//------------------------------//
// Blood red moon 
// Story: Raining Metal 
// by thecakeisalie 
//------------------------------//

	Midnight turned, exiting the hospital. Certain that he’d done all he could for Rainbow, he needed to decide where to go next. Rainbow had told him that the majority of the retreating troops had headed to the financial district or Central Park. He was loath to use any more magic, but he knew it was the only way he could make it to either location with anything close to good time. His horn glowed black, preparing to move him.


Icescape unleashed another blast of magic, taking down a few more gryphons, and then collapsed. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth; his eyes had rolled up into his head. Applejack gripped the knife in her mouth a little harder. With a glare at the oncoming gryphons, she prepared to do her job. It was time to fight for her country, for her friends, and for her family.


Pinkie reloaded yet again, nearing the end of the ammo stored aboard the tank. No matter how many the ponies killed, the gryphons kept coming. Soon it would become a melee battle, and the ponies couldn’t hope to win then. They might be strong, they may have knives and hooves, but the gryphons had claws and wings. Not to mention their beaks. Pinkie kept firing, hoping to make as much of a dent in the opposition as possible.
Captain Thorn had run out of ammo quite a while ago. The earth pony pulled his double-bladed knife out of his saddlebag and prepared for the storm to break through the wall of lead. He knew he would probably die when it did, but he’d go down fighting.
Rarity wrapped up a wounded pegasus’ wing, instructing him not to use it. She moved on to a unicorn whose horn had been blown off by a lucky shot from a gryphon. There wasn’t really anything she could do, so she injected him with a generous amount of morphine and sent him to the closest field hospital. She moved on again, looking for another wounded soldier.


Twilight watched the artillery rip into the ships, preventing many of them from reaching the docks. “Aim for the transports,” she commanded. She didn’t know for sure how the battle was going in Manehattan proper, but when the smoke cleared and she could get a good look, she felt it wasn’t going well at all. Hundreds, maybe thousands of gryphons were pouring into the two main areas of resistance: Central Park and the financial district. But all she could do was prevent any more reinforcements from arriving. “Load!”


The unicorn surgeon magically sealed another piece of plastic tubing into yet another torn blood vessel. “Alright, start transfusions,” he instructed, turning back to the task at hand. He had more to do yet.


Fluttershy cried in the on call room. She couldn’t lose Rainbow, she was her oldest friend. Before she could sink too far into depression, she was called; the wounded from Central Park had started showing up.


Midnight appeared in Central Park just as the sun finished setting. The smoke acted like clouds anyways, making it seem like it had been night for hours already. What he saw surprised him. Piles of dead gryphons littered the road outside of the park, and many wounded or killed ponies littered the entrance, but the rest of the park seemed untouched. Midnight went to grab his rifle and join the fight, but discovered he’d left it behind at some point. I guess I’ll have to do it with magic, he told himself. Black flashed from his horn, the magic striking down all gryphons in its path.
Midnight didn’t notice as his eyes began glowing a deep red, his cutie mark shining like the rainbow. An aura slowly formed around him as he unleashed magic on a scale not seen in thousands of years. A pegasus that looked like Midnights twin, except for the wings, descended next to him. The pegasus stood in place for a second, then took back into the air, coming down seconds later, a black air cone surrounding it. It ripped through the gryphons still coming over the rooftops, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake.


The gryphons were charging the remaining pony positions in the financial district. All the unicorns were out for the count, leaving it to the earth ponies to win in hoof-to-claw combat. Applejack reared up, slamming her fore hooves into the first gryphon to reach her, and proceeded to work with the knife in her mouth. Despite her best efforts, the enemy was breaking through. Nothing her or the other ponies did was quite enough to stop them from being forced back. The exhaustion of fighting for hours without break wasn’t helping their efforts any, either. 
Applejack was in the process of being overrun when many of the gryphons were hit with throwing knives and stars, all at once. A practical clone of Midnight walked forward, the only thing missing was the horn. Midnight the earth pony had a massive double bladed knife in his mouth, reminiscent of the one Captain Thorn possessed. 
The pony walked right up into the midst of the gryphon column and started working, using quick slashes and powerful stabs to dispatch gryphons left and right. He moved a sight faster than most would believe possible for a normal pony. Seeming more like he was dancing than fighting, the earth pony did quick turns, sliding left, then right, bloody blades flashing what little moonlight made it through the smoke. The gryphons that had been previously threatening to overrun the financial district had met an impassable wall in the steel of the pony’s knife. 


