Artemis Fowl and the Escape from Equestria

by Plasmadon

Artemis the Manticore Slayer

Chapter 2: Artemis the Manticore Slayer

Artemis pulled himself from unconsciousness, his old habits of observation surfacing as he took in everything in a single glance. They had appeared in some sort of ominous forest. He looked around again and noticed Holly and Butler slowly awakening. N°1 was already up and about, weaving a temporary campsite out of thin air. Artemis grabbed a small cube from his pocket and pressed a button. The box immediately elongated to form a chest about three feet deep. He opened the box and pulled a bundle of logs out. He tossed them to N°1.

“Can you light those?” he asked, contemplating the evening light that streamed through the tree cover. N nodded and hurriedly made a campfire. Artemis waited for Holly and Butler to awaken.

“Ugh… where are we?” Holly asked. Artemis took a good look at her and gasped. She seemed… younger, as if the travel stripped away decades of seriousness and worry. Her auburn hair was longer, falling unrestrained to her waist, and her skin seemed slightly lighter and paler, as though it had not been subjected to more than a dozen high-intensity explosions.

“Holly, you might want to take a good look at yourself,” Artemis said timidly. Holly raised an eyebrow and unclipped her Neutrino, staring at herself in the reflective surface.

“Wow… I’m young,” she said in shock.

“In all fairness, you weren’t that old before,” Connor said sleepily, rubbing the back of his head as he approached. “Artemis, you might want to look at yourself too.”

Artemis grabbed a mirror from the chest next to him and gaped. He looked to be about three years older; seventeen, if memory served him correctly. His normally combed back hair was unkempt and brushed his eyes occasionally. A thin layer of stubble surrounding his jaw added to the rugged appearance. He noticed the signs of artificial aging in Butler and Connor, too. While Connor had gotten several years older, like him, Butler looked to be about thirty. The patch of discolored skin where the Kevlar had infused itself into his body was gone.

“Alright, now that that’s out of the way,” Connor said, “I suggest we split up and scout the area around us. Artemis, you and Holly go together, and I’ll stick with Mulch. Butler, You and N°1 should stay behind and protect the camp, in case there’s anything hostile in these woods.”

Artemis and Holly headed east, still contemplating their artificial aging. The woods had an eerie feel, with light barely splitting the canopy and a small breeze shifting the many shadows. Artemis fingered his pockets nervously as the silence pressed in around them. He was just about to break said silence when they heard a roar from their left.

“You know, normal people wouldn’t go near a roaring like that,” Holly quipped. Artemis smiled widely.

“But we aren’t normal people, Holly.” And with that, they traced the roaring sound. They followed the sound deeper and deeper into the forest, relying only on the fading light and Holly’s adept hearing to find their way. When the duo finally found a clearing, something stopped them. It was…

What was it?

It had the head and torso of a male lion. Going further back, however, it had talons and a scorpion stinger. Two leathery wings sprouted from its back. Artemis’ eyes locked onto it appreciatively, and his mind began to record every tidbit of information on the creature.

“Artemis, what the hell is that thing?” Holly whispered as it locked onto them. Artemis searched his wide expanse of knowledge.

“It looks like a manticore,” he replied. “They were demons in Greek mythology that ate humans.”

“Let’s hope this thing isn’t human-hungry right now,” Holly said. Artemis grinned again and held up Holly’s Neutrino.

“We have this, don’t we?” he asked, dangling it in front of her. The manticore roared and charged them. Holly knocked Artemis out of the way and was slammed against a tree. Artemis held up the
Neutrino.

“Big mistake,” he said, pulling the trigger. A bolt of greenish light sank into the back of the monster’s head. It dropped to the ground, dead. Artemis helped Holly to her feet. A small bump was oozing blood from the back of her head. He frowned and concentrated, pressing his thumbs against the wound.

“Heal,” he murmured. Several small blue sparks raced around her head, fixing any damage that would have been caused to the brain and skull. Being shoved headfirst into a tree did not leave a person unharmed, after all.

“Nice shot,” she observed. Artemis shrugged.

“I’ve had Butler training me with a few human and fairy weapons. I nearly took his eye out the first time I shot a Neutrino.” Artemis chuckled before dropping to his knees to observe the dead beast.

“This thing is incredible,” he said, turning the head this way and that. “The bones and organs of all these animals all smoothly connect. The only question I have is what created it. Is this a natural creature in this dimension, or was it created by some genetic experimentation?”

“Well, we won’t get anywhere with your experimenting right now,” Holly said impatiently. “Come on, Artemis. We’ll drag the corpse back to camp once we’re done scouting this area.”

