My Little Forerunner: Friendship is Didactic

The Master Chief continued to walk across the hardlight bridge. He knew the Didact had moved from his spot. Knowing that... thing, he could be anywhere. The Chief had his gun at the ready.

Unknown to him, The Didact was hovering above him out of his sight. The Didact sneered at the human under his helm. This pest was proving more of a nuisance than he had anticipated. He regretted not killing him upon his awakening on Requiem. He had had enough. It was time to end this struggle.

"You persist too long after your own defeat," He said, his voice inside the human's head. The human spun around, surveying his view for his foe. When he did not see him, he carried on down the walkway.

Just as his back was turned, The Didact floated down onto the bridge.

"Come then, warrior," He said aloud. "Have your resolution."

The Chief spun around, trying to catch and opening, preparing to shoot, but he was too slow. With one wave of his hand, The Didact conjured his gravitational powers, and swatted the human across the bridge. He dropped both his weapon and his bomb.

The chief came to a sliding halt, stopping himself with his foot, and made a bolt for the bomb.

Before he could reach it, The Didact raised his hand again, grabbing him in a tight hold with his force, just as he had done before. The Chief was unable to move, powerless against The Didact's grip.

The Didact's helm receeded, revealing his face.

"So misguided," He said aloud.

He knew how he was going to kill this snake. Walking closer, he moved his arm around, directing his force, still holding the Chief tightly, and held him over the edge, above the swirling orange slipspace rupture below.

"Humanity's imprisonment is a kindness," He said, mock in his voice. He slowly closed his fist, feeling a little pressure as though he were squeezing a squishy ball. He knew he was crushing the Chief inside his armor. This human was doomed from the start. He never had a chance to stand up against The Didact's power.

But then suddenly, the bridge started to flicker. The Didact looked down at it, worried for what was happening, and saw... copies of the human's AI companion... they all started rising from inside the bridge, all around him. A tinge of worry took hold. What would they do?

"In that case," They said in unison, "you won't mind if we return the favor."

"Your compassion for mandkind is misplaced!" The Didact replied.

"I'm not doing this for mankind." And with that, one copy leapt at The Didact, latching on to his free arm, and a light suddenly connected between his arm and the bridge. The Didact was unable to resist its pull; it were as though a cuff had been chained to his wrist, and it was now trying to pull it off.

And then the other copies of the AI leapt at him, latching on to his armor. One grabbed his other arm, the one holding up the Chief, and dropped him. He fell, but managed to grab onto the edge of the bridge before falling towards the rupture.

Both of The Didact's arms and legs were bound to the bridge. To make it worse, some copies latched on to his helm, bringing it over his face again, and filling the eye holes with a blinding white light, blocking off his vision.

Grunting, The Didact struggled against his bonds, but even with his incredible strength, he could not break loose. At the very least, he felt the AI's hold start to loosen slowly. He had to break out before the human could make a move while he was vulnerable.

Just as he was about to break his left arm free, he could hear footsteps approaching him. He knew it was the human. He felt something metal get pressed against his chest, just when he freed his arm, and let loose a strong punch, hitting the human square in the torso, and sending him tumbling back.

It was then that the AI's grip on him fell apart, clearing his vision once again.

Not giving the human another chance to move, The Didact summoned his force again and gripped the Chief. He was about to throw the pest off the bridge when suddenly, there was a loud bang, and a fiery pop within his armor, followed by something The Didact had not felt in a long time... pain.

And such horrible, burning pain it was! The blast from the grenade seemed to have torn away most of the flesh in his upper body. He clutched his burning chest, warm orange blood leaking onto his hands.

He stumbled back, his sense of balance suddenly gone, and before he could save himself, he fell back off the edge of the bridge, hurtling down, looking up as the bridge of his ship, the green-armored human on it, quickly became smaller, until he was engulfed in the orange flames of the slipspace rupture.

His chest still in searing pain, and the explosion still ringing in his ear holes, the Didact continued to tumble through the slip space rupture. He was wounded, but still conscious, not to mention furious that his plans had just failed. The human, the Spartan, the Master Chief as he was called, most likely succeeded in destroying his composer, putting an end to his plans, his vengeance. Now what?

The first thing he had to worry about was landing. He would wait until he was out of slip space to do so. Once on the ground, he would first figure out where he was, and then figure out what to do.

