Transformers/My Little Pony #1 is the first issue of IDW Publishing's crossover comic miniseries Transformers/My Little Pony. In the issue, Queen Chrysalis accidentally brings the Autobots and Decepticons to Equestria, and Rarity and Arcee team up against Starscream.
Summary
Transformation is Magic
The story opens in Equestria. Just outside Ponyville, Queen Chrysalis and several changelings that are still loyal to her enact a ritual to open a magic portal to another world and bring otherworldly changeling reinforcements. This ritual creates a massive electrical storm in the sky.
Meanwhile, on the planet Cybertron in another dimension, Autobot forces including Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Arcee battle against Megatron and the Decepticons for control of a malfunctioning spacebridge. As Shockwave tries to decipher its data, the spacebridge activates, causing everyone on the battlefield to suddenly be transported somewhere else.
Back in Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle and a group of royal guards confront Chrysalis, but the ritual is already complete. The Autobots and Decepticons appear through an inter-dimensional doorway, some of whom are scattered across Equestria. Chrysalis meets with Megatron, each of them curious about the other. As Optimus and Bumblebee plummet out of the sky, Optimus tries to break Bumblebee's fall, but they are both saved by Twilight.
Twilight exchanges introductions with Optimus and Bumblebee, pleased to discover that they are friendly, while Chrysalis and her changelings join forces with Megatron and the Decepticons to conquer Equestria.
Shine Like a Diamond
When the Autobots and Decepticons are scattered across Equestria, Starscream lands in Manehattan, and he has forced Rarity and other unicorns to do his bidding under threat of destroying the Rarity For You boutique and surrounding area.
All of a sudden, Arcee appears to attack Starscream and drive him off. Rarity thanks Arcee for saving them, and Arcee helps the ponies repair the damage Starscream caused. As the two converse, Arcee is impressed by Rarity's business success, and Rarity is impressed by Arcee's grace in combat. They also find they are similar in their desire to do anything for their friends.
Starscream returns with fellow Decepticons Thundercracker and Skywarp to get revenge on Arcee. To repay Arcee for her earlier help, Rarity assists her in battle, creating a magic shield to protect her from the Decepticons' blaster fire. Arcee shoots down Thundercracker, and Rarity uses a large piece of fabric to disrupt Starscream and Skywarp's flight. Skywarp withdraws from the battle, and Starscream crashes outside the city.
Rarity and Arcee celebrate their victory over the Decepticons and accept each other as friends.
Quotes
Transformation is Magic
- Quibble Pants: See?! This is why these nonsense crossover stories shouldn't even happen! What continuity is this even supposed to take place in?! If Dr. Caballeron still has his castle, then this should be before Daring Do has the Sapphire Skull!
- Newsstand Pony: I think it's just supposed to be fun.
- Queen Chrysalis: Soon, Equestria will pay! Not just for my most recent imprisonment--but for failing to kneel before Queen Chrysalis!
- Megatron: Report, Shockwave! Is this truly worth burning energon for?
- Shockwave: Yes, Lord Megatron! The data from this malfunctioning unit is unlike anything we've seen! This space bridge was not reaching out across the stars--it was cracking a breach to other dimensions!
- Grimlock: Yeah! Me, Grimlock, ready to-- Aww... Friends ditch Grimlock again?
- Queen Chrysalis: What exactly are you? And how can you be of use to me?
- Megatron: Amusing... I was about to ask you precisely the same.
- Bumblebee: After all our battles, I never thought this would be how I got scrapped...
- Optimus Prime: It won't be, old friend. Take my hand. If I can position myself to hit first to break your fall--
- Twilight Sparkle: Hnnh--that won't be necessary! But it is nice to hear that kind of selflessness and friendship!
- Twilight Sparkle: With shapeshifting magic like that, I see why the changelings summoned you! She'll be disappointed to learn you're the friendly type, though.
- Optimus Prime: Our abilities are no magic, princess. And sadly, not all of us pursue peace... and I fear some may be all too willing to destroy your harmony.
Shine Like a Diamond
- Starscream: Faster, ponies-- faster! I must look my best when I conquer your pathetic, backwards world! Let Megatron and Prime entrench themselves in endless war. Equestria will be the seat of my new empire!
- Rarity: Yes, darling, of course. Just don't shoot any more of the block! Property values and all that.
- Rarity: You raced to our rescue with all the fury of a storm! You changed shape before my very eyes and drove off that ruffian effortlessly! And after that dazzling display of martial prowess, you immediately became tender and delicate! You're positively marvelous!
- Arcee: I just can't stand to see innocents in danger. My friends, too, for that matter. I would move mountains for them.
- Rarity: Then we are kindred spirits in that regard.
- Thundercracker: Augh! I'm hit!
- Starscream: Idiot! How dare you lose to one Autobot and a pony!
- Rarity: We protect our friends with every fiber of our beings. And we are friends, aren't we, darling?
- Arcee: Fast friends for sure!
Trivia
Transformation Is Magic
- Like several other Generation 1 stories IDW's published in recent years, the comic's Transformer cast features the traditional mainstays—Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, etc.—and modern headliner Windblade. One 'bot you might not recognize at first glance is Gauge, a young, mint-green Transformer who recently debuted over in IDW's current Transformers continuity as Arcee's mentee.
- The space bridge seen here, both the tower on Cybertron and the colorful ring that opens above Equestria, is drawn to resemble its original appearance from the The Transformers cartoon, most prominently the episodes "Transport to Oblivion" and "Roll for It". However, it's referred to here as one word, "spacebridge", as per the 2005 IDW continuity.
- Most of the classic Autobots and Decepticons are drawn to resemble their counterparts from the 1984 cartoon, minus Megatron, who turns into a tank instead of a handgun, and Bumblebee, who transforms into an unusually toy-accurate hatchback based on his 2008 Universe toy.
- Continuing the fourth-wall breaking silliness, Quibble Pants reads (and complains about) a crossover comic entitled "Daring Do and the Power Ponies", two fictional (as in, fictional in the My Little Pony universe) franchises that frequently appeared in the Friendship Is Magic cartoon. He namedrops Dr. Caballeron, villain of the Daring Do novel series, who was later revealed to be a real individual, and...look, it's complicated, okay?
- A group of bunnies fleeing the Insecticons on page seven are all drawn to resemble Fluttershy's pet rabbit Angel.
Shine Like a Diamond
- Transformers fans will probably recognize "King Starscream's" getup—an ostentatious golden crown and a purple cape—from his (in)famous coronation scene in The Transformers: The Movie, although it seems the ponies didn't get around to fitting him with his distinctive up-swept shoulderpads before Arcee intervened.
- A billboard on page three features a pony drawn in the rounded style of the "Generation 1" (no, not that Generation 1!) My Little Pony toys from the 1980s.
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