Luna couldn't hold on any longer, she had to end the eclipse. Both her and Twilight were at their wits end as the power of the nightmare was trying to take hold of them.

She only moved the moon a small amount, just enough to stop the glow that radiated across the field, when she buckled forward and grabbed hold of the railing as she watched the last moments of Clover's fight. She saw as the darkness opened up and swallowed him, and she saw...no, she felt his magic come back through the other side of wherever he had gone and dragged Sombra kicking and screaming through to the other side, and she saw when the portal had closed on both of them.

"Twilight! Twilight!" Came Rainbow's voice to Luna's side, snapping her out of the grief that was trying to creep up on her. She looked down at the younger alicorn who had collapsed to the ground as her friend tried to rouse her. Her breathing was labored as her darker colors started to make way for her normal purple shade. The most surprising thing about Twilight's nightmare form was the hawk-like trait her wings had taken on.

"I'm here, Rainbow," said Twilight as she climbed back to her hooves. Her wings slowly reverted to their normal shape, same as how Luna's body was also taking on its normal appearance. Twilight looked to Luna, "what happened?"

"We learned something new this day," said Luna. "It would seem alicorns are forcibly changed into their corrupted nightmare forms under the light of an eclipse."

"So that power I felt...was Midnight Sparkle?" Twilight questioned as she steadied herself.

"Is that what you plan to call it?" Luna said with a raised eyebrow.

"It just seems to fit," she said as she stepped up to the railing. "So what happened? I don't see Clover or Sombra anywhere."

"We can't be sure what happened," admitted Luna. "It looked like he tore open a hole in reality. However I know somepony who can probably tell us what happened."

Twilight perked up, realizing who she meant, "or some changeling."

They met up with Shining Armor and everyone else as they made their way back to the sitting room. When they entered, they were pleasantly surprised to see that Cadence had woken up.

"Shiny!" She threw herself at her husband, tears rolling down her face. "You're ok! I was so worried."

"Cadence!" Cheered Twilight. "You're awake. How are you feeling?"

Cadence looked up to Twilight, "you know, I had the strangest dream. My fur had turned all black and..."

Fluttershy flew across the room faster than anyone had ever seen her move and clapped her hooves across Cadence's mouth, silencing her.

"Fluttershy?" Questioned Twilight as Fluttershy locked eyes with Cadence giving her the patented stare and shaking her head.

"That wasn't a dream," Fluttershy said, her face a bright cherry red.

"Oh," Cadence mused. "Ohhhh..." She mused longer. "Fluttershy, I'm so sorry. I..."

The exchange went on a bit longer. Luna and Twilight made their way over to where Spectrum was resting around the time Cadence started going all goo goo over how adorable she thought her aunt Celestia looked.

Twilight's twin cracked an eye open when they approached, "so...is it over?"

"We...are not sure what we just saw," admitted Luna. "The ground broke apart and swallowed both Clover and Sombra."

"Then it's finally over...that's good." He lay there for a few moments while maintaining his steading breathing. "Sombra is no longer in this world and won't be coming back again."

"Clover told me that Sombra would've kept coming back if he didn't do anything," Stated Twilight. "But I don't see how he could've entered the Crystal Empire with the Crystal Heart protecting it."

"What if he decided the Crystal Empire was too much trouble and headed south?" Spectrum asked speculatively. "Canterlot might've been ok, but what of Ponyville? Manehatten? Appleloosa? Any of the smaller towns would've been wiped out overnight."

"So where is Clover now?" Inquired Luna. "Surely he isn't still..."

Spectrum nodded, "he's trapped down in the abyss, probably still fighting Sombra."

Twilight let out a gasp, "he's still fighting that thing?! Is there nothing we can do?"

Spectrum let out a weak chuckle, "hehe, you never read it did you?"

Twilight looked at him confused, "read what?"

Spectrum propped himself up as he looked at her, "do you remember when the two of you were chasing me around Canterlot. What was I doing in the statue gardens?"

"You were reading Clover's book after stealing it from me, and then you..." Twilight's eyes went wide as realization washed over her. She darted to the corner of the room where she had deposited her saddlebags when they first arrived. Her friends looked over when they saw her dashing around as she pulled a book from her bags and made her way back.

"Whacha got there, Twi?" Said Applejack as she made her way over.

"When Luna and I were chasing Spectrum around Canterlot," Twilight explained while she flipped through the pages. "We found him reading the book Clover gave me before marking a page and tossing it over to me. So much else was going on that day that it completely slipped my mind."

She found the page the bookmark outlined but when she touched the bookmark, it started to glow before being replaced by a large golden feather.

"Twilight? What's that?" Asked Cadence who had come over in all the commotion. She currently was carrying an earth pony Celestia with her and snuggling her pretty aggressively. Apparently that was the fluffy one.

