Twilight and her friends floated back down to the ground as the light of harmony surrounding them died down.

"Yeehaw," cheered Applejack. "That's how you do it."

They looked forward at where Sombra once stood, the magic of harmony still surrounding it in its many colored light.

"Uh Twilight?" Asked Rainbow, looking worriedly at the light show that was still going on in front of them. "Doesn't that usually die down by now?"

"Usually it does," Twilight wondered. What was that she saw just now? It wasn't a dream, was it?

"Who you got there, Twilight?" Perked up Pinkie.

Twilight then noticed the tugging at her foreleg. She looked down to see a young grey unicorn colt clutching desperately to her. His green eyes looking up at her.

"Keep Onyx safe. He's suffered enough."

"I don't think it's over yet girls." Said Twilight as she looked forward to the now fading light.

As the light of harmony finished fading, a mass of darkness was left in its place. This sludgy orb of black started to pulsate as soon as the light left it.

"But, the Elements have never failed before," said the still orange Rarity. "Why would they fail now?"

"Unless we banish him properly, this will never truly end..." She pondered to herself.

Her musing were broken as a long, claw-tipped limb broke the surface of the shadow orb. The claw impacted the crystal ground, cracking it slightly as it left long scratches with its hellish talons. The forearm of the creature solidifying as it sizzled against the air. Long oily fur coated the limb all the way up to where it connected the orb. Hardly a moment a later a second claw, mirroring the first, sprouted to join the first.

"What...What is that?!" Squealed Fluttershy, visibly shaking and breaking the trance Twilight found herself in.

"That's Sombra," Twilight affirmed as she tried to figure out what to do.

A raspy growl came from within the shadows as a gruesome back leg slithered out, just as clawed and disgusting looking as the others. A large red eye appeared at the center of the mass. It seemed to take in Twilight Sparkle with the utmost loathing. However that was nothing compared to the fury it exuded when its gaze fell to the colt clinging to her.

A deep-throated roar came as the rest of the orb broke, revealing a large canine beast. Its long snout protruding from its face, filled with dozens of razor sharp teeth. Dark oily fur rippling down its body and ending in several tails dripping with ooze. The smell of rotting flesh rolling off of it.

"Twilight! Watch out!" Shouted her twin moments before the beast leapt at her, claws and fangs extended.

Twilight teleported herself and Onyx out of the way at the same time as the remaining ponies leapt out of the way. The beast impacted the place she was just standing, leaving foot long gouges in the floor and cracking the space around itself.

It roared back at the escaping alicorn, spittle flying from its open maw as it turned to chase her.

"Twi!" Shouted Applejack from across the room, Spectrum being carried on her back. "Ah feel like the Elements just made things worse!"

"It's desperate," said Spectrum. "It want's its contracted summoner back and it won't stop until it gets him back. Sombra's nothing more than a mindless beast without it."

"Start making sense!" Yelled Rainbow Dash from her own corner of the room.

"Don't let it get that colt!" He shouted from Applejack's back.

The beast barreled its way down on the purple princess, Twilight just barely getting of the way in time. A few hairs from her mane looking a bit frayed with how close it got. "I think it's getting faster!"

The beast did a quick rebound off the wall, immediately leaping after Twilight again before she had even turned around.

She felt herself being lifted off the ground by a pink aura and pulled to the side just as a two beams of magic, one gold and one blue, collided with the beast. Causing it to miss her by the narrowest of margins.

Twilight looked to her saviors and saw that it was her brother than had pulled her out of the way, despite the obvious strain it was clearly causing him just to stay awake. Next to him was Luna and the smaller unicorn Celestia, being the ones responsible for deflecting the beast.

"I don't see how we're gonna keep this up..." Panted her big brother. "It's taking everything we have just to stay away from it."

The beast slowly turned to face them. Intelligence being reflected in its two red eyes as it sat down for a moment looking at them.

"What's it doing?" Inquired Luna.

A wet cough broke from across the room, "look out for its tail!" Came a desperate shout from Applejack's back.

The ground at their hooves broke and long slimy appendages snaked from the holes they created, wrapping themselves around the four ponies putting up a resistance and pulling them apart.

