He awoke.

Immediately, he realized that something was amiss. In fact, the entire situation before him was all wrong.

For one thing, he was alive. That much was impossible; he clearly remembered dying... as well as a few things that happened afterwards.

“Did someone... bring me back?” he wondered, but he quickly brushed off that idea. There wasn't anyone left that would want him back. “Not even my family.” he lamented, and the very thought hurt him more than the pain of death.

The second thing that was wrong was noticed by him when he first opened his eyes. He was surrounded by a dark, shaded forest. And by dark, he meant REALLY dark. Not by only the lack of sunlight, but also... the seeming wrongness of this place. As if this forest and whatever might be in it, didn't belong here.

He looked down to his chest and to his grief and sadness he discovered he was a shade still. He was killed, though! Or was this hell where he would spend the rest of eternity in?

As he tried to figure out how he would walk on four legs (which was surprisingly difficult), he noticed a small pond nearby. Deciding that he would take a good look at himself, he carefully, and fearfully, walked towards it.

The face that returned his gaze from the surface of the pond sent dread all through him confirming he wasn't insane. Looking back at him was a dark armored figure with dark black armor covering his entire body. Putting his hand through where his face should be seen, his hand simply sank into the shadows that were his body. Moving his hand out of his helmet, he peered sadly into his red glowing eyes that glowed through the shadows.

Three loud shrieks pierced his thoughts from somewhere nearby, as though to answer his pondering questions.

Instantly, he stood up. Some people were in trouble, and that was the only thing that was clear to him, so far; he could sort out his problems later. Even though he was a shade he still have his honor as a paladin, Knight even if his own people despise him.

In front of him was a clearing in the forest, where three little horses were screaming for help. They were surrounded by wild creatures, which appeared to be something out of some lumberjack's twisted nightmare; a pack of wolves...that appeared as though they were made out of wood.

This image before him was so unbelievable, that he nearly stopped. But, he somehow managed to get a hold of his uncontrolled chain of thoughts, and quickly charged towards the unusual wolves.

When he slammed his body against the closest wolf, he noticed that they didn't just look as if though they were made of wood, they felt like they were made of wood. Nonetheless, he struck the wolf with enough force to hurl its body right into the wolf next to it.

With two of the pack out of the way (at least for the moment), he stood protectively in front of the little ones and called out towards them:

“Stay close to me!”, after which he returned his attention to the wolves.

There were five of them, including the two that were already getting back up off the ground. They appeared to have been staggered by his sudden attack but were quickly recovering their original intent. Already, they began to encircle around their prey, attempting to surround them again. Ihsan glanced all around as they slowly approached him. Glancing back behind him he could see the three shaking in fear. 'I have to use 'that magic'. Ihsan thought with a growl. But he couldn't let them die.

The timberwolves approached the four intending on making them into their next meal. They stopped though when they saw the dark thing raised his hand up and pointed towards them. This caused the timberwolves to cock their heads to the side in confusion even as his hand glowed a dark purple. One of the timberwolves shook off its confusion and jumped towards him with its jaw open intending to rip out the thing throat! Ihsan simple watched the wolf as it drew closer. "Dark banishing." As the words left his mouth the ground beneath the wolf glowed dark purple and two hands made of the same color grabbed the wolf and dragged it into the ground.

The timberwolves backed away in fear as they saw one of their own just die by something. Ihsan continued to hold his hand out towards them and spoke only one word. "Go." Not wasting any time the wolves turned and sprinted off while Ihsan continued to watch them making sure they stayed gone. Once he was sure he lowered his hand as well stopping his magic.

“That. Was. Awesome!!!” erupted three voices behind him, which was followed by two similar cheers.

He smiled, briefly. How long had it been since he had heard someone proclaim such things about him? He turned around to stare at them.

Now  he was able to get a good look at the three fillies (not knowing how the hell he could know they were girl-horses), he noticed that the orange one with purple mane had wings, and the gray one with pink-purple mane had a horn. The only 'normal' one out of the three was the light yellow one with red mane with a pink bow.

“...This is going to be a long day.” he mused wearily, feeling quite dizzy.

“I'm glad that you think so.” he said aloud to the three fillies. “Are any of you hurt?”

“No, mister, and its all thanks t'ya!” said the yellow one.

“You're, like, the greatest hero ever!” added the gray one with the horn.

'Hero huh?' Ishan thought in sadness. 'How well did that turn out last time he tried?'

“Hey!” snapped the orange one with wings “The greatest hero ever is Rainbow Dash, remember?”

“Well sure, Rainbow Dash is awesome. But, take a look at his scars! Don't they make him look just like a hero?”

“Okay fine. But, Rainbow Dash...”

“Putting aside the heroism of this 