Transformation Is Magic

My Little Pony/Transformers: Friendship in Disguise! #1 »
Twilight: Wouldn’t it have been interesting if we crossed over with our sister series that debuted alongside us instead of the same old- Hasbro: Lalalalaala can’t hear you!
"Transformation Is Magic"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
Published in	Friendship in Disguise! #1
First published	August 5, 2020
Cover date	July 2020
Written by	James Asmus
Art by	Tony Fleecs
Colors by	Tony Fleecs and Lauren Perry
Letters by	Jake M. Wood
Editor	Megan Brown, David Mariotte, and Bobby Curnow

The evil Queen Chrysalis summons changelings from another world to conquer Equestria, but doesn't get quite what she intended...

Synopsis

In the magical land of Equestria, it's just an ordinary day for the citizens of Ponyville until the sky darkens and lightning crackles, heralding a ferocious storm! But this is no ordinary storm; the villainous Queen Chrysalis and her shapeshifting changelings, having recently escaped their imprisonment, plan to conquer Equestria. The storm intensifies as the queen works her complex magic, weaving a powerful spell that will summon "fellow changelings" from other worlds to Equestria, ready to aid her mission of complete destruction...

Many dimensions away, the Autobots of the planet Cybertron valiantly defend a spacebridge from Decepticon attack. But Shockwave reports to Megatron that this spacebridge is faulty—somehow, it's not just reaching out to other planets, it's reaching out to other dimensions! Megatron warns his subordinate not to activate it, but Shockwave doesn't even get to finish his sentence before the bridge mysteriously activates and spirits all of the assembled Cybertronians away... all of them, that is, except for a very confused Grimlock, who arrives on the scene too late.

As this magically-enhanced spacebridge pushes through dimensions and materializes in the sky over Equestria, Queen Chrysalis delights in her moment of triumph, even as Princess Twilight Sparkle and her royal guards arrive to stop the evil queen. But Twilight's arrived too late: as she watches in horror, beams of colored light—each a dimensionally-displaced Cybertronian—streak through the portal, shoot all across Equestria, and come to land where they may, including Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, who materialize in the air above a nearby mountain range and plummet towards certain doom! Twilight immediately takes off to investigate, while Chrysalis turns her attention to Megatron, demanding to know what he is and how he can be of use—a question that bemuses the Decepticon conqueror.

Optimus Prime desperately tries to raise Windblade for an aerial rescue, but the flying Autobot's too far away and has problems of her own, having encountered an incredulous Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts above the clouds. Bumblebee's convinced that this is the end... but Prime valiantly prepares to sacrifice himself to save Bumblebee, intending to cushion Bumblebee's fall using his own body. That's not what Twilight expected to hear as she swoops in to save the pair; using her unicorn magic, she sets the two Autobots down on a nearby cliff and says as much. Optimus and Bumblebee introduce themselves and explain that they hail from the planet Cybertron, though Twilight informs them that their "shapeshifting magic" won't be of much use on a world like Equestria. The pony princess is just relieved that Chrysalis has accidentally foiled her own plan by summoning such friendly beings to Equestria, but Optimus sadly corrects her: not all Transformers are benevolent. Some Cybertronians seek only conflict and destruction, and their presence will only bring war to this peaceful world—Cybertronians like Megatron and the Decepticons, who roll out with their new allies in tow...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"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!"
"I think it's just supposed to be fun."

—Quibble Pants ignores the news vendor and declares this to be the Worst! Crossover! Ever!

"Yeah! Me, Grimlock, ready to—aw... friends ditch Grimlock again?"

—Grimlock

"Uh—Optimus? Are my optics busted... or are we plummeting to a surprisingly colorful doom?"

—Bumblebee

"Well, we're from the planet Cybertron. But we're happy to blend in to avoid scaring anyone! Does this help?"
"Wow!...um... not really? But almost everypony here wouldn't judge you for being different!"

—Bumblebee and Twilight Sparkle get acquainted

Notes

Continuity notes

• The conversation about continuity between an unnamed news vendor and the Comic Book Guy-esque spoilsport Quibble Pants is definitely meant to tell fans of both franchises to relax, have fun, and not take this wacky story too seriously... but we couldn't call ourselves a wiki if we didn't at least try to point out some significant continuity beats!
• IDW Publishing's ongoing My Little Pony continuity has always played pretty fast and loose with the cartoon's canon. Although everything we've seen in the issue—Chrysalis's "imprisonment" (see below); Twilight Sparkle appearing backed by royal guards; the complete lack of Celestia and Luna during a crisis—suggests it takes place after Twilight's coronation as Equestria's ruler in the series finale, the changelings Chrysalis commands present a major sticking point: in the cartoon, they rejected Chrysalis and renounced their villainous ways in the season six finale (outside of a few rogues who didn't fully reform until episode 17 of the following season), taking on new metamorphosed forms unlike the classic designs seen in this comic; indeed, one of these reformed changelings Ocellus, appears in a later issue. But, as the news vendor says...
• Chrysalis seeks revenge against the ponies for "imprisoning" her. This is likely in reference to her imprisonment in stone in the cartoon's penultimate episode, but her being free would also mean the escape of fellow villains Tirek and Cozy Glow, which would make their omission rather strange since three major villains running loose should be a much bigger deal and—*sigh* Right, right, "just supposed to be fun." Never mind.

Transformers references

• 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 had recently debuted over in IDW's concurrent Transformers comic 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.

My Little Pony references

• 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.

Errors

• On page four, Megatron's eyes are miscolored blue
• The teleportation scene on page four appears to feature two Bumblebees, one in the foreground next to Gauge, and another in the background next to Shockwave. Now, it could be Cliffjumper or Glyph or someone, but...
• On page nine, the yellow patch on Fire Streak's flight suit is miscolored red.

Other trivia

• The comic's lettering helps paint the medium as these two wildly different worlds collide: while the Cybertronian speech bubbles use the traditional lettering style we're familiar with from the 2005 and 2019 continuities, the My Little Pony characters use their own whimsical typeface from their comics. In contrast, the text announcing each location is actually rendered in the opposite franchise's font for a fun bit of mix-and-match.
• The news vendor bears a strong resemblance to the comic's artist, Tony Fleecs, and has previously appeared in other My Little Pony issues he's drawn. In an interview for the second volume of My Little Pony: Art is Magic, Fleecs said if he had his own OC, he'd name it Cheeseburger.