- The correct title of this issue is "My Little Pony/Transformers II Issue 3". Due to technical limitations, the slash is removed from the article title.
| My Little Pony/Transformers II #3 | |
|---|---|
| |
| Issue №: | 3 |
| Published: | June 30, 2021 |
| Writer: | Tony Fleecs (pp. 1-10) James Asmus (pp. 11-20) |
| Artist: | Tony Fleecs (pp. 1-10) Priscilla Tramontano (pp. 11-20) |
| Colorist: | Tony Fleecs (pp. 1-10) Lauren Perry (flats, pp. 1-10) Luis Antonio Delgado (pp. 11-20) |
| Letterer: | Jake M. Wood (pp. 1-10) Neil Uyetake (pp. 11-20) |
| Editor: | Megan Brown |
| See also | |
| Credits • Gallery • Allusions | |
| Issue guide | |
| Previous My Little Pony/Transformers II #2 |
Next My Little Pony/Transformers II #4 |
My Little Pony/Transformers II #3 is the third issue of IDW Publishing's crossover comic miniseries My Little Pony/Transformers: The Magic of Cybertron. In the issue, Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch, the Young Six, and Soundwave work together to get out of a precarious situation, and Rarity teams up with Ratchet and Knock Out to free some of their allies from King Sombra's control.
Summary[]
Sick Beats[]
Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch, having been transported to Cybertron in the first issue, are stranded in the middle of King Sombra's mind-controlling takeover of the planet. In their efforts to lie low until the conflict is over, they run into the Young Six—Sandbar, Yona, Silverstream, Smolder, Gallus, and Ocellus—who were also spirited away to Cybertron by a spacebridge portal. Some of them want to go home, but the others want to stay and save Twilight Sparkle and the other victims of Sombra's mind control. As the students start to argue, Octavia takes charge and says they must work together "in harmony" if they wish to survive.
Suddenly, the Decepticon Soundwave appears to apprehend the group, but when he reports this to Megatron, Megatron does not respond. Gallus and Smolder attempt to fight back against Soundwave, and when he returns fire with his sonic cannons, he accidentally brings the surrounding walls down on top of all of them. With the entire group trapped under tons of steel, Soundwave tries to contact Megatron again, but to no avail. As Gallus taunts Soundwave further, Soundwave tries (and fails) to free himself with his sonic cannons, explaining that only a sonic blast could move away the collapsed steel walls.
This gives Vinyl Scratch an idea: she quickly rebuilds the soundstage from her and Octavia's earlier concert into a bass cannon and tries to blast the walls away. Soundwave even deploys Ravage and Laserbeak to fire at the walls with lasers and missiles, but they still do not budge. As the students begin to despair that they will be trapped forever, Vinyl comes up with another idea, but Octavia tells Soundwave it will only work if he agrees to a truce. Soundwave initially refuses, saying his mission is to acquire their magic energy. When Ocellus and Sandbar offer to give Soundwave their magic freely in the name of friendship, he accepts.
Vinyl swiftly integrates her audio equipment with Soundwave's systems, and she also invites Octavia to join them with her cello, echoing her earlier sentiments about harmony. With their combined efforts, Vinyl, Octavia, Soundwave, Ravage, and Laserbeak blast an opening through the collapsed walls, freeing everyone. When Soundwave tries once more to contact Megatron, he discovers that his leader has fallen under the spell of King Sombra. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Soundwave concedes that working together with the ponies is the only way to save Cybertron.
The Beauty of Cybertron[]
Rarity and Autobot medic Ratchet find a mob of mind-controlled Autobots and Decepticons gathering resources for King Sombra. In their efforts to find a cure for Sombra's spell, the two ambush the brainwashed horde to capture a test subject. However, they end up capturing the Decepticon medic Knock Out, who is not under mind control at all and is simply taking advantage of Sombra's invasion to steal some extra parts for himself. To compel Knock Out's cooperation with their mission, Ratchet outfits him with an explosive device and threatens to detonate it if he refuses.
As the three head out in pursuit of Sombra's slaves, Knock Out explains that he overheard them mumbling earlier about "power supplies" but was mainly concerned with salvaging parts. When Ratchet criticizes Knock Out for his selfishness, Knock Out retorts that he only became a medic to bring beauty and refinement to Cybertron. Rarity is pleased to meet a Decepticon who shares her appreciation for beauty. During their travel across the planet, Knock Out takes the time to show Rarity that Cybertron has its own beauty, from the yearly migration of the radiant shralls to the ancient titans to the natural energon springs.
