In the center of the sea of metallic bodies floated a glowing Maestro, holding his hand to the heavens as he held within it an orb. An orb crackling with shattered power. Enough power to wipe a reality clean with absolute ease.
"This world has been nothing but a disappointment. To think that the fool Pinkie would truly believe that she would able befriend me. Mental note to myself. Start off every reality I make by killing her right away," Maestro snarled. He released the orb and watch as it convulsed, a smile spreading on his metal face. "Now to end it all. Away with this failure of a reality. It is better that it is gone once and for all!"
The Maestro watched as the orb expanded, cracked and then exploded into a tidal wave of reality destroying energy...only to feel nothing but shock when he saw the magic get snuffed out instantly. "What in the worlds?" he asked. The Maestro's all began to look around...until an explosion far beyond what his orb would have created rocked all of creation. The Maestro's were blown back as a shockwave tore through space, signalling the arrival of something. Something that made even the Maestro took a moment to fear.
In the middle of creation floated a single, golden being. It had the body of a human, a black suit with the multiverse swirling within it. Golden gauntlets, grieves and cape. And a single, golden helm that it wore upon its head. But what Maestro truly noticed was the power. The unyielding, reality rending power that was erupting from the being, as if the power was trying to claw its way out of the beings body. A being beyond nearly all gods. That was what the Maestro was face with now.
"What...is this?" the Maestro asked. He slammed his hands to the side and the unrelenting energy was pushed back, allowing him and his other bodies to regain their composure. "This...this is beyond you, Nabu! This is beyond any Dr. Fate before or after! What is this?!"
"This?" That single word rocked the cosmos. "This is what happens when I am forced into a corner. This is what happens when I am willing to give everything to defend order. This is what happens...when a friend must sacrifice themself so that I can prevail. This...is what you have wrought!"
In an instant Fate was upon the Maestro's. Not that he moved to them, but instead, through sheer force of power, he moved all of existence towards him. The metal men had just enough time to register what had happen before twin beams of power shot from Fate's hands, piercing from one end of eternity to the other. Every planet, star or galaxy that the beams hit were spared. The Maestro's that the beams hit were not.
Maestro retaliated in kind. Shattered magic burned as bright as Fate as he unleashed his power into the god, blasting Fate back across existence. Fate clapped his hands together and redirected the shattered magic into the amulet around his neck, absorbing its power into himself. While the amulet got to work on that, Fate glared at Maestro from the other end of reality.
True Fate erased the concept of distance and then slammed a fist into the side of Maestro's head. Maestro was sent rocketing across time and space, only to go realize he hadn't moved at all. Twin spheres of power erupted in Fate's hands and he slammed atop the Maestro. Maestro roared as his body began to crumble , before sending in all of the other Maestro's to attack Fate.
All of the Maestro's unleashed their shattered magic into Fate, who glanced over his shoulder at the oncoming wall of erasure. Then the Maestro's beams of shattered magic started to fly all around the cosmos, shooting off into its infinite depths harmlessly.
"W-what is this?" Maestro asked. He vanished and reappeared at the back of his army of Maestro's. "How did you affect my power like that?! No force can affect the Shattered!"
"I did not affect your power. It did it's job perfectly," True Fate roared at Maestro. "You told your attack to destroy me. And it's trying to. For now this entire reality...all realities...are now FATE!"
True Fate unleashed a beam of power right at the back Maestro, who hurled himself back as the attack was already on him. Right before the Maestro began to think of which direction to go to avoid the attack, the beam of power splintered off into an uncountable number of paths, each of them ready to intercept whatever decision Maestro made. All the Maestro could do was throw up a barrier around himself as the splintered choices bombarded him.
While that Maestro was being battered across existence, the other Maestro's swarmed Fate. They attacked in a tidal wave of different waves. Blast of magic. Collapsing space and time. Pure termination. All of these attacks came crushing down on True Fate all at once. A smirk crossed Fate's face before he crossed his arms and ceased to exist. The attacks all collided on where he had been floated, being swallowed whole by the nothingness. Then Fate returned to existence a moment later, his laughter filling the cosmos.
"This...this isn't possible!" Maestro roared. "There is no version of you that is this powerful! If you had something like this up your sleeve the whole time then you would have used it long before now!"
"It is clear that you do not understand how power works, Maestro," Fate chided with pure scorn in his voice. "The greater the power, the more one must sacrifice to get it. This power, my absolute, true power, is indeed beyond my usual power. It is beyond all power. But to use such a power, a mare had to give her very existence to give it to me."
"Pinkie...her again!" Maestro snarled.
Maestro's head reeled back as absolute power slammed into it, nearly shattering his head completely. The Maestro held a hand to his head in confusion as he looked around, trying to find the source the attack. Then True Fate raised his hand and fired a blast of magic at Maestro. Maestro created a barrier around himself to stop the attack, but it passed harmlessly through him.
"What..."
"It would seem that the timeline of events around out of order," True Fate darkly said. "And that reality itself is coming down. Attacks landing before they are cast. Spells erasing your bodies before the incantation is cast..." As if on cue, a large portion of the Maestro's were simply...gone. "Seti con lok aragaon."
"You...you're tearing down the natural order," Maestro whispered in disbelief. "You would never do that! You are a lord of order! Your reason for being created is to protect order, at all costs! So why in all that is would you do this?!"
"I am simply taking a page...out of Pinkie's book," Fate responded. His voice was so cold that space itself froze around the Maestro. "Trying to be more...creative in my approach. Not being so predictable. Being...chaotic."