The two finished scouring the area for any life, and pulled the dead manticore all the way back to their camp. They didn’t notice the strange, four-legged creature that was hovering over them.

“I gotta tell Twilight about this,” Rainbow Dash said, racing back towards the direction of town.

Twilight Sparkle was having a good day. She had woken up to Spike’s fabulous cooking, finished several projects for the Canterlot Board of Scientific Experimentation, had an absolutely amazing picnic with her friends, and managed to do all of her daily maintenance jobs on the slowly degrading library. She thought back to the week before. Spike was a good housekeeper, but even he couldn’t keep up with the disastrous situations she often found herself in. It would take weeks to clean all of the cake off the ceiling and turn Gummy back into an alligator. She was about to settle down with a nice, long copy of Hoofster’s Dictionary when she instinctively glanced at the clock. Her eyes suddenly widened, and she quickly backpedaled from the room. A moment later, a rainbow-maned pegasus smashed through the ceiling and dug a hole into the floor. Twilight sighed and, with resignation and longing in her eyes, set the book down to help the pegasus.

“Hello, Rainbow,” she said sullenly. “You were right on time, as always. Were you practicing your Double Rainboom again?” the violet unicorn’s horn sparked with light, and a violet aura surrounded Rainbow Dash, lifting her into the air and setting her rather unceremoniously onto the floor.

“Twilight, you’ve gotta come quick!” she babbled, rising from the ground and buzzing the shelves. “There were these things, and a campfire, and some weird green thing, and-” Twilight frowned and shut Rainbow’s mouth with her magic.

“What are you going on about, Rainbow?” she asked. “Start from the beginning, and maybe we can make some sense of this.”

“Well,” Rainbow started, clearly impatient, “I was practicing the Double Rainboom over the Everfree Forest when I heard a manticore. I thought some poor animal was in danger, and since Fluttershy would Stare me down if I let a bunny get hurt, I went to check it out. I went down there, and there were these things. They looked like those animal that throw poop that Fluttershy sometimes takes care of.”

“You mean monkeys,” Twilight interjected.

“Yeah, those things. Anyway, one of them pulled out this silver thing and some green light came out of it. The light hit the manticore and killed it, and then they dragged it away.”

“But why would they do that?” Twilight thought aloud. “Everypony knows that manticore flesh is poisonous, and nopony ever eats meat anyway.”

“Twilight, weren’t you listening to me? These things aren’t ponies at all!” Rainbow Dash was hovering in the air, a fire of confidence in her eyes. “When I find them, they aren’t gonna know what hit them!”

“Rainbow, I’m sure that whatever these things are, they could quite frankly kick your flank.” Rainbow sputtered indignantly, but Twilight pressed on. “Listen to yourself, Rainbow. You had your tail handed to you by a manticore back when we first met, and that one was only a cub! Whatever these things are, they’re either incredibly adept at magic, or amazing technicians. I’ve never seen any technology that could shoot green light at things before. Ooh, I wonder if they can talk. It would be amazing to know what kind of magic their species has!” Twilight rolled off on a tangent, as she was well known to do when confronting anything related to science or magic.

Rainbow was too blind with rage to think rationally (well, about as rationally as she usually thinks). How dare these… things try to one-up her? She was Rainbow Dash, for crying out loud! She was the only pony in history other than the famous Firefly who had ever done a Sonic Rainboom, and an Element of Harmony. She could kick these creatures’ flanks to the curb! Another spark of determination danced in her heart. Without another word to Twilight, who was still in a state of deep thought, she raced out the door and flapped off in the direction of the Everfree forest.

Artemis had been working late into the night, using a pair of Foaly’s new night-specs. He examined the entirety of the manticore’s body, save the genitalia and tail. He was completely stumped by the creature. Three species of animal, all of completely different nature, and yet they all fit together almost seamlessly. The job was too perfect for a Frankenstein-esque innovation, but there were several flaws in the system that nature could not have produced normally. He had deduced from the size of the creature’s eyes and brain that it was sight oriented, unlike the traditional lion, which mapped its surroundings mainly with scent and sound. There was also an odd joining of the small and large intestine; the creature had to have been in pain its entire life from slowly degrading organs. All in all, Artemis concluded it was a somewhat successful attempt at genetic splicing and recombination. That only brought up more questions. Who had created the beast? Was it truly a sentient being? How did the creator develop such technology?

A sudden brainwave hit him with the force of a tidal wave. “Of course,” he murmured. N°1 gazed sleepily at him from his watch.