"I think it's one of Clover's feathers," Twilight said confidently.

Cadence looked at her confused, "wait...wasn't he a unicorn though?"

"You weren't awake for that, dear niece," said Luna as she looked amused at Cadence's handling of her older sister. "Clover turned out to be an alicorn."

"What? Really?" Cadence asked confused. "What else did I miss?"

"Oh you didn't miss all that much," said Pinkie with a grin. "Well, except for the Crystal Empire disappearing and us getting attacked by shadows and then the shadows turned into a dog and then a super duper awesome fight scene that drove the writer up the wall for a couple days..."

"Wait...WHAT?!" Cadence recoiled, dropping fluffy Celestia in the process before running off to find the nearest window.

As she opened the door, they all heard a muffled grunt and clattering of armor against the ground on the other side. Through the door walked...one of the royal guard?

"Prince Shining Armor!" Said the orange pegasus with a blue mane. "I finally found you."

"What the?..." Came Spectrum's confused voice from where he lay. "How did Ret miss one?"

"Private Flash Sentry," addressed Shining. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Sorry sir. It won't happen again sir," Flash saluted. "I was off duty and practicing my guitar in the music room. I didn't notice until a couple of minutes ago that everypony else in the guard was missing. Then when I came to find you, I found the throne room was completely destroyed."

"This isn't going to look good on your resume, private," said Shining Armor. "You only transferred here a month ago and then you went missing in the middle of a crisis."

"That explains it," Spectrum said as he settled back into a pillow. "He's not a crystal pony. Ret's spell would've completely overlooked him."

"Speaking of Ret's spell," Twilight focused back on the injured changeling after getting distracted by the rather cute guard her brother was berating. "Is there any way we can undo her spell?"

"Clover would be able to undo it," said Spectrum. "You just have to get him back here first."

"But how?" said Twilight, confused.

"Stop getting distracted and read the marked page!" He snapped before clutching his chest and falling back onto his pillow. "...Ow."

Twilight started to read the marked passage, her eyes lighting up as she did so. "This is..."

Cadence burst back into the room a couple minutes later to find everyone gathered around Twilight as she was drawing on the ground with a piece of chalk.

"The city is gone!" She announced in a panic before noticing no one else was freaking out. "Why is everypony so calm about this?"

"Twilight's working on it," said Rainbow Dash. "Apparently if we can get Clover back, he can fix all of this."

"And done," announced Twilight as she stepped back. A simple double circle with a pentagram drawn on the floor in front of her.

Orange Rarity looked down at the circle, "are you sure, darling? There doesn't seem to be anything too special about it."

"Apparently it doesn't have to be if we have a piece of what we're trying to summon," she said as she held up the golden feather and the book. "Says right here that ancient summoners used to keep a lock of hair or something similar from what they summoned so they could easily be resummoned later."

"Come again?" Said a still armored Applejack with a raised eyebrow. "Cause this makes it sound like it'd be too easy to grab anypony from anywhere in Equestria."

"Seems like it only works if the target is in the nether realm," Twilight said, doublechecking the book. "Well, here goes nothing. Everypony stand back."

Following the instructions in the book she placed the golden feather in the middle of the circle and started to let her magic flow into it. Her magic had barely touched the circle when a sharp pop came from the center of the circle, sending a mass of fur and feathers tumbling across the room, bowling over a couch, and rolling until it rested against a wall.

"What just happened?" Came a voice from the center of the mass.

"Clover? Is that you?" Luna called out, a hint of desperation in her voice.

"Luna?" Said a confused sounding Clover as he picked himself up from his place against the wall. "What happened, how am I back?"

"I...I summoned you." Said Twilight hesitantly.

Clover narrowed his eyes at her before looking to the circle still drawn on the floor, the golden feather in the middle catching his eye.

He let out a deep sigh, "Spectrum, I told you that feather was for dispelling Ret's spell. I would've found my own way out after about a year or so."

"And I told you that you can take your self sacrifice and shove it," Twilight's twin snapped back with a chuckle before flinching in pain again.

"How did you even know that would work?" Clover asked in confusion

"Whisper..." He answered in one word.

Clover facehoofed, "of course she did."

He slowly dragged his hoof from his face before looking to the rest of the room who had just been silently watching their exchange. "Sigh...Ok, you want me to break Ret's enchantment then."

"How hard is going to be?" Asked Twilight.

"Not hard at all," informed Clover. "Ret should've had a book on her that would've survived her death. Did anypony pick it up?"

"Oh, you mean this thing?" Said Pinkie Pie, pulling a book out of her mane. "Its got a strange title to it. I mean, who names a book 'Walking in from the past'?"

"I couldn't even begin to tell you how her books get the names they do." Clover admitted. "Let me see that."

"Okie doki," said Pinkie as she tossed the book over.