At the springs, Rarity, Ratchet, and Knock Out find Sombra's slaves harvesting the energon for their master, and Knock Out discovers his partner Breakdown among them. As Knock Out and Rarity cause a distraction, Ratchet readies a neural disruptor intended to break Sombra's mind control, but Knock Out grabs the controller away and sends out an electrical burst of energy. While this temporarily incapacitates Breakdown and some nearby Cybertronians, it does not break Sombra's hold over them. While the rest of Sombra's slaves retreat with the energon, Rarity recalls how she and her friends defeated Sombra the last time, and Ratchet tells her to do it again.
With Ratchet's neural disruptor connected to her horn, Rarity freezes Breakdown and the others in place, but she tells Knock Out that he must reach out to Breakdown himself. In an attempt to break Sombra's spell, Knock Out gives an impassioned speech and says he could not bear to live in a world without his "better half" by his side. The mind control is broken, and Breakdown returns to his senses. With that, Rarity suggests removing Knock Out's explosive device, but Ratchet reveals it is just a harmless tracking device.
Now that the group has found a way to free Sombra's victims from his mind control by combining Equestrian magic with Cybertronian technology, Ratchet proposes seeing Wheeljack for similar solutions and hopes that Sombra does not figure out how to do the same. Unbeknownst to them, however, Sombra spies on them from another location and learns of their secret strategy.
Quotes[]
Sick Beats[]
- Octavia Melody: King Sombra has Twilight and the others!
- Vinyl Scratch: ...
- Octavia Melody: Yes, of course we should help them, Vinyl Scratch! But what could we even do?
- Vinyl Scratch: ...
- Octavia Melody: No, I don't think they need dramatic theme music!
- Yona: Yona loves sickening beats!
- Silverstream: Obviously, we all love sick beats.
- Smolder: You foals can go run and hide if you want! Me and Gallus are gonna stay here and fight!
- Sandbar: I don't like your energy right now, dude.
- Gallus: Well, I don't like your cowardice right now... dude!
- Octavia Melody: We are stronger when we're together... in harmony.
- Soundwave: Do not mock me, buffalo!
- Gallus: Hey, I'm a griffon! Yona's the buffalo!
- Yona: Yona is yak! That Yona's whole thing!
- Sandbar: She's firing the bass cannon!
- Octavia Melody: Vinyl, dear... take 'em to the bridge!
- Soundwave: I fear my master has fallen under some sort of spell. Perhaps for now, the little changeling is right... We may be stronger when we are together.
The Beauty of Cybertron[]
- Rarity: Don't worry, Ratchet, darling! You're used to repairing and treating your compatriots--and I know... a bit about magic!
- Ratchet: How little is "a bit"?
- Knock Out: You want to talk about theft? You should see how egregiously overpriced these designer racing tires are!
- Rarity: Ugh! Tell me about it! I think a few couture shops in Equestria would literally charge a horn and a leg if they could.
- Knock Out: You must be one of these "ponies" I heard gossip about! It certainly is refreshing to meet another aesthetic appreciator.
- Ratchet: Congratulations, Knock Out. You've just been enlisted to help. Or I detonate that little device and badly damage your well-polished paint job.
- Rarity: For what it's worth, Knocky-dear, if you are dedicated to beautifying things, I'd say this world needs you alive.
- Knock Out: What a cycle... True as that may be, I can't let you return to Equestria thinking Cybertron's entirely so... brutalist.
- Ratchet: There's a dozen bots under Sombra's spell out there, including--
- Knock Out: --Breakdown. You don't need to threaten me into action, Ratchet. My partner is one of them.
- Ratchet: Forgive me, princess! But we've yet to discover a way to conduct pure "friendship energy" or whatever you do on your world!
- Rarity: Well... while I believe that was sarcastic, I should mention I am not a princess.
- Knock Out: [to Breakdown] Listen to me, you big hunk of metal--I need you to snap out of it. Right now. Not just because I don't want to hurt you--but because you're the strongest bot I know. And if you can't break free of that spell--no one will. But also because... because you're my better half. And frankly, if I have to fight to keep this world from falling into a grim, unicorn dystopia--and we lose--I'd hate to spend eternity on a scrap heap next to anyone else.
- Rarity: That. Was. Lovely! Especially since the spell didn't require you to say anything!
- Knock Out: Wait--what?!
- Breakdown: Knock Out! You saved me! And so sweet about it, too!
