“This sturdy cling-twiner will do, I expect,” the bright green figure murmured to himself, stretching to grab a vine that was hanging down in front of him. He glanced into the canyon below, then shook his head and grinned. “No second-think, just go!”

He didn’t give himself time to ponder what he would have to do, he leaped off the tree branch overhanging the canyon. He swung himself halfway across, then let go. Momentum carried him in a graceful arc over and past the gorge, to the thick jungle canopy on the other side. His arms outstretched, he soared effortlessly on the air currents, aiming for a sizable madu tree.

He laughed with relief as he landed cleanly on a tweedy branch. Though it bent under his weight, it provided solid footing for his swift feet.

“Now that was fun,” he exclaimed into the open air. He hadn’t been sure that he could make such a leap – he took his chances urged by a sudden thought; rather this than waste his time climbing down into the gorge and climb back up on the other side. And this way, he learned at least one thing: the air was his friend! He didn’t know much else since he had woken up in a frosty area. He knew his name was Lewa. At least he thought so. He liked the name – it sounded strong and mysterious.

Lewa, mystery-king of know-nothingness, he thought with a smile. That’s me!

He glanced down at himself, at his strong limbs the color of the jungle leaves. In one hand he carried an axlike blade, perfect for slicing through thick underbrush or twining foliage. On his other hand, there were two strong, dexterous fingers that could grasp the branches and vines firmly. Though he couldn’t see it, he knew that his bright green mask swept back in a streamlined shape perfect for cutting through the air.

His smile faded as his mind flashed back to the dreams. Were they perhaps reality? Or really just dreams? He hoped for the latter, for his dreams had been dark and chaotic, full of heavy knowledge which he was however unable to remember. They started spinning in his mind when he had placed the mask onto his face. But now he only recalled fragments:

cries in the darkness, a giant, black figure, a suffocating mask…

“Never mind,” he muttered to drive away the fragmented memories. “Time enough for dark-thought later. It’s time for look for some good-answer.”

Lewa had immediately found himself drawn to the lush, dripping jungle. Now that he was here, he felt at home. Even the screeches of the unseen creatures had calmed him, and they were strangely familiar, though he was sure he had never set foot here before. He progressed deeper into the jungle, jumping from one tree to the other, heading south. Even he didn’t know why he chose this direction – he was prompted by an intuition – but he gleefully followed the impulse.

As he reached the edge of a large stand of Volo trees, Lewa jumped onto a slender branch. The motion flung something out of a nest of feathers and twigs farther along the branch. He cried out in dismay, realizing that he had just ejected a baby Taku out of its nest. Without thought, he flung one arm upward through the air in the direction of the falling chick.

“Up you go!” he cried, the words bursting out of him, though even he was surprised by what he was doing. For a moment he thought that the baby bird was flying away. Then he gasped when he realized the truth. No, not flying, the wind had caught it and carried it aloft. Leaping across to a closer branch, Lewa reached up and caught the chick gently in one hand. He placed it carefully back in its nest and sighed with relief.

“Now, what kind of happy-luck was that, huh?” he murmured. “Or... or was it?”

Suddenly, he flung up his arm as he had done a moment earlier with the little bird. Once again, a quick gust swooped up from below with a swirl of leaves.

“It was me!” Lewa gasped in amazement. “I did it. The wind-friend obeys me!”

He stretched out both arms to test this theory. But then, he glimpsed something in the corner of his eye. Something completely at odds with the surrounding forest stood far below in the leaf litter. A strange four-legged rahi-like creature, not even half his own height, coloured a shockingly bright pink like that of roses, with large, round, blue eyes which seemed altogether too large for its face and hair that looked very much like a cloud upon the top of its head & sprouting from its rear. But perhaps strangest of all was the marking upon its hips, spheres of blue and yellow with wires stretching underneath the. It certainly looked very odd, but at the same time Lewa couldn’t bring himself to regard the creature as ugly.

“What-ya doing?” asked a voice, female, to the side of him.

“I was just looking at some ever-strange Rahi-creature” he said absentmindedly before finally turning to the source of the voice, only to find, much to his shock, that it was the very same rahi from the ground now sat right next to him with a sickly sweet innocent smile “wait, what!?”

“Hi there, I’m Pinkie Pie” it said with a bubbly enthusiasm, seemingly oblivious to Lewa’s confusion “What’s you’re name?”

“Huh?” Lewa, for what felt like the first time in his life, was rendered dumb struck “But, you were just-” Pinkie Pie cut him off.

