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// into the breach 
// Story: Artemis Fowl and the land of Equestria 
// by William Van Auger 
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(A/N For the record, this chapter has a lot of Artemis and few ponies. I need to get it out the way so bear with me while I do. In addition, Artemis’ section is a little clunky. I apologise for this and promise that things will clear up once they arrive in Equestria)
The trip from Tara was thoroughly unpleasant. Thick sheets of rain fell from the sky, thunder shook the earth to its core, and the wind was beginning to uproot trees.
Holly would rather be underground. Failing that, Holly would rather be anywhere with less dramatic weather but she had paid the price before by ignoring Artemis. She had no desire to repeat that experience. She did have to admit, it was good to breathe surface air, even if it had been through her helmets filters. It also made her slightly sad, thinking about what the humans where doing to the world.

By the time she reached Fowl manor, she was drenched. The rain had even managed to soak through her suit. Waterproof, right. It didn’t take long to find Artemis in the grounds. Something about the six hundred foot, metal tower made that job easy. She didn’t show herself yet though. First, she wanted to see what Artemis was up to before he had a chance to explain himself. She perched herself on the manor roof and engaged her helmets visual enhancers.
It felt bad spying on Artemis and Butler. Then again, they spied on Foaly all the time and didn’t seem to bat an eye. Still, Holly and Artemis had a delicate friendship and she didn’t want to make things worse.
At least the storm hadn’t reached the manor yet. It wouldn’t be long though, half an hour at most, already the wind was rising and a fine mist had started to fall.  Light rain made shielding hard, one of the few things Foaly had never been able to fix with any of his new suit designs. The air around Holly was vibrating too fast and the rain, too light to fall normally. Thankfully, Artemis was preoccupied with his latest project.
Holly guessed it was something to do with the storm. Foaly had suggested that it could be an attempt to harness lightning as a power supply, but it was too simple. Whatever it was, it was bound to be complicated. It was almost certainly going to border the impossible.

While Butler was busy connecting the last cables, Artemis was running a final system check. Aside from the lightning rod, Artemis was also hoping to test out two new inventions. First, an electronic device based on the Fairy omnitool. Its design allowed it to control radio waves, allowing it to act as a remote control for any technology that emitted an electronic signal. It even had the ability to produce magnetic fields, as well as function as a standard omnitool issued to the LEP. The second was a wrist-mounted computer. Artemis didn’t just use it to check his email however. Based on a similar model to his abandoned C-Cube project, it was a portable database, a sonic resonator able to create a 3-D map of the surrounding area, even a basic scanner, all without a single piece of fairy technology. Every system of today’s project was being controlled through the wrist computer. Everything from the Tesla coils to the containment field. All of it was adjustable and monitored through what Artemis had taken to calling the Wrist Integrated Computer System or W.I.C.S. for short.
So far, everything was going smoothly but that could change at any moment. Artemis had yet properly waterproofed the W.I.C.S and the rain had already started to fall, not to mention the instability of the components used in the lightning rods construction. Naturally, the system had backup controls but Artemis had insisted on using the occasion to field test his new toys.
No, Artemis was sure nothing would go wrong. He and Butler had triple checked everything, even nonessential parts had been secured. The only thing that could fail this time was Artemis himself.
“Butler, how is everything looking?”
“You don’t need to keep asking” Chuckled Butler, “everything’s solid, Artemis. You’ve done well.”
“I suppose you’re right. Still I have this feeling, as if we should call it off.”
If anything, Butler became more amused at the idea.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see the day you would follow a gut feeling.” 
It was true that normally Butler was the one with the feelings. They had become almost a sixth sense for him, and had served him well in the past. Still it wasn’t like Artemis to put feelings over logic.