"Twiley, no!" Shouted her brother as he was pulled away from her.

Twilight could see the place where the beast had tunneled its many tails into the ground as it approached her. She tried her best to teleport away with young Onyx still clinging to her side. However every time she tried, her magic just fizzled out as the beast drew closer.

It slunk closer and closer, like a dog desperate for a drink as it licked its lips with a horrible forked tongue.

"Twilight!" She barely heard her friends call out for her as the beast stood over her, saliva dripping from its maw as it stood over her. She squeezed her eyes shut as she held the young colt close, sure that her time had come.

At that moment she heard the strange rattling of chains even as she felt the creature's hot breath wash over her.

"Sorry I'm late," she heard a confident voice above her. "He woke up a bit sooner than I did."

She hesitantly opened to eyes to see a sea of razor sharp teeth inches above her head. Blazing green chains snaked through the teeth, halting their position. They were doing more than stopping the beast as the distance between Twilight and her own death grew wider. She could hear the metal groan under the beast's assault even as it's head was pulled back.

"I thought I made it clear!" Shouted the voice of Clover. "You will NOT have my student! Not now, nor ever again!" As Clover finished his declaration, the chains vibrated violently just before hundreds of spikes exploded out of them and dug into the beast's mouth. The beast howled in pain as a red mist poured from the creature where the spikes pierced it. It started to thrash about as it lost its grip on the ground and began to tumble backwards.

The four ponies found themselves able to move again as the tails holding them in place began to retract. As they were able to stand on their own again, they looked up to where the beast had fallen. It was violently thrashing on the ground, causing immeasurable damage to the throne room even as the golden unicorn held his ground, chains wrapped around his hooves as he desperately tried to keep his balance with the much larger creature on the other end. It looked to be a losing battle, even with Clover using his wings to try and balance himself.

Wait...wings?

"Wings?!" Twilight exclaimed with a gasp. "Clover, you're a ali..."

"This really isn't the time for this!" Clover shouted back as the beast managed to get back to its feet and swung the alicorn on the other end of the chains into a nearby wall.

The beast shook the chains free from its head and turned back on Twilight and her charge. It sprung forward without hesitation. Chains then shot up from the hole in the ground where the beast had previously used its tails to perform a sneak attack. The bindings swiftly wrapped around its neck, pulling it to the ground.

Twilight looked up as Clover leapt on top of its back, his horn glowing furiously as a sea of chains ending in dangerous looking spikes appeared above him. In one fluid movement they all snaked outward before shooting straight downward, piercing the beast's four limbs and many of its tails, eliciting screeching howls of pain that reverberated through the air and shattered the windows. Clover's spell didn't stop there as it wove up and down through the floor and the many limbs, effectively sewing it in place.

The beast struggled and thrashed as rivers of blood streamed out of the holes made by the chains. Clover stood on top of the creature, wings glowing a brilliant blue as electricity streaked through his feathers. In on fell movement, he brought his hooves down on the beast's back, causing bolts of lightning to streak down through the chains, lighting it up like hearth's warming eve and making a disturbing frying sound as the smell of cooked flesh permeated the throne room.

A moment later, everything was quiet as the beast went limp save for a few involuntary twitching movements. Clover looked like several levels of hell as he stood there panting, a trickle of blood running down the side of his face and smoke was drifting from a few smoldering wingtips.

"Is...is it over?" Twilight shivered a couple paces away from the head of the beast. Onyx still whimpering in her grasp.

Clover took a few labored breaths before answering, "not yet. It'll never be over until this thing has been banished once and for all."

He took a few more breaths before magic arced from his horn into the air above him. Five spears, crackling with power appeared above his head. His eyes took on the green glow of his horn as they spread an equal distance apart before then descending on the ground surrounding the beast. Slowly they began to trace a circle on the ground, making a shallow groove on crystalline surface.

While that was happening, he turned his head upward and started to trace letters into the air with a golden quill. Every time he finished a letter, it moved outward to join a circle that was forming in the air above the one he was tracing on the ground.

