There is a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic quote in there. I will subtract one review from the requirement for the next chapter for every person who can identify the quote, the pony who said it, and the pony they were talking to. (Hint: they were on a camping trip)

Answers:

BossMan1a22: Oh, of course. Artemis had something to do with it… And where, exactly does it say that Artemis sleeps with his curtains open?

AFwannabe: Well, thank you. And I'm fine with extra punctuation.

jayjthebigmouth: No, it did not hit Fowl Manor. You gave me a good idea though… MWAHAHAHA!

hrhowling: Thanks. Don't worry, I'm not giving this up yet.

drgraves129: Thank you. As long as you keep reviewing, I will keep updating.

Wow. You guys didn't even act excited when I said Mulch was coming in. Poor Mulch. Anyway, here he is. Mulch. As promised!

Please review. Please!

Disclaimer: I feel like a broken record.

Fowl Manor, June 2nd

Holly awoke to the blinding glare of the sun through the third-story window. Beneath her, Artemis shifted slightly. She moaned and buried her face in the Mud Boy's chest in an attempt to go back to sleep. That's when the pounding started.

Holly opened her eyes sleepily and looked toward the window. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. Nope, she wasn't hallucinating. There was actually a hairy dwarf in the tree beside the house, cop-knocking on the window and chewing on something that Holly would rather not know the identity of.

"Hey, lovebirds!", he shouted through a mouthful of Frond-knows-what. "Hey! Lemme in!"

Artemis opened his eyes and was just as surprised as Holly at the sight that greeted him. "How did you get up there?"

"If I went through the details of how I ended up here, we would be here all day. And I do not want to be up here all day."

Holly grinned. "Is the tough dwarf theif scared of heights?"

He banged on the window again. "That is not something you need to know. What you need to know is that I am very hungry and this branch feels like it's about to break."

Artemis shrugged. "You shouldn't have gotten up there to begin with."

Mulch scowled at him. "Come on, lemme in."

"Why don't you come through the front door like a normal person?"

"Butler wouldn't let me. He said he had to have authorization from you or somethin' like that, and here you are sleeping, not giving him authorization. With an elf, no less. Artemis, I thought you knew better. And Holly, I am very disappointed in you."

At this remark, Holly blushed and glared at him, and Artemis angrily waved a hand at the window. Blue sparks flew out and the blinds snapped shut. They could still here Mulch's muffled voice protesting from the tree, but they didn't care. Neither of them felt like getting up, and they wouldn't admit it until years later, but they were both comfortable with this position.

Holly's mouth formed a surprised 'o' as her sleepy mind registered what had just happened.

"Artemis…did you…what just…how the…what did you just do?"

Artemis yawned. "I'll explain later, Holly. I promise." After he said that, he fell back to sleep almost immediately. Holly wasn't really tired, but she didn't want to move, so she just lay there, listening to Artemis's heartbeat and feeling his chest rise and fall rhythmically in time with his breathing.

"Holly, it's breakfast time.", Butler shouted through the door.

"Coming, Butler. I'll be right there."

Artemis had gone down to his room to change about ten minutes before, and Holly had been chatting with, and more-or-less teasing, Mulch.

She stepped into the bathroom, changed, and said "Bye, Mulch. Gotta go down to breakfast.", which got her a scowl and some rude gestures in her direction as a response. She ran into Artemis halfway down and walked with him the rest of the way to the dining room. As she sat down beside Artemis, she noticed that the table was unusually empty.

"Artemis, where are your brothers? And your parents?"

"My parents are at a business conference in Florida. They will be coming home on the 25th. And my brothers are at my aunt's house in Rathmines. My parents will pick them up on their way here when they come back."

Holly nodded as Butler set a plate in the middle of the table, then walked off, burdened with the dreaded task of waking his sister. Holly looked at the white plate, which had a pile of pancakes on it comparable to Mt. Everest. Holly's mouth watered at the sight of it.

Butler returned with his sister and a small bruise on his chin and set plates, forks, and syrup on the table, then sat on Artemis's other side. Juliet sat across from Holly and scanned the table.

"Dom, where's the butter? You didn't put butter out."

The man mountain motioned to the syrup. "It's butter-flavored syrup."

Juliet nodded, and breakfast continued in silence, other than Holly occasionally asking Artemis if he was done.

"Artemis, are you done yet?"

The teenager sighed. "The last thousand times you asked that, the answer was no. This time, it's actually yes."

Holly got up and literally pulled Artemis out of the chair by his hand. "Come on!", she said. She pulled him up the stairs, shoved him into his room, and slammed the door shut. She sat on the edge of the bed and turned toward Artemis. "Speak", she commanded.

Artemis put on a look of fake confusion. "Speak about what?"

Holly raised an eyebrow, a look she had learned from years of Artemis's company. "You know good 'n well what. This morning."

Artemis smiled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. Holly had never, ever seen that look on him, nor had she ever expected to. "Yes, this morning. About that…"

"Go on."

The look she gave him was more than enough to make the young genius tell her everything. "When I died, my soul was able to see things that my body could not. Opal's body had magic on it, and I could see it. I disposed of the remaining black magic, and absorbed the little regular magic that was left. I completed the Ritual the first chance I got, and the magic that resulted is…powerful."