High above the manor, a large, black cloud formation moved across the sky. The very nature of the Cloud was sinister. A storm this large hadn’t formed in the British isles for centuries. Even Ireland, which saw its fair share of rainfall rarely saw, storms with this much ferocity. Below the dark mass, Artemis was discussing the final points of the plan.
“The systems fine, Artemis. Not that I understand exactly what it’s supposed to do.”
“That’s fine, old friend. Your part is over. It’s up to me and Holly now.”
Butler instinctively glanced over his shoulder at the mention of the elf’s name. Partly to search for the slight shimmer that told of the arrival of his friend, mostly to make sure that invisible eyes were not watching them. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a small patch of the manor roof that rain seemed to be avoiding entirely. Subconsciously he moved himself in between his charge and the Manor, silently cursing Artemis for making him leave his Sig Sauer inside during the storm.
Artemis simply raised a hand and Butler stopped in his tracks. With an almost apathetic air, Artemis raised a hand to his ear.

Despite being two hundred meters away, Holly saw Butler turn in her direction and move to block Artemis from her line of sight. A moment later, a ringing in her ear told her she had a new voice message. She recognised the child genius’ tone instantly. 
“Captain Short, I invited you here with good intentions. However if you would prefer I will rescind the invitation and allow you to continue spying on me unimpeded.”
The captain let out a sigh. She should have known that Artemis would know she was already here. A few months ago, she was certain that he had even had her tracked. Foaly had assured her she was simply being paranoid and if Foaly tells you, your being paranoid you probably are.
Slowly she drifted down to meet Artemis and Butler on the lawn. In the high wind even, a low hover was a difficult feat. She regretted her choice of wings more and more as she compensated for the gale.
If speed was what you wanted there were none finer, but in the high wind, they were too light to remain stable and they were becoming a hindrance.
Holly did have to admit, she was excited to see Artemis again. It had been too long since she had been to the surface.

“How did you know it was me?” was the first question Holly had for Artemis when she finally landed on the lawn. “You told Foaly to come personally.”
Artemis smiled and said. “The only sure way to get Foaly to send you was to tell him to come personally. I knew he would send someone I would trust, but who was not above shooting me for his or her own enjoyment, In short, you.”

Somewhere beneath the surface, Foaly cursed loudly. He hadn’t realised how predictable his sending Holly was. It was true that she was the go to Fairy on matters concerning Artemis Fowl. More importantly, it was true that the real reason he wasn’t there personally was that Artemis had asked him to. He made a mental note to familiarise Commander Kelp with the Mud boys file. At least then, he could send someone Artemis didn’t expect. 

The customary greetings and insults out of the way, Artemis began explaining his plan. Butler had even hooked up a laptop on a sturdy podium, so Foaly could take part. Butler naturally, had heard it all before but with Artemis, it never hurt to hear it from the top once more. Or five times in this case.
“Gentleman, lady, no doubt you’re wondering why you’re here.”
Nobody bothered to answer. When it came to Artemis’ plans, it was better to save your questions until the end. Otherwise, they would likely be here all day.
“Mankind has become capable of producing vast quantities of electricity in the last century. However, our demand for energy is rapidly growing greater than our ability to harness it. It is, as it has been for the last decade or so been a problem with fuel sauces, largely the fact that we are running out.
Yet Mother Nature is capable of producing all the energy we need, a substantial amount of the energy Haven uses is geo thermal, Atlantis, powered by deep ocean currents.”
“I’m so glad that you feel the need to lecture me on energy systems that I designed” Chimed Foaly “but if we could get to the point.”
“But then I thought,” continued Artemis without skipping a beat “why not us. Humans have one sauce of energy even the People cannot easily harness. That is why I have built, this,” Directing everyone’s gaze to the lightning rod and the plasma batteries.
“Ooh, a Lighting Tower, how interesting.” 
“Foaly has a point Artemis” Said Holly “Humans have built Lightning towers to generate power before. What makes yours so special?”
“Because Holly, Mine does not generate electricity.” 
Foaly finally had enough and certainly was not above telling everyone.
“Blast it Fowl this is eating into LEP time here, not to mention my budget. Holly, I’m calling you back. He’s just trying to waste our time.”
“I assure you Foaly, this is more important than wasting your budget. 
Allow me to explain. I do not intend simply to generate energy from bolts of lightning. I intend to capture one.”