As the last letter fell into place, the air inside the circle warped as a five pointed start began to form over the beast. Clover leapt off the beast to the edge of his circle as he placed his hooves at the edge of the ritual he just created. Energy could now be visibly seen flowing from him into the circle as the ground beneath the beast began to turn pitch black. Slowly claws began to reach up from the dark abyss and wrap around the beast, pulling him in.

Everyone watched on baited breath as it slowly began to sink into nothingness. When the last of it vanished, every pony in the room breathed a collective sigh of relief. It was finally over.

However just when the last of the portal was about to seal itself shut, a long hairy black claw shot out from the center and grabbed for the ground outside the circle. The seal in the air began to twist and warp as more and more of the beast clawed it's way back out of the abyss. It reached out and wrapped a claw around Clover as it brought its now flaming maw to bear on the helpless alicorn. Just when it looked like the beast was going to finish him off, the throne room finally gave out after all abuse it had been receiving. The floor underneath the circle shattering into a million pieces as Clover and Sombra fell from sight.

They could heard the fighting continue in the room below them when Applejack came up to the royalty with Twilight's twin on her back. "Spectrum here said he needs to talk to ya."

Spectrum looked up from his place on the armored apple farmer's back, the look on his face was clearly sickly and he didn't have a lot left in him. "You need to COUGH COUGH..." Thick splotches of green and red blood painted the ground where he coughed.

"Easy there partner," Applejack consoled him. "Take it nice and slow."

Luna moved closer to Spectrum's head, hoping to hear what he had to say so badly that it was practically killing him.

Spectrum barely got out through a raspy breath, "if my first banishment fails, I plan to use my last resort. Get the Crystal Heart safely back to its pedestal and bring about COUGH COUGH...a solar eclipse."

Luna looked at him in shock, "a solar eclipse?! Are you sure that's wise? Starswirl told us never to do that even though he never said why."

Spectrum weakly nodded to her, "I'm certain." He wheezed out just before passing out.

"He seemed pretty desperate to tell ya that, despite us tellin him to rest," said Applejack.

"How did he get so hurt, isn't he one of Clover's?" Inquired Luna.

"He got hurt saving me from another one of Clover's," said Twilight. "One of his holders lost their temper and I think they tried to kill me," her words caught a bit. "Probably would have if Spectrum hadn't stepped in."

Luna let out a deep sigh, "Shining Armor."

Shining stepped forward, "Yes Princess."

"Can you get the Crystal heart back to its pedestal?" She asked.

"Luna, you can't mean to..." the much diminished Celestia triplets spoke up.

"I do sister," Luna resigned. "Clover seems to be the only one who has any idea of what's really going on here. His methods may not be the most altruistic, but it appears they're quite effective. I'm going to give him what he needs until this is over."

The triplets collectively sat on their haunches and pouted, "do as you will."

Clover fell through the floor in the beast's grip. He felt himself get launched from its claws when they bounced off the floor below them.

That was way too close. It probably wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe he was just saved by his lucky cutiemark. He shouldn't count on getting that lucky again if he wanted to finally beat this thing.

He rolled across the ground away from the beast before pushing himself up off the ground and vaulting away from it. As he looked back at the beast in the dark room, his glowing green eyes met the angry red eyes from deep within the beast's skull.

They slowly stalked around each other, neither wanting to make the first move. The beast's rampage being tempered by the amount of pain the small prey animal seemed to be able to inflict on it.

As for Clover, his first banishment failed, hopefully Spectrum was able to carry out the backup plan. He really didn't like the backup plan, mostly cause of how much this was going to hurt.

The beast made the first move as it lunged for Clover. Clover, continuing to show his ingenuity, ran up the outstretch claw and summoned another chain. While keeping that chain flowing from his horn, he wound it around the beast's neck and leapt out the window, shielding his face with his forelegs to avoid getting any glass in his eyes.

He kept his wings pressed against his body as he let the chain swing him to the outside wall. Once he had the wall under his hooves, he started to repel down the wall, pulling the chain with him as started to beat his wings to give him any additional downward force he could get.

The alicorn was able to make it several feet before he felt the chain stop and then start to pull him back upward. As he looked up at the window, he saw the beast leaning out the window and trying to force his way through it. The crystal around the window started to crack and break under the force of the massive beast as it crawled its way out onto the wall and stood there...on the wall.