Holly sighed and rolled her eyes. "Obviously it's powerful. What I want to know is, why?"

Artemis let a small smile tug at his lips. "It's simple really. Opal's magic was already very strong due to her intellect. When combined with my intellect, the magic got stronger, allowing me to move objects using telekinesis. I can also levitate, and possibly read your mind, though for your sake I won't. And of course, I can do all the things the average fairy can do, such as heal, mesmerize, and shield. But these things are escalated to very high levels. I can heal mortal injuries without drastically changing the person, I can mesmerize the strongest of minds, and not even a Butler could pick out a shimmer in the air should I decide to shield. Unfortunately, casting difficult spells, such as the one this morning, takes and will take considerable effort until I get used to it."

"Wow." Holly looked at him, her big eyes even bigger, full of surprise and worry. "Artemis, are you sure you're able to handle that kind of power? Without trying to take over the world or something like that?"

He let the smile grow bigger. "Of course I can, Holly. If I was average, I would be insulted at your distrust of me. I am no longer the depressed, determined twelve-year-old boy you, ah…first met."

Holly rolled her eyes again and smiled back. "Of course. How could I ever not trust you? Because you've been so nice to me ever since we first met, and you never lie to me."

"No need to be sarcastic, Holly."

"Oh, please. Look who's talking."

Holly got off the bed and hugged the surprised boy. "Don't worry, Artemis. I trust you completely. No sarcasm this time."

She looked into his eyes and realized for the first time since he was revived that his eyes mirrored hers. "Artemis, your eyes. They don't match."

Artemis raised an eyebrow. D'Arvit, Holly thought. He's so damn hot when he does that. D'Arvit, don't think like that! "Of course they don't. We switched when we went back in time, remember?"

"Yes, but your clone had two blue eyes."

Artemis smiles at her, a genuine, friendly smile. Another look she has never expected to see on him. "I used my magic to change the color of my left iris to match yours almost exactly. I no longer have an actual part of you, but this is as close as I can get."

The words hung in the air between them. After a few minutes, Holly broke the silence.

"Um, Artemis?"

"Yes, Holly?"

"Is Mulch still in the tree?"

Artemis chuckled. "Yes, I think he is. You are not going to be able to sleep tonight, and the other guest bedrooms aren't ready…" He thought for a moment, and soon his face lit up with an idea. "You can stay in my room, if you want. I'll sleep on the couch. Just for tonight.", he added as Holly began to protest.

Haven

"Foaly, what the #$%& happened?!"

Foaly winced at the loud volume of the voice in his ear, then at the damage done to the city.

"Well, Commander Teagan, I'd say that a bomb went off."

If Trouble was nothing like the late Commander Root, Derrick Teagan was everything like him. He was quick to anger and usually took it out on the eardrums of whoever was closest to him. Sadly, in this situation, those eardrums happened to belong to Foaly.

"I'M NOT STUPID, CENTAUR! HOW DID THE D'ARVITTING BOMB GET IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAMN CITY IN THE #$%&ING FIRST PLACE?!"

"Well, Commander, I'd say that someone put it there."

"WHO, FROND DAMMIT?! WHO?!"

A nearby officer tried to calm the commander down while Foaly and his team of techies surveyed the damage. Most of the blast had been absorbed by Police Plaza. Sadly, that meant that the LEP building was completely demolished. Only the very top floor, which was bolted to the roof, remained. The bomb had also crushed a few nearby shops and houses. It would take at least a year to rebuild everything, and the lives that had been taken were too many to count. Foaly looked around and sighed in relief as he realized that the blast hadn't come close to his and Caballine's house. In all this chaos, it momentarily calmed Foaly to know that, for the moment, his wife was safe. But a sinking feeling in the back of his head told him that this wouldn't be the last attack.

Teagan turned to Foaly again. "Where is Commander Kelp? And where is Captain Short?"

Foaly gulped. "May I talk to you in private, Commander?"

"You're telling me that you let our best fairy to the surface because she told you her boyfriend dumped her?!"

"No, I'm telling you that I let our best fairy to the surface because she told me her boyfriend is going to take over Haven."

Teagan looked at him, his face the very definition of fury. "SO YOU TOOK HER WORD FOR IT AND LET HER TO THE SURFACE WITHOUT PERMISSION?! SHE'S PRETTY DAMN CLOSE TO THE FOWL FAMILY, WHAT IF SHE USED THAT AS AN EXCUSE TO GO VISIT?!"

The centaur shook his head. "You should've seen the look on her face."

"Oh, because you are a great face reader, aren't you, centaur?"

"You don't need to be a great face reader to read the look on her face. It was pure rage mixed with terror."

Teagan rolled his eyes and clenched his teeth, speaking in a low, dangerous voice. "I don't care what her pretty face looked like, centaur. Just find me that elf."

Underground, unknown location

"Step One initiated, Commander."

"Good, Nickson. You may just be promoted in the near future."

The sprite chuckled nervously. If he wasn't promoted in the near future, he would be too dead to receive the promotion. Well, that's what comes from following the "bad" side. The things people will do to prove they're right.

"Stand by, Corporal Nickson, and be ready to initiate Step Two."

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