Even after Artemis explained the science behind his experiment, Foaly still wasn’t convinced.
Artemis had explained how, in theory anyway, it was the same as the plasma conduits running under the streets of Haven. He still insisted that a bolt of lightning held more power than the plasma batteries could safely contain, even if it were possible. He nearly choked with shock when Artemis told him he expected each container to hold a minimum of ten.
By that point, the storm was overhead. It was time to start.

Even Butler was finding it difficult to stay standing in the wind. The thunder was so loud that everyone had to shout to understand each other, and lightning struck the tower with earthshattering force. Artemis came close to pulling the fail-safes on more than one occasion but he held his ground.
“The first battery is almost full,” shouted Butler over the gale. “Should I change them over?” 
“Not yet” replied Artemis. “I built vents into the containers. If they exceed capacity, the vents will open and divert power to the other battery. I want them filled.”
So like Artemis, thought Holly A plan for everything.


The six mares stood there confused, none more so than Applejack. Honestly, she had never fully understood how unicorn magic worked. Nor for that matter had she ever understood how the Pegasi controlled the weather. Even the elements of harmony didn’t make much sense to her so when princess Celestia explained what was going on she hardly understood a word. What she had understood was that after the Pegasi had made the storm it had become too large to control. Luna had apparently tried to use her talent for lightning and clouds to disperse the clouds, but to no avail. The only option left to them was to use something more powerful than even the magic of the Alicorns, and that was why Applejack and her friends were standing in the rain wearing five necklaces and a big crown thingy.
Twilight on the other hand had understood every word, so she was the one organising everything, and could not be happier about it. She and Celestia had decided that they should divide into two teams, Luna, Rarity and themselves on one team and AJ, Pinkie Pie, Dash and Fluttershy on the other.
The unicorns were going to try to stabilise and disperse the clouds while those remaining were going to provide power for their efforts using the elements of harmony. She felt confident that nothing would go wrong. Her friends had never let her down before, and she knew that they never would.
Luna on the other hand, was a mystery. She was still a princess true, but it had been a long time since she had made a Public appearance. No, Twilight did her best to clear her mind of doubt. Such feelings were only going to make things difficult, she extended the same measure of trust she showed to her friends and teacher. She asked everypony to get into position so they could begin. 
As soon as Celestia gave the order, Twilight felt the familiar adrenaline rush that accompanied more difficult spells. Lances of blue and lavender speared the clouds as the unicorns magic broke through the storm. A moment later, the magic from the elements joined the fray.


Everything was proceeding according to plan. Both batteries were nearly at full capacity, and Artemis could not be more smug about it.
“You see Holly,” he shouted over the storm “the lightning rod is built to channel the energy rather than convert it. Considering how much voltage plasma contained it was easy to calculate how much each vat could contain. It is also much cleaner than plasma as it doesn’t produce any radiation. I still wouldn’t take my chances swimming in it though.” He added the last part dryly remembering what had happened to commander Cudgeon when he ended up inside a live plasma conduit moments after Artemis himself had vacated it.
Holly was past caring. She had to admit though Artemis had impressed her this time, even if he had stolen Fairy technology. Holly was willing to bet a full search of Fowl manor would show up more than a couple of batteries. As far as she was concerned, they had gotten off lightly.
Suddenly something struck the tower that defiantly wasn’t lightning.
It was a defiantly energy of some kind, but unlike anything any of them had ever seen. It travelled down the spire where it mixed with the Lightning in the tanks.
“What the hell was that!?” shouted Foaly over the claxons
“That wasn’t me, whatever it was its broken the containment! We need to reseal the tanks. I have worked too hard to lose the experiment now.”
Holly was off as soon as Artemis had finished talking. She was aware of Foaly shouting in her ear but didn’t have time to worry about it. If plasma batteries in Haven breached, they did not only damage surface structures but also spilled radioactive gel all over the city. She didn’t want to find out what happened when you added lightning into the mix.