“Wait wait, lemme guess!” Cloud Gust! No that’s not right. Mythic Breeze. No, that still doesn’t sound right.” suddenly she let out a gasp, apparently reaching some epiphany “Swift Twister! It’s gotta be Swift Twister!” Lewa couldn’t help but chuckle in spite of the strange situation, and the strange creature sat to his side.

“Steady-calm there! My ever-strange ally-freind” he said, gently patting her upon the head, finding the creature’s hair to be quite springy under his hand “those are all ever-fine names, but none of them mine, I’m afraid. No, my name is Lewa” the creature, Pinkie Pie, looked at Lewa quizzically, tilting her head to one side.

“Well, why do you talk like that, Lewa?” she asked. This gave him pause.

“Like what?” he asked. Pinkie’s response was accompanied by a shrug.

“Y’know, how you keep putting two words together” she said, holding her forelegs up and putting them together as if to emphasise her point “Ally-friend, steady-calm” Lewa thought for the longest moment, allowing his gaze to sweep over the forest, this time Pinkie did not speak up, it would seem that despite her motor-mouth she was able to recognise when someone needed a moment to think.

“To be ever-honest, it just feels good-nice” he said, mirroring her shrug “I can stop if you are having trouble understanding” at this the creature appeared to grow panicked.

“No no, you don’t have to do that. If it’s how you feel comfortable speaking then I’m not going to make you change” she said quickly, nervousness creeping into her voice as she waved her hooves frantically “It’s just that I have a lot of friends, but none of them speak like you do. I was just curious”

“Then there is no need to heart-worry, friend-Pinkie Pie” he said, a kind smile showing through the mask “speak-talking of, where are these ally-friends of yours?” Pinkie Pie’s response was to shrug.

“I’m not really sure” she said, her tone pondering as she held a hoof to her chin “I mean, most of them are back home in Ponyville, but I was getting ready for a slumber party with 5 of my bestest friends when we were dragged through the mirror portal and wound up here, which was kinda my fault, but when I woke up none of them were here” by now Pinkie had become despondent, her hair appearing to Lewa to deflate. To the green-skinned being the solution was simple and came to him quite naturally, he placed one of his large hands upon her shoulder as best he could in a show of support.

“Well then” he said “how about we go seek-find them” Pinkie Pie was surprised by this.

“You’d really do that?” she asked, and upon receiving a resolute nod surprised lewa by starting forward to pull the being into a surprisingly powerful hug “Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou! Oh, I’m going to have to throw you the biggest thank you party ever once we find them, I’m sure they’d love to meet you” Lewa wasn’t certain what a “party” was, but it didn’t sound like a bad thing, so he determined that it must be a good time.

“Well then, let us quick-speed through this jungle in hopes of finding you’re ally-friends” he said, getting ready to leap for the next tree when for the second time that day he glimpsed something in the corner of his eye. As he turned towards it, he spotted a small figure staring at him from a lower branch on a nearby tree. He quickly tapped Pinkie’s shoulder and pointed, before cupping his hands over his mouth and calling

“Hello there, little-friend!” Lewa shouted, lowering his arms and looking at him curiously. “Are there others in this jungle too?”

Maybe he could answer his questions… He leaped easily to the lower branch and landed softly beside the other being, Pinkie being a close second, surprising Lewa with her agility as she appeared to gracefully jump from branch to branch, able to make use of those too small to take his weight to make up for the distance he could cover in a single leap. The small figure was weakly shaking, regarding Lewa with fear to the point where he didn't even acknowledge the appearance of the bright pink creature which stopped next to Lewa.

“Could this be?!” the person yelled. “We thought this dawn-hope would never come. Could it be that the Toa have arrived?”

“Toa?” Lewa tasted the word on his tongue. He found it pleasant and worthy. “What’s a Toa?”

“What? Why, you are, of course!” the other one shouted. “The Turaga will explain, better-knowing than me. Come with me to the village!”

“Will this Turaga you speak of be able to answer our questions?” Lewa asked eagerly. The being paused for a moment, seeing to finally notice Pinkie Pie’s presence, but finally they nodded, bringing a smile to Lewa’s features “Then show us the way, little one! Show us the good-way!”

Author's Note

I'll be absolutely honest here, I had an easier time with the tree speak than I did writing Pinkie's character in this chapter, she's always been a character I've struggled to capture in a way that I feel is faithful to the original character