Friends Forever Issue 38

My Little Pony: Friends Forever #38, titled Battle Royal!, is the thirty-eighth and final issue of IDW Publishing's My Little Pony: Friends Forever comic series. In the issue, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's minor squabbling escalates just before they plan to participate in the Sisterhooves Social.

Summary
The issue begins at Canterlot Castle with narration by Kibitz, the princesses' royal advisor and schedule keeper. As he cleans the castle, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna run out of the kitchen angrily shouting at each other after a loud explosion.

The story then flashes back to several days prior; Celestia and Luna are looking forward to participating in the upcoming Sisterhooves Social, which they have previously been unable to take part in due to their busy schedules. Kibitz reminds the sisters that not only do they still have a large number of royal duties to complete, they also have a tendency to get competitive with each other. Still wanting to compete in the Social, Celestia and Luna agree to expand their respective schedules, cut down on sleep, and work together to complete their tasks in time for the event.

However, over the course of completing their duties, Celestia and Luna predictably start to get competitive, exacerbated by stress and lack of sleep. As part of their preparation for the Social, Celestia and Luna enchant berries with magical potions—blueberries with diminishing potion to decrease their powers so that they can compete more fairly with other ponies, and strawberries with empowerment potion to return their powers to normal after the Social ends. But when Kibitz goes to hypnotist and potion maker Crystal Ball to have the potions made, she adds spicy ingredients to the potions, despite being warned that spicy food makes the princesses irritable.

The night before the Social, Celestia and Luna bake cookies to serve at the event. However, after ingesting the potion-enchanted blueberries, the sisters start to bicker over petty things, like whose pet is better. As their pets Philomena and Tiberius also start to quarrel, Celestia and Luna's distraction causes the kitchen oven to explode. At Kibitz's insistence, the two sisters decide to spend some time apart to calm down. Unfortunately, Celestia and Luna's moods have not improved by the following morning, and they spend the whole time flying to the Sisterhooves Social grounds bickering.

In Ponyville, Rarity and Sweetie Belle are also participating in the Social, and Celestia and Luna pretend to be friendly with each other for the other ponies' sake. During the Social, Celestia pelts Luna with pies in the charity pie throw, and Luna arranges for Celestia to be hypnotized into thinking she's a chicken whenever she hears the word "go". Rarity and Sweetie Belle notice the tension between the two sisters throughout the Social. By the time of the six-legged race event, Celestia and Luna become so fed up with each other that they decide to switch partners; Celestia teams up with Sweetie Belle, and Luna with Rarity.

Just then, Philomena and Tiberius—having accidentally ingested the empowerment-enchanted strawberries and grown to enormous size—come rampaging through Ponyville. Still under the effects of the diminishment-enchanted blueberries, Celestia and Luna are powerless to stop them alone. After Rarity and Sweetie Belle remind them of a lesson they themselves previously learned, Celestia and Luna work together to calm their giant-sized pets down—with assistance from the hypnotist Crystal Ball.

Kibitz soon arrives and apologizes to the princesses for unintentionally feeding their pets the enchanted berries. When he wonders why the pets quarreled so much, Luna explains that they were simply reacting to the competitive behavior between their owners. Thanks to Rarity and Sweetie Belle, Celestia and Luna come to accept each other's differences and reconcile over their previous arguing. In addition, because it was originally Kibitz's idea to have Crystal Ball make the enchantment potions, Celestia and Luna make him help clean up the mess that Philomena and Tiberius made.

In the issue's final panel, Celestia and Luna break the fourth wall and thank the reader for supporting the Friends Forever comic series.

Quotes

 * Princess Celestia: You ruined everything!
 * Princess Luna: Me? You are the ruiner!


 * Princess Celestia: It's a good thing there isn't a pet contest at the event, like the cookie contest. Philomena would so win over your raccoon.
 * Princess Luna: Possum. My Tiberius would run circles around your weird moody bird!
 * Princess Celestia: Moody? Look who's talking! And also... Please! My pet is so much better than your weird night mouse! Everything mine is better!
 * Princess Luna: Possum. And like me being better than you, I'll put him up against that old molting fiery fowl any day!


 * Kibitz: Your majesties, this is highly out of character! I've never heard you bicker so!


 * Princess Celestia: You feel I'm acting better than you? Untrue... I'm not acting, jealous one.
 * Princess Luna: If you run this race like your mouth, then we're sure to win!


 * Princess Celestia: I have turned into a chicken six times today!


 * Rarity: Guh! Dizzy! Can't even focus...
 * Sweetie Belle: Wanna hurl. Had fourteen cotton candies. Urp.


 * Princess Celestia: Rarity, your letter was correct: sisters do need to compromise. Sometimes it's about accepting each other's differences, not competing over them [sic]
 * Princess Luna: And that's exactly what we are—different. Light, dark. Sun, moon. Practical, dramatic.


 * Princess Luna: I feel that being called little sister sounds like I'm not your equal, like you're telling others I'm not as important as you. It's just—you're everything! Sunrise, sunset, colors, and warmth! It's no wonder everypony loves you best!
 * Princess Celestia: You are my equal—I always mean it to endear, not undermine. Look at you! Mystery and mood, dream time and moonlight! Even rare rocks! It's no wonder everypony loves you!
 * Princess Luna: It's when we are in harmony we are our most beautiful to everypony!
 * Princess Celestia: True! There can be no sunrise or sunset without the night to blend in its beauty.


 * Twilight Sparkle: Princesses!
 * Applejack: What in tarnation happened?!
 * Pinkie Pie: What caused that trail from here to Canterlot?
 * Rainbow Dash: Meteor?
 * Fluttershy: D-Dragon?!
 * Spike: Aliens?
 * Princess Celestia and Princess Luna: Possum.