"Oh that's not fair," complained Clover. "Is it too much to hope for you just to fall."

The only response he got from the hell beast was it racing down the wall, claws and fangs gnashing, hoping to gobble up a tasty little equine.

Clover dropped the chain he was holding as the slack from the chain already had him falling away from the wall. He kicked off the wall into open space as he spread his wings and flew into the sky. He looked back at the flying beast that had just sprouted a large set of hairy wings. "Of course it can fly, why wouldn't it be able to."

"Brrr..." He shivered as the frosty air nipped at his body. That's right, there was a blizzard and it was way too cold for anything other than a pegasus with a mark in storm flying to be up here right now.

He looked back at the beast chasing him through the air and after summoning a spear into his hooves, he let the air fall from his wings, throwing him into a dive as he soared back at the beast chasing him. The beast had a savage grin on its face, the deep thrum of its wings shaking the air as it extended its claws and reached for its adversary.

Clover may not have been a natural born flyer but that didn't mean he hadn't picked up a few tricks over the years. He corkscrewed out of the way at the last moment, drilling the spear into the beast's shoulder as he passed and causing it to howl in pain as he passed it.

The cold was starting to get to him however, as his wings were started to feel really numb. He looked back at the beast that had turned around to chase him in his dive, spear still sticking out of its shoulder as it dove after him. He spun in the air to fall back first and just let himself free fall as he launched bolt after bolt of magic at the beast in an effort to slow it down.

Moments before he hit the ground, he teleported high into the air and kept his momentum going as he summoned another spear for one last dive bomb. However the beast had been growing wily to his tricks as Clover soon found its tails colliding with his face and sent him sailing across the snow-laden expanse.

Twilight was watching the airborne duel from the balcony with Rainbow Dash and Princess Luna as she struggled to bring the moon up for a proper eclipse.

"Did you see that Twilight!" Rainbow was getting all giddy as she pranced about in place from watching the two combatants duke it out.

"I see it, but I still don't believe it." Twilight was staring slack jawed as the sight before her. "This is the kind of battle legends are written about."

"If you two wouldn't mind," said Luna as she strained from her efforts. "I was already tired before I started trying to raise the moon in the middle of the day. Just be sure to let me know if it decides to come this way."

"Ouch," said Rainbow as she saw the tails connect with Clover. "That looks like it hurt."

Clover managed to avoid passing out as he slid across the snow. Fortunately he had a relatively soft landing due to the city being moved out of the way. That wasn't to say he still didn't hurt all over as he climbed out of the fresh snow bank.

He shook the snow free from his head as scanned the horizon for the beast. He spotted it bare moments before it was on top of him as he barely stumbled out of the way of its rampaging charge.

"Come on girls, any day now," he panted in the frozen wastes. "I can't exactly keep this up forever."

At that moment, the snow suddenly stopped and the sky started to clear, giving both combatants pause as they were bathed in the light of the sun with the moon slowly approaching it.

Clover smiled as he looked down. The stage was almost set for this dance to finally end. He saw the beast look to the side for a moment and he followed its gaze to where they could see a bunch of ponies gathered around the Crystal Heart. He half expected it to break off from their fight when, to his surprise, it turned back to him and they once again began to circle each other.

"Finally figured out that neither of us is leaving until one of us falls, did ya?" Clover carefully watched the beast as they paced around each other, ready to attack at any moment if the beast should drop its guard. The eclipse was coming, he could end this with the power an eclipse offered, provided he didn't go insane first.

He warned his old friend Starswirl exactly why you should never let an alicorn anywhere near an eclipse, the dangers it presented, and the potential lives that could be lost. Yet here they were, doing just that. Luna and Twilight were the only other alicorns in commission right now, and he needed to hope they could handle what was coming.

Celestia and her two doubles made their way out onto the balcony where the eclipse was starting.

"Sister," Luna said with some surprise. "We didn't think you were coming."

"I...well I guess right now 'we' would be more appropriate," unicorn Celestia said while looking at the other two versions of herself. "We've had some time to think as we watched Fluttershy tend to Spectrum and Cadence. We haven't exactly been acting like ourselves since Clover entered back into our lives. We want to say it's due to stress or our less than pleasant history with him. But that's no real excuse." Celestia was starting to choke up a bit. "I guess what I'm trying to say is...is that I'm sorry." The three of them bowed their heads.