Clover caught the book in his magic and began flipping through the pages, his eyes going a bit cross-eyed as he did so.

"Are you ok?" Said a concerned Fluttershy.

"I'll be ok," said Clover. "This is just the adrenaline wearing off. I'll need to sleep after I take care of this."

He continued to flip through the pages, "here we go," he said as he levitated the quill over from the center of the circle. "This is about the most I can do regarding Ret's magic but this should fix it."

The quill began to glow as he held it to the pages.

This has been a work of fiction and is only loosely based on real events.

As he pulled the quill away, the book began to glow as it floated into the air. Ever so slowly, the book began to fade from existence and when the last of it vanished, a wave of force washed over the room, blanketing everything in a soft glow.

When the light died down, the room had warmed up significantly and two of the ponies were particularly enthusiastic.

"Oh, my coat is back to its lovely color," Rarity struck a pose as she looked her coat over, it being back to its white color.

"I'm happy for you Rares," said an uncomfortable Applejack. "You wanna help me get this stuff off? This armor just got a lot heavier."

"Applejack, for shame," said Rarity slyly. "One does not ask that of a lady in polite company."

"Har har," deadpanned a bemused Applejack. "Just help me out."

"The Empire should be back as well," said Clover. "Now I just need to..." He didn't make it any further as his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed on the spot.

Clover woke up hours later in a dark room, a soft bed underneath him. "What happened?" He muffled out through the pillow his head was resting against.

"You collapsed, dear Clover." Came Luna's voice from the side of the bed. "You must have been more exhausted than you were letting on."

"I'm kind of surprised I didn't wake up in a cell or something after all the trouble I caused." He said as he let his wings unfurl and hang over the sides of the bed. He was sore all over.

"There was some discussion about whether we should do just that," admitted Luna. "Two problems were brought up regarding that. One being the political nightmare of locking up Clover the Clever, seeing as you're a big historical figure. And second, due to the coverup that you were doing at the same time, nopony even knows that anything even happened. There were no deaths, no permanent injuries, and the damage to the landscape was completely covered up when the city reappeared."

"So what?" He wondered aloud, "I'm just going to be free to go?"

"Not quite," she amended. "My sister seems to have some plans for you, something she believes you're well suited for."

"And what might that be?" Clover asked.

"That will be between the two of you. However," she said with some mirth. "There's one thing you've done that I can not and will not forgive."

"Oh," he said with a chuckle. "And what is that?"

She climbed up further on the bed until she stood over him, "over all the years you helped me tend to my wings, you never once let me do the same for you."

"But Luna," he complained. "I was keeping them hidden cause I didn't want anypony to see them."

"No excuses," she snapped. "As punishment, you're going to have to stay right here until I'm content that your wings are in pristine condition."

"How thorough do you plan to be?" Clover wondered aloud.

"Oh," Luna licked her lips as she leaned down to whisper into his ear. "I plan to take my time."

Twilight was standing out on the balcony looking over the restored city as it was cast in the moonlight. She had a lot on her mind since her own encounter with the nightmare earlier that day. It was so tempting to give herself over to that power even despite the evil that seemed to permeated it. If Rainbow hadn't been there for emotional support...she shuddered at the thought of what might have happened.

"I'm not disturbing anything, am I?" Came a soft voice all too familiar to her.

She looked up to the source of the voice, "Princess Celestia! You're back to normal."

Her mentor settled down next to her, once again rising to her proper stature, "how are you feeling, Twilight? You've been quiet the last couple hours?"

"You noticed, huh." She sighed heavily. "I'm still thinking about the nightmare. That was really scary."

Celestia gently wrapped her up in one silky wing and held her close, "I'm so proud of you that you were able to resist it though."

Twilight snuggled into her teacher's warm feathers as she looked up at her, "have you ever had to deal with it?"

Twilight felt Celestia's muscles tighten when she asked her that question, "I...I have," she eventually answered. "It caught me in a moment of weakness right after I had to banish Luna to the moon."

Twilight could hear the pain in her voice as she spoke, "you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"I thank you, Twilight," Celestia relaxed a bit. "Maybe some day I'll tell you the story, but not tonight. Right now," she pulled her student a bit closer. "Right now I just want this moment to last for a bit longer."

The stayed on the balcony for a bit longer, just enjoying the night air and each other's company, when something in the sky caught Twilight's eye.

"Princess Celestia?" She asked with a question in her voice.

"Yes Twilight?" She said without looking down.

"Why is the moon pink?" Twilight asked her.

Celestia's eyes shot to the moon in the sky. It was indeed pink. She shook her head and let out a deep sigh, barely hiding how tired she was. "Luna..."

Author's Note

Where do I even start.
Lot of ideas and small jokes getting tossed around this chapter.

Day 7 of the finale.
I've got one more chapter for you today.