- Written by James Asmus, Art by Brenda Hickey
"The New Year is around the corner, and the ponies of Equestria are ready to celebrate in some very silly and unexpected ways! (Except Pinkie Pie. Her celebrations are always silly and unexpected.)"
This issue provides examples of:
- Blatant Lies: The book store pony claims that Flim and Flam told her that "a survey found that eleven out of ten ponies want to hear an endless loop of the same holiday music when they go anywhere this time of year!"
- Both Sides Have a Point: Twilight and Applejack are right to not trust the Flim-Flam Brothers from past experiences with their duplicitous nature, while Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Apple Bloom (and the other ponies upset with how they drove the brothers out) are right in how Twilight and Applejack decided to speak for everyone else without their consent or for automatically thinking they were too dumb to not know how ridiculous the whole "Windy the Windigo" thing was when they just wanted to have some fun.
- Call-Back: This isn't the first time the Flim-Flim Brothers have used one of the Mane Six to unwillingly help them endorse their products.
- Deconstruction: The True Meaning of Christmas is deconstructed by having Applejack and Twilight Sparkle object to and thwart the Flim-Flam brothers commercialization of Hearth's Warming. Rather than this being treated as a good thing this has them called out by everyone as they were enjoying this monetized holiday, making them realize they were ruining everyone else's joy by forcing the Aesop on them.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Commercializing holidays with straight-out falsehoods is perfectly fine, as long as the participators know that it's all a show.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Flim-Flam Brothers claim to have Twilight's "princess endorsement" for their products. Twilight later uses this against them by telling their customers all the merchandise will be given away for free. Flim and Flam have no choice but to pretend they've run out of stock and leave town before they lose all their profits, rather than admit that they lied about having Twilight's endorsement.
- It's Personal: Twilight becomes determined to put an end to Flim and Flam's scheme after finding a music box playing their "Windy the Windigo" song over and over has been placed in her favorite book store.Twilight: They ruined a book store... Now they've gone too far!
- Kick the Dog: When the craft store pony notes that a longer Hearth's Warming could lead to more of his gift boxes being needed, Flam buries him under some artificial snow.
- Mascot: The Flim-Flam Brothers have one in the form of "Windy the Windigo", a Lighter and Softer version of the old Equestrian myth. They claim that Windy will provide just the right amount of snow for Hearth's Warming Eve if young ponies buy the Brothers' specially-made cookies and leave them in their homes for her to find and eat.
- Self-Deprecation: Among The Merch the Flim-Flam Brothers are peddling is a Holiday Special Comic.
- Ship Tease: In the final panel, Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst are seen standing side-by-side, looking at each other and sharing a very sweet smile.
- Shout-Out: One of the ponies in the crowd vying for the Flim-Flam Brothers' merchandise resembles (and is dressed like) Phillip J. Fry from Futurama. He is even posed in a way that mimics Fry's "shut up and take my money" line from the episode "Attack of the Killer App".
- Verbal Backspace: Courtesy of Flam, following another successful fleecing of a pony's money.Flam: Another satisfied pushover! - Eh - I mean, "customer"!