"Come here sister," Luna beckoned her and scooped her smaller older sister...sisters up into a hug once they got close enough. "I can never truly stay mad at you, but it's not me you really need to be apologizing to, is it?"

Celestia gave a small sigh, "no, and I plan to have a proper sit down with Clover once this is all over."

"So pray tell, dear sisters," Luna inquired. "Was that the only reason you came out here?"

"I was a bit curious to see the eclipse myself, but the main reason was that Spectrum woke back up for a moment and said I needed to be by your side for the eclipse and to make sure Twilight had one of her friends close by as well." She said.

Twilight looked down at her teacher a bit confused, "did he say why?"

Celestia shook her head, "that's all I got out of him before he passed out again."

"We shall find out in a moment what actually happens during an eclipse." Said Luna as she finished raising the moon.

The moon finished settling over the sun, causing a reddish halo of light to be cast over the Crystal Empire.

"That's really pretty," said Twilight as she looked back down at the two combatants. "Anything happening down there, Rainbow?"

"Nah, there hasn't been anything happening for a couple minutes," she said. "They've been locked in a standoff for a couple minutes now...Uh Twilight, what wrong with your eyes?"

"What do you mean?" Twilight tried blinking a couple time before turning to Luna. "Luna do you see...AHHH!"

As she looked up at Princess Luna, she could see her eyes had grown into slits, just like with...

"Nightmare Moon!" She blurted out, starting Luna.

"Twilight, I assure you we are not..." Luna buckled over, her coat starting to take on a darker shade of blue and all she wanted to do was bring about eternal..."NO!" She shouted out as she started breathing heavily. "Sister...I...I think we just figured out why we need to avoid the eclipse."

The Celestia trio piled onto Luna as they clung to her, pleading, "end the eclipse Luna, I beg you. This is way too dangerous."

"I think...I think we'll be ok sister...for a little bit," Luna could feel the warmth of her sister's embrace calming the nightmare within.

"Must be perfect, needs to be perfect, only perfection will do," came Twilight's madly giggling voice from their side.

Rainbow was holding her friend tightly against her chest and she could feel Twilight's warm tears drip against her back. Twilight's face had taken on a manic gleam that Rainbow had seen several times before, although the glowing white horn and glowing eyeshadow was a new one.

"Rainbow?..." Cried Twilight as she desperately clung to her friend. "I'm scared. Don't let me go."

"I'm right here Twilight," said Rainbow, comforting her friend.

Clover could feel the eclipse beginning to claw its way into his psyche, threatening his very sanity. The physical change was almost immediate as he could feel his teeth sharpen into points. His vision becoming clearer and sharper as his pupils narrowed into slits.

The insatiable desire for destruction started flowing through him, demanding him to shatter the earth and rend flesh. He violently shook his head, he couldn't let those thoughts take a hold of him.

The beast took the break in its opponent's concentration as the opening it needed as it dashed forward. It eagerly leapt forward, claws extended as it went in for the kill. When the alicorn managed to barely dive out of the way, the beast turned upon landing and made as if to dive after it again. It would have done so if it hadn't started roaring out in anguish from the long line of carnage streaming along it's left claw. Pain bit deep into its body even as a river of blood rushed out of the gaping wound.

Clover tumbled out of the way as he heard the beast's unworldly scream. He hadn't done that hadn't he? He looked to the wing he felt brush that claw on the last dodge, only to see it covered in blood. The edges of his feathers had taken on a metallic sheen as they tapered to a razor's edge. The stench of the foul smelling blood sent his own racing through his veins as he wanted nothing more than bathe in the red liquid as he tore his enemy apart...NO!!!

He used a hoof to smack himself across the face as he tried to grab ahold of his slipping sanity. He couldn't let himself go now...oh but it would be so easy to... "NO!" He shouted out loud. "My name is Clover. Clover the ancient, Clover the wise, Clover the clever, Clover the one who skips out on his bar tab, I swear it was just the one time. I am not some mindless beast that gives into his violent instincts."

