- Written by Jeremy Whitley, drawn by Tony Fleecs, colored by Heather Breckel
The annual Chuckle-lot event, instituted by Princess Celestia during Nightmare Moon's banishment to help raise the morale of her subjects, is coming up soon, and Princess Luna, still trying to acclimate to normal life, worries she is not funny enough to participate. She first turns to Twilight Sparkle, but Twilight's by-the-books lessons on humor bore Luna. Twilight instead suggests going to Pinkie Pie. Pinkie is only too glad to help, and tries to help teach Luna, first by the aspects of physical comedy and slapstick, and then helping to show her how to do practical jokes on the various groups at Canterlot.
However, with the Chuckle-lot event the next day, Luna still doesn't have anything for the event, too worried about being laughed at herself as she tries to upstage Celestia. Pinkie reminds her that being funny is not just about making others laugh but being able to laugh at yourself, as well as being oneself. Pinkie and Twilight attend the event the next day and Celestia is disappointed to announce that Luna would not be attending. Luna suddenly appears, and offers a gift to her sister. Celestia opens it and is splatted in the face with a cream pie. Pinkie finds several other presents at the event are also cream pies, and a pie fight soon breaks out. Luna trips up in the pie filling on stage and crashes into her sister, and realizes the humor of the situation, leading off a round of laughter from the entire audience.
This issue provides examples of:
- Always Someone Better: Part of Luna's problem is that she sees herself as inferior to Celestia and she wants to best Celestia in the Chuckle-Lot without losing the respect of their subjects.
- Be Yourself: Ultimately, the aesop. Pinkie tells her that if she had stopped trying to compare herself to her sister and be herself, she wouldn't need anypony else to teach her how to have fun. Luckily, Luna heeds Pinkie's words in the end.
- Brick Joke: Pinkie demonstrates several practical jokes, but a pie catapult doesn't go off. Until a few pages later when Luna walks in front of it, which then causes her to stumble into all the other pranks.
- Pinkie calls Luna Nightmare Moon again.
- Call-Back: Pinkie's inanimate friends from "Party of One" return.
- The Cameo: Several IDW-specific ponies reappear: Flax Seed and Wheat Grass from the Rarity micro, the PNN newspony and one of the Cloud Gremlins (or at least a costume of him) from the Rainbow Dash micro, and Praiser Pan from the Fluttershy micro, and Tiberus, Luna's pet possum, from her micro.
- The Comically Serious: Twilight teaching about humor in the most dry and boring way possible. Later, Luna realizes this is the best role for her at Chuckle-Lot.
- Condescending Compassion: Just like Luna thinks she
will lose her respectability by being funny, turns out she also doesn't have that much of respect for Pinkie in first place (in part due to Pinkie making foals run scared from her).Pinkie: Laughing and mocking are not the same thing.Luna: You do not understand, Pinkie Pie. I'm very important. You're just a clown.Pinkie: (crestfallen) Oh, I see.Luna: Pinkie, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that I have responsibilities and you...Pinkie: And making ponies happy isn't important. - Continuity Nod: The reason for the annual Chuckle-Lot event is tied to the banishment of Nightmare Moon. Pinkie also still calls Luna as "Nightmare Moon" when she first sees here, and it's implied that Luna holds a bit of a grudge.
- Discussed Trope: Many Comedy Tropes are discussed. In particular, Comedy Ghetto becomes a major plot point when Luna believes she would lose the respect of her subjects by causing them to laugh at her.
- Mood Whiplash: When Pinkie calls out Luna for being motivated by wanting to beat Celestia instead of a genuine desire to be funny, their argument ends with Pinkie sadly trudging out of Luna's bedroom, and Luna slumping down on her desk in despair.
- Moral Guardians: The role Luna ends up playing at Chuckle-Lot, becoming the straight mare to Celestia's comedienne.
- No Indoor Voice: Luna arrives at Twilight's library with the Royal Canterlot Voice. Lampshaded later when Pinkie turns to address Luna in the same manner.
- No Sense of Humor: Luna's problem is that she doesn't know how to make ponies laugh.
- Ironically enough, Luna once held the Element of Laughter along with Honesty and Loyalty when she fought Discord alongside Celestia. Thinking everyone preferred Celestia over her is what made her Nightmare Moon in the first place, so it makes sense that she'd have forgotten what those things meant.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Luna's eyes after Pinkie breaks down in guffaws.
- Rule of Three: Lampshaded and demonstrated (albeit unknowingly) by Twilight in researching the essence of humor.
- Luna also prepares three pies for her Chuckle-Lot demonstration.
- Pie in the Face: A big showdown in the Chuckle-Lot presentation.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Pinkie is not shy about mocking and criticizing Luna, something the princess is obviously not used to. It's this lack of formality that makes their relationship so effective.
- Whoopi Epiphany Speech: Pinkie gives Luna a speech calling her out about her disregard for comedy.Pinkie: You don't really want to learn about being funny. You just want to beat Celestia at something. (...) Maybe if you stopped worrying about what you were supposed to be and were just yourself you wouldn't need somepony to teach you how to have fun.