Luna watched the scene with great interest. So, it worked, she thought. My plans to save the city worked. “Sister, we have been saved,” Luna spoke calmly, as always.
“How? What has happened?” Celestia rose, moving over to watch the scenes unfold in her sister’s magic mirror.
“Allatu fights with us, sister. Though I believe he goes by the name Midnight now.” Luna spoke cautiously, believing her sister wouldn’t take the news well.
“What?” Celestia roared, confirming Luna’s suspicions. “I will not have that monster fighting for us!”
“Sister, he will be involved anyways, and you know we have a much better chance of victory with him on our side,” Luna reasoned, attempting to calm her sister down. “Anyways, he seems to have become attached to a few of our subjects.” Luna paused, considering if it would be wise to tell Celestia the next part of what she knew. Knowing the Sun Goddess would figure it out the second she calmed down anyways, Luna pressed ahead. “Specifically, he has bonded with the holders of the elements.”
Celestia sat down, a rare but terrifying anger simmering just below the surface. Her usual calm demeanor had fallen apart, an ugly grimace contorting her features. “I want him gone the moment this war is over,” Celestia commanded her sister, momentarily forgetting who she was speaking to.
“Sister, you know I can’t do that, and neither can you,” Luna stressed the last part. Who knew what Celly might do? “He’s more powerful than either of us; he’s more powerful than both of us combined. He’s the only truly undying thing in the world, remember?” Luna was scolding at this point, doing whatever it took to destroy Celestia’s crazed ideas.
“Yes,” Celestia answered, head drooping in defeat. “I just hope his curse doesn’t effect the elements.”
“I know, sister. I know.”


The earth pony had made quick work of the gryphons still in the financial district. After tucking his knife back into the saddlebags he wore, he galloped off, headed north. Well, that was surprising, Applejack thought to herself. A look around confirmed that the other ponies left standing concurred. One had actually dropped his knife, his mouth hanging wide open.
Applejack picked up the unconscious Icescape, draped him across her back, and started walking north; following the direction the mysterious pony had gone. It wasn’t like she could have gotten much farther south, even if she’d wanted to.


Midnight was no longer in conscious control of himself. He was just aware enough to make sure he was targeting gryphons with his powerful blasts of magic. He was vaguely aware of a pegasus in a black con of air ripping through the gryphons as well. But his magic wasn’t affecting it, so it didn’t matter to him. He was even less aware when an earth pony stepped up next to him, until the pony put a hoof on him. It had the effect of cutting off his magic- fueled massacre. Looking around, he was shocked to see that three buildings had collapsed, and the number of dead enemies scattered around had at least tripled.
He was even more shocked when he looked to the pony that had been brave enough to touch him. What he saw was himself, as an earth pony. And on the other side of the earth pony was himself as a pegasus. With a jolt, he remembered last night’s dream. “Brothers, we are one and the same. We were split apart for a reason I do not know. We are all headed towards Manehattan, where Princess Luna suspects we will need to rejoin if the city is to be held. We need to rejoin anyways, because we aren’t at full power as it stands. I will see you then.” The short speech had been given by the earth pony know standing next to him.
“Hello, brothers,” Midnight spoke in hushed tones to the earth pony and the pegasus. “It is time, is it not?” The other two gave an affirmative nod, and the joining began. A black orb surrounded the three, blasting outwards and blinding everything it touched for a short while. Inside the orb, the three ponies slowly combined, their respective bodies melting into one another’s. As they rose into the air, the three came together, reviving what they really were: The alicorn named Allatu at birth, who became the God of Death, Life, and the In Between. Slowly flapping its wings, the alicorn turned towards the remaining gryphon army. Its body became encased in a black aura which spread out over the gryphons, sending many of them into the next world. The aura then touched down on all the dead bodies, pony and gryphons alike, liberating the trapped souls, and sending them into the bliss of the next world.
Its task done, the alicorn sank back to earth, taking back its unicorn form. Midnight no longer felt weary; the pain he’d felt had disappeared, along with his exhaustion. He knew he was whole again, and he knew that nopony would ever be aware that he wasn’t whole in the first place.
As the blindness wore off, Pinkie shook her head, looking for the three that had caused the event. All she found was Midnight, which confused her, but then she realized the gryphons had been defeated. Her joy at being finished, at least for now, had caused her mane to poof back up into its original shape.


In a hospital operating room to the north, a unicorn surgeon finished magically attaching the last plastic tube to the last torn vein. He took a second to breathe, and then got to work fixing a tear in the stomach. “She needs more blood! And get me a sanitary needle, please.”