Maestro let out a bellow as he aimed his hands at True Fate and unleashed everything he had, yet the beams of shattered magic simply floated in place in front of the being. There was simply no space for them to go. Maestro slowly lifted his head towards Fate, noticing that all of his remaining bodies were trying to reach Fate, yet no matter how hard they tried the made up no ground.
"You are truly doing this," Maestro realized at last. "You are truly throwing away everything that you are, your entire reason for existing, in a desperate attempt to defeat me."
"It is because of you that one of the kindest souls that I have ever met has ceased to be. I am not simply going to defeat you, Maestro. I am going to erase you from every. Single. Reality."
Maestro snarled at that response, but then he saw something upon Fate that have him a moment to pause. For at the base of Nabu's helm...a crack was forming up the golden helm. Maestro let out a laugh of pure malice as he ascended into the sky, stretching his arms wide. Rips in space-time appeared along the heavens. Fate's eyes widened when even more Maestro began to invade this reality, completely blanketing the heavens in metal bodies.
"Very well, Nabu! If you are going to throw away your beliefs in order to try to prevail...then it is only right that I do the same!"
The Maestro's unleashed all of their power all at once, shattering reality completely. True Fate was quick enough to shield Equestria from the attack, but the rest of the cosmos paid the prince. The heavens shattered like stained glass, which began to float through the infinite void. Fate narrowed his eyes when he saw that the Maestro's were moving like normal again and his attacks that he had set up in the mess of time were no longer working.
"The complete shattering of a reality! Something that even I do not wish to do unless I have to! But you have forced my hand. Now we can truly end this. No more time to screw with. No more rules of reality to break. It is simply all of your power...against all of me."
The Maestro's all glowed with a light that illuminated the infinite void, as each and every one of the Maestro's charged their full power. True Fate crossed his arms as he himself began to glow, his own, golden light combating the silver light of the Maestro. With a roar that shook creation the Maestro's unleashed their power upon the True Fate, who retaliated in kind. Shattered Silver collided with Absolute Gold in a battle that consumed what was left of the cosmos...neither side giving an inch.
"What is the matter, Nabu? Starting to not feel so well?" Maestro's laugh mocked above the sounds of the battle. "You were right after all! The greater the power, the greater the price! And it seems that even a being as powerful as you cannot hold that form forever! Whereas my power has no such limit! Goodbye, Nabu!"
True Fate snarled as his Absolute Golden light was started to get pushed back, everything going silver as his own immortality began to fail him. He had the power to match Maestro, that much he knew. But Maestro was right. All power came with a prince. And for the True Fate, the price would be his very existence. But he could not fail. Not here. He promised Pinkie. And he would keep his word. He just needed a moment.
"Then allow me to buy you that moment."
Fate opened his eyes to see the spirit of a human floating in front of him, a human that had been closer to Fate than any other being. Kent Nelson. "Pinkie gave her everything because she believe in you. And in turn, you are willing to give everything to carry out her last request. But there is still one other who can give everything."
"No...but how? You moved on!"
"Not quite, Nabu. A part of me always stayed with you. Your memory of me. I left this with you. Not because I was afraid of dying, but because I was afraid of leaving you all alone. Leaving you without a friend. But now I can move on in peace. Because now you know how to make friends. To combat the loneliness that was consuming you when you first found me. Goodbye...father. Keep your promise."
And then Kent vanished as well, giving his everything to Fate. And the power that Fate had thought reached it's limit went even further.
Then everything was consumed in silver.
Maestro sighed as all of him lowered their arms, looking at the spot where Fate had been. There was nothing left. No golden helm. No almighty being. Not even space or reality. Just an eternal white void that had been so thoroughly eradicated that nothing was all that could exist there.
"I...I did it," Maestro laughed. "Well, that wasn't so hard. I'll have to watch out for Nabu in the future, though, he can be..."
And then the Maestro noticed it. All of them did. That the reality around them was no longer silver. It wasn't even black. It was a Absolute Golden color. The uncountable number of Maestro's all turned their gaze towards the heavens. If one were to zoom out of all of reality, they would see why there was all the gold. For the universe was no longer surrounded by darkness. Instead, it sat in the golden hand...of the Absolute Fate.
"THIS IS THE END, MAESTRO!" the Absolute Fate spoke. His voice rewrote the very cosmos and made his words the new laws of reality. So reality itself decreed that this was the end of the Maestro. Fate then raised both hands on either side of the universe, power beyond power in each one. In one hand he held the very essence of order. Rules. Laws. Hierarchy. Planning for something...like a party. And in the other he held the essence of chaos...the chaos that Pinkie had given him. Surprise. Randomness. Silliness...and laughter.
"YOU ARE NOT A BEING OF EITHER ORDER NOR CHAOS. YOU ARE THAT WHICH DOES NOT BELONG! THEREFOR, YOU SHALL CEASE TO BE! PREPARE YOURSELF, MAESTRO, FOR THE FINAL OBLIVION! BECAUSE FOR YOU..."
The Maestro's all looked upon this power. They all knew what it meant. But they did not care. With one last bitter roar of defiance, they all took aim at the golden god and unleashed everything they had at him. Power enough to shatter any law, any foe, any reason or idea. The power to shatter all expectations and truths. And then Fate slammed his hands together atop the universe and ended it all.
"THIS IS YOUR FATE!"