Artemis on the other hand, was struggling to figure out what had happened while trying to fix the mess. Holly had run off somewhere Butler was running after her and Foaly was yelling something that he couldn’t understand over the hazard alarms. He had figured out that the emergency vents had not trigged because they were built to react to a specific energy source. All Artemis needed to do was manually vent the tanks. That way he would not lose the project. There was even enough time to refill the empty tanks.
“DAMN IT ARTEMIS, YOU NEED TO STOP HOLLY”
Artemis turned to answer but it was already too late.

Holly sprinted the three hundred meters to the base of the lightning tower. Not the safest place to stand, if lightning struck while she was at the base there weren’t enough blue sparks in Haven to put her back together. 
She knew the standard procedure for containment breaches. A team of experts needed to reseal the tanks as fast as possible. Holly was no expert but she understood how it was done well enough, a welding torch or resin around the edges of the barrels should fix the problem. 
Artemis had said that the tanks would empty if the fail-safes activated.it never occurred to her that the system had malfunctioned. 
She drew her Neutrino and cranked the power to three. It should be enough to seal the batteries but not burn through them.
She got as close as she dared to took aim and fired a steady stream of energy at the seams of the tanks. 
Butler had caught up with her by this point, though he looked very out of breath.
“Holly” he panted, “we need to move, it isn’t safe here.”
The rain was even worse at the tower base, the flat ground allowing wind to reach hurricane speed.
A strong gust of wind threw Holly off balance, for a fraction of a second the Neutrino laser connected with the Lightning rod. All the energy diverted into the batteries, along with the mystery energy and lightning. The batteries finally gave up. The breached tank exploded throwing Holly and Butler twenty feet across the lawn. The energy contained within trailed back up the tower and released everything back into the sky.


Pinkie Pie was bored. She would never say so to her friends but this magic stuff was not for her. This was all time she could have spent thinking up new songs, making new friends, or new words to play with. I don’t think they realise how much effort it takes to stay like this all day, she sighed internally she promised herself that she would make a song about today’s events and she perked right up.
Suddenly her tail started twitching. During a storm, she normally would have ignored it, but this was something different. 
“Uh, guys, my tails a twitchin.” 
“Darn it Pinkie not now.” Said Applejack 
It surprised her that AJ hadn’t listened. Normally she paid close attention to anything her pinkie sense detected.
Twilight on the other hand had learnt the hard way not to ignore a twitchy tail.
“What is it pinkie? What’s going to fall?”
“It’s not just one thing. A whole bunch of things are going to fall, a whole cacophony, maybe even a whole bushel.” 
A blast of light struck the Town Hall sending wood and tiles in all directions. The unicorns had the misfortune to be connected to the sky, the light trailed back down the tendrils of magic, striking each in turn knocking them out. A hole opened in the air showering the world with fire.



The sky tore, not just a crack of thunder but an actual tare in the sky. The wind picked up, sucking everything not bolted to the floor into the sky. The laptop Foaly was using, the remaining battery, even Artemis, Holly and Butler were dragged into the air and swallowed by the gaping maw.


The light that had rendered Rarity and Twilight unconscious was no match for the power of the Alicorns. Luna would be lying if she said it didn’t hurt but if her sister could handle it so could she.
She stared at the hole in the sky and saw several pieces of debris were larger than the others. One seemed to be moving independently, it moved to connect with one mass and then shifted to another dragging it out of the air.
She opened her mouth to speak but Celestia was already taking charge.
“Fluttershy, you and Pinkie Pie are to take Twilight and Rarity to Ponyville Urgent care”
“Um y-yes ma’am” she muttered 
Celestia didn’t wait for a response before continuing. “The rest of you, follow me. Ms Dash will you fly to Canterlot and summon my royal guard. We will need them to make sure everypony’s all right.
I certainly hope they are.”