He had been falling for a full two minutes now. Finally, the rupture receded, almost like a painting being washed away from the inside out.

His vision was still a little disoriented, but from what he could make out, he was falling toward a green landscape, teeming with grass and trees, some mountains splashed here and there. He was falling toward a green grassland by the looks of it.

What could he do? Thinking fast, he started to call on his gravitation powers. He reached out, and managed to grip a few clouds. It was a bit of a strain in his weakened state, but his life was at stake. He pulled them together under him, keeping it calling along with him. He held both clouds together with one hand, and with the other, reached out to grab another.

The ground was rushing to greet him. After such a long fall, he was plummeting down at the speed of a turbo-boosting fighter jet. He had to hurry. Six clouds would be enough to cushion his fall, hopefully. He pulled the third one in, mixing it in with the other two.

As he was reaching for the fourth one, he spotted a lightning-fast rainbow streak appear out of the corner of his eye. The streak pushed another cloud into his cluster. He knew to question it later. He accepted the cloud as he pulled in the fourth one. His fingers now ached from the pressure.

The streak pushed one final cloud into the cluster. That should do it. With both hands, the Didact began to press the clouds together to condense them. The streak also began to circle the clouds and seemed to be pressing them together likewise.

He stopped pushing it, and let it rest at its spot. It should be ready. He closed his eyes and braced for a hard smack.

His body hit the clouds, and fell right in through a few layers. Each layer hitting him like a soft pillow, he quickly slowed down until at last, he was stopped, and felt as though he just leapt down onto a soft mattress. He had stopped falling in the bright, white space.

After another second, the cloud dispersed, and he fell again, but much slower, and much closer to the ground, about as high up as a small mountain. Just as he left the cloud, the Didact felt two strong, small, nub-like arms grab him under his armpits, and a small body press against his back.

"Gah! Jeez, you're heavy!" Hissed a voice from behind his head.

He knew it would be best to wait until they were on the ground to speak, so he was silent. Whatever had grabbed him, this creature, which he could only assume was the rainbow streak, descended with him toward the ground. He could tell it was rushing to put him down.

At last when they were about five feet from the ground, the creature dropped him, and he fell down on his knees.

"You okay, buddy?" The voice asked again, this time in front of him.

Before he answered, the Didact turned his head and looked up at the creature. It was beyond anything he would have expected.

Hovering before him was a small blue creature, about the size of a Promethean Crawler, with bird-like wings on its back, and rainbow-colored hair. By the looks of it, she was probably female.

"Uh, hello?" The creature asked, "Anypony home?"

"Shocking," he said finally, He willed his helmet to break apart and reveal his face. The creature's eyes widened at the sight of him under his helmet, but she quickly recomposed herself. "You appear to be an equine of some sort in origin, and yet you can speak, and your appearance... you seem to be something out of a cartoon."

The creature gave him a confused look. "Um... huh?"

The Didact tried to stand, but his chest suddenly flared and sent another wave of pain through him. He ended up sitting on his knees.

"You hurt buddy?" The creature asked sympathetically.

Seeing no threat in this creature, the Didact saw it best to get answers the diplomatic way for once.

"Creature," he asked. "Where am I? What is this planet?"

The creature gave him another completely confused look.

"You're on Equestria, I guess. So you're an alien? Oh, yeah. Everything totally makes sense now." And then she smiled.

"Equestria?" The Didact repeated. "Such a name alludes me. I must be in a sector of the universe the forerunners have never investigated."

"So where did you come from? You need help getting back to you're people? Wherever they are?"

The Didact felt another shot of pain pulsate in his chest. "I am injured," He grunted. "I require medical attention."

"Well, we got some doctors in Ponyville," the creature said, "But, uh... I'm not sure they know how to treat a guy like you. I mean maybe we could-"

Now was the time for force. The Didact raised his hand and summoned his energy. He held the creature in a tight gravitational grip, squeezing her. He pulled her in so they were at eye-level.

"Hey!" The creature grunted, "What's the big idea?"

"You WILL take me to your medical experts!" The Didact said sternly.

"Okay, okay! Take it easy!" The creature snapped. "I'll help you! Sheesh!"

After another cold look in the eye, the Didact released her.

After catching her breath, the creature started hovering off. "Follow me," She said.