Clover took a deep breath as he channeled his magic and power emanating from the eclipse into one final spell. The arcane spear was pitch black and had a weak red glow to it. That wasn't going to be near enough power.

Even as Clover sat there talking to himself, the injury he inflicted on the beast began to rapidly heal even as the beast began to experience a monstrous burst in growth, the power emanating from the eclipse empowering it. Its spine began to stretch and crack as it grew several feet in length. The fur coating its body began to make way for interlocking scales.

It began stalking towards Clover even as its jaw cracked and jutted, making way for more teeth. Additional muscles rippled down its limbs as it coiled up, preparing to pounce.

Clover saw the beast round on him, even as his own mane slowly lost its brown sheen and made way for a black so deep, it seemed to suck the very life from the world around him.

As they slowly strode toward each other, the beast's many tails began to ignite into scorching flames one after another and rapidly heat the surrounding air. The frozen wasteland of the Crystal Empire began to quickly recede around them as the snow began to rapidly melt and boil. Steam rose around the beast's claws as it walked, each step being burnt black as the ground beneath the snow was singed.

They stood there only a dozen feet from each other, two nightmares in the frozen wastes. Each of them bent on the other's destruction. Time stood still while each waited for the other to make the first move. In the dead silence that followed, Clover's weapon let off a small spark as it started glowing a bit brighter and signaled the beginning of their conflict.

They both charged at each other, empowered as they were by the eclipse. The beast swiped a claw low and fast as Clover barely spun over the gnarled appendage. His bladed wings creating sparks as they scraped along the beast scaled forearm as they failed to find flesh to cut into.

The beast continued the movement as it carried through into a half spin and whipping its many flaming tails at the off-balance alicorn. Clover barely shielded himself with his wings in time, something he would normally never think of doing if it weren't for their transformed state. A loud crack sounded as they impacted, leaving Clover with the air driven from his lungs as he suffered from the hard impact.

He felt a tearing sensation as several of the sharpened quills were violently pulled free as they found themselves embedded in the flaming appendage. The skin breaking as the feathers were torn free left a trail of blood across the tundra as Clover was sent flying.

The beast flailed and beat its tail in a desperate effort to remove the small bayonets left embedded in its skin while Clover tumbled through some fresh snow. The snow quickly being dyed red by the liquid dripping from his wing. However, his focus was more on the magical spear he managed to keep shielded from the attack even as he continued to pour all the power he could into it, both from his own magic and the nightmare fueled rage that was rushing through him due to the eclipse.

A sharp pain bloomed from his flank, causing him to wince as he struggled to his hooves. His slitted eyes looked back to his cutiemark, past the blood running down his back. "That's not good," he said aloud as he noticed the four-leaf clover starting to turn red. His cutiemark was always the last thing to go before he lost control completely. That was how it had always been during past eclipses before the princesses took over.

Shoving the pain and his approaching insanity out of his mind, he redoubled his efforts to charge his weapon. The black lance still only had traces of red and green magic warping the outside of it. It hungrily drank in his essence as it began to glow brighter and brighter while he kept his eyes focus on the beast in front of him.

The brighter glow of the weapon seemed to snap the beast out of its thrashing madness as it brought its focus back to Clover. It hadn't failed to notice his desire to protect the glowing object in his grip as it began stalking forward again.

The beast dove forward just as the lance started to glow brighter, eager to end this fight. It extended its claws as it closed the distance and just as Clover made to dive over one of the protruding claws, the beast snapped it head and Clover screamed in pain as the beast's maw came crunching down on one of his wings.

Clover flailed in the air as the beast whipped its head around in an attempt to tear the limb free. In the middle of the struggle, he lost his grip on the lance as it flew across the tundra. Realization on what he just dropped steeled his resolve as he beat his other wing in the air in an effort to twist himself up in the jaws.

An unnatural crack and pop resounded through his shoulder and into his body as he wheeled up and brought his free wing down the beast's face and slashing it between the eyes. Blood filled the beast's vision as it roared in anguish, releasing his bite from the damaged wing and sending Clover sailing through the air.

