from them at 2 Int if you could figure out some way to give it to them (such as the Cavalier class ability that does so) and they fulfilled the other conditions of the feat.

Can you point me to where "ally" is defined (so I can point it to my friends if the issue gets raised)?

Being new to PF, I don't have a solid grasp of all the balance stuff yet. Is the animal companion really that good compared to cohorts? I am majorly worried the survivability of my Mount as issue #1. Issue #2 revolves around wanting a flying mount, which I'm not sure I can get via the Cavalier's Mount ability.

Can you point me to where "ally" is defined (so I can point it to my friends if the issue gets raised)?

Ally is not a defined game term. Typical issues are whether it includes self and whether it includes non-intelligent creatures such as bonded mounts or non-class sourced animals. Does it include summoned creatures? What if they are mindless? How about non-intelligent undead?

Basically, all of these answers are unanswerable by the rules and have to be deciced on by the table.

For what it's worth (not much, that I can see), wherever the bard's abilities use "ally", the text immediately clarifies whether or not it includes the bard. In various cleric domain abilities, etc., it would make no sense for "ally" to refer to the ability-user, since the abilities in question give an ally something that the user already has himself.

When a cavalier uses his extraordinary ability, he can decide who he considers an ally, just as if he had cast a spell that affected allies. The banner gives a morale bonus and therefore doesn't affect mindless creatures. Most mounts are not mindless, as they have Intelligence scores.

So, does it or does it not?

It has the same wording as the Bless spell and I'm fairly certain most people include the cleric in the bonus when they cast it.

You are your own ally. There's a FAQ on it.

You are not your own ally.

Ally: Do you count as your own ally?

You count as your own ally unless otherwise stated or if doing so would make no sense or be impossible. Thus, "your allies" almost always means the same as "you and your allies."

—Sean K Reynolds, 10/12/10