So I'm trying to replace a leaking pfister shower cartridge and cannot figure out how in world it comes apart. I've been searching that web for quite awhile and have failed to find any guides for a design like what I have.
My finger is on a retaining clip that I believe needs to come out, but after that, I cannot get any further. No amount of prying moves the center portion and it cannot thread out.
Does anyone recognize this design?
That's a moen valve. There's a special tool for getting them out. That clip is the only retention device but sometimes they're good and stuck.
sometimes when they're stuck and put up a fight they leave parts of the rubber in the valve housing. Make sure you get the brass housing all cleaned out. Then the new cartridge gets grease, and make sure the hot and cold are on the correct side. If the new cartridge is in 180* out, the hot and cold will be on the wrong side. Easily fixed.
Ha, that certainly explains why I couldn't find anything similar in pfister's lineup. 
All the external pieces are labeled Pfister, so someone must have done a swap in the past.
Thank you for identifying it!
Definitely looks like the small cartridge moen valve. They can be a bear. Usually vise grips on the shaft and pull straight out, sometimes vise grips on shaft close enough to the valve body that you can then pry on the vise grips. I had one fight me for an hour in a house with bad well water once.
Well Patrick, you jinxed me. 
I used the Moen tool above and it only pulled the center section of the cartridge. After messing around with a slide hammer, I gave up and used a wood chisel to cut the remaining plastic sleeve out of the brass housing. This took me nearly 2 hours all in all to replace, since I was taking extra care to not score the inside of the housing with the chisel.
Bt;dt. Chisel and all. Now just make sure you get all the debris out. We often run a wire brush in there to help clean out any corrosion too.
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