“Did you find something?” he asked, his voice slurred with exhaustion. Artemis felt a brief flash of guilt; N°1 had used an enormous amount of magic to power the Arch, and he was keeping watch for a good half of the night before Connor took over.

“Could you come here for a moment, N°1?” he asked after a moment. The demon complied, staggering over to Artemis and the corpse. “Do you mind doing a quick scan for residual magic on the body?”

“That should be easy enough,” N°1 replied. He slowly exhaled and entered a relaxed stance. Red wisps of magic curled around his hands and wrists, forming a corona of light. He passed his palms over the carcass in an almost meditative way, presumably checking for residual traces of magic. The demon’s closed eyes flickered, a sign Artemis took to be surprise.

“Artemis,” N°1 said slowly, “Never let me look at this thing again.”

“Excuse me?” Artemis was baffled by his finality.

“This… this thing is sick. It was born naturally, but… it’s horrible, Artemis. It’s like this poor creature was magically mauled.” He thought for a moment. “Have you ever seen that human movie, Insidious?”

“I’ve heard of it. I assume you’re referring to the red-faced demon?”

“Yeah. This creature is an abomination of nature. As far as I can tell, these things have been like this for hundreds of years. The magic isn’t nearly as potent as it would have been a long time ago, but its soul…” N°1 shivered, and the halo of scarlet light dissipated. “I’m never doing that again, Artemis. I don’t care if we’re friends. If you force me to look at that again I will do everything in my power to avoid it.”

“Don’t worry,” Artemis assured. “I won’t do anything like that. You should get some sleep. Connor’s watch is coming up soon, and quite frankly, you look terrible.”

N°1 chuckled. “Even worse than usual, huh?”

“Quite.” Artemis allowed the faintest of grins to peek through before he shooed the demon back to the camp. He placed a single hand on the grip of the pistol Butler had lent him earlier that year, while using the other to continue examining the body of the manticore.

“I will find all of your secrets,” he promised to the whole forest in a grave whisper. Unbeknownst to him, the earth beneath his feet heard the call, and the world’s destiny shifted just a tiny bit to ensure that swear would be kept.

Comments

[ChillaxBrony]

i havent read this yet. But i this can only go one of two ways.

Now i shall read.

[Lavram]

I'm going to buck you into a coma for making this. Now to read it!!!!

Edit: After reading both chapters... i conclude i need to finish the artemis foul series or else i have already ruined myself for due to the spoilers in this story. Good work but needs a little work. i can't say where cause i am not good at grammar.

[Tibbles]

Well, this is an interesting choice of crossover, proceed.

[TheMysteriousFilly]

MUST...READ...

[Jason Pheonix]

Unexpected but good! I approve again!j

[Doomande]

1736173
8 books, 2"graphic novel" and a useless guide with 2 small stories in it. If there is one dead horse that needs it rest is it this one.

[Hegamonia]

something tells me that the elements find the dissected body, wake up Artemis and demand why he killed a manticore, then butler wakes up and beats the tar out of one of them

[Plasmadon]

1740607 How did you know?!

1739202 I was going a bit too OoC, wasn't I?

1736055 It's nice to see you too, Lavram.

[Hegamonia]

1740637 natural thing that happens, Artemis gets captured and (almost) interrogated, then Butler comes along and starts busting skulls to get Artemis out
EDIT: I've read the books

[Plasmadon]

1740664 Are you sure you're not a fairy? Because you're reading minds pretty damn well. Or maybe you just mesmerized me to think of that stuff. Hmm... I smell a plot twist!

[Hegamonia]

1740671 oh very funny, I am not a fairy

[Plasmadon]

1741866 Celestia is technically an OC. She was an original Character created by Lauren Faust.

My pathetic argument aside, thank you!

[Aggron]

Aggron, aggron aggron aggron! Agg agg ron.

[pebblesfire]

A combinaison of two of my favourite things

[Corundum]

I SPOTTED A TYPO “II was practicing the Double Rainboom".....II? Two? What?

[Plasmadon]

1745863 Good catch!

Also, I added your Gmail to A Storm Is Coming. Try getting it now.

[Ironfire]

You know sh@$ is going down when you tick butler and he has a gun that is to scary to think about right now.....good job!

[MADC3]

I'm interested at the combination and so far it has turned decent.

[Stanislas]

i have tried to do a story with Artemis, but this character is so complex. Good job dude

[shadowstar618]

Pls write more

[CrimsonNight1]

MOAR!!!!!