He instinctually tried to correct his flight on the one good wing as he scoured the landscape for his weapon. He found it a dozen feet from where he eventually crash landed as its light began to rapidly dim where it laid in the snow. He scooped it up as soon as it was in range of his magic and began to stabilize the magic within it. His body screamed in protest as he pulled the lance closer, wrapping his hooves around it, not fully trusting his magical grip to keep a hold on it anymore.

Fear...Pain...

"No..." he fought for breath as his head began to pound. "Not now."

Rage...Betrayal...

Clover desperately fought to pour everything he could into the magical lance, hope beyond hope within him fighting to keep the nightmare at bay as the lance drank in his very soul as it tore at the center of his being.

They'll leave you...They always leave you...

Clover began to swell in size, his limp wing, which had been dragging through the snow, cracked and straightened as it was forcibly healed and pulled back into its shoulder joint.

End it all...Leave none alive...

A torrent of power coursed through Clover as the very world began to reject his existence, reality beginning to sizzle and crack in the space around him.

Azalea betrayed you...Alya left you...Dahlia cheated on you...

"Stop..." his vision was starting to fade as madness took hold. "Don't do this..."

Sirius never trusted you...Platinum never respected you...Starswirl vanished without a word...Celestia sent you to the gallows...Some day even Luna will...

"Luna!" His eyes snapped open as he looked up to the balcony. She must've heard him say her name, for their eyes met in that moment. "Luna is still here, fighting her own nightmare while still believing in me."

You still hold onto love. Hrmph, I almost had you this time. Very well...Take what you need...Just remember I'll always be here...waiting...

The power of Bad Luck Clover rushed out of him in one big wave as it was pulled into the spear, the last vestiges of nightmare fueled rage leaving him as the eclipse ended. He looked to the lance he held, all color it previously held within it was gone. All that was left of it was a spear shaped hole in the world.

He stood there as plain ordinary Clover, the once unicorn that had been cursed with this immortal life when he touched a fallen star. The poor soul looked onward as his foe of the last thousand years lumbered towards him. He held the spear close to his chest, a single tear ran down his face. "If this is to be my end, please let it have meant something."

The beast was almost upon him as he steeled his resolve, held the spear high overhead, and thrust it into the ground. The effect was instantaneous as dark cracks shot through the surrounding ground. The fissures webbed outward as it stretched beneath them. Shadowy tentacles squeezed through the widening cracks as the ground gradually fell away into oblivion.

They both staggered as the ground beneath them became unsteady. Clover not once taking his eyes from his opponent even as the tentacles started to wrap around his legs and pull him into the ground. The beast soon found itself tangled as it fought and struggled to get free. It looked to the alicorn that had trapped it, rage emanating from its face only to be met with a smile in return.

"Return to the abyss from whence you came," Clover said with a smile before falling below the carpet of shadows and out of sight.

The beast fought and clawed for solid ground even as it found itself more and more tangled. It tore at its bindings even as they left large gouts in its torn flesh. It fought and struggled and crawled, inch by inch it made its way to the edge of the portal until it finally landed a claw on solid ground.

It barely had one claw on solid ground when it felt something tear into its back, cutting straight to the bone. It looked up over its shoulder to see a large transparent green claw protruding from its back. Long corded and scaled muscles led back into the void as another claw just like it emerged from oblivion and wrapped around the beast's hind leg.

Desperately the beast dug into the ledge with both claws as it started to get pulled backward. As it failed to wrench itself free, a large reptilian face emerged from the darkness. The dragon's snout was the same transparent green and sported long whiskers that trailed behind it. As it opened its mouth to reveal long jagged teeth, it growled, "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!"

The head lashed forward and bit into the beast's neck before wrenching it free from the ground and dragging it into the abyss.

As the last signs of life disappeared below the inky surface, the portal slammed shut with a loud crack and everything was once again silent.

Author's Note

That's right, Bad Luck Clover (or Nightmare Clover if you want the easy naming scheme) is part of my headcannon.
Damnit, this chapter left me tired. Still not done yet.

I'm sure ya'll noticed several oc names were dropped this chapter. Well I'm nowhere near done telling the story of Clover. But that's a story for another time.

Day 6 of the finale.
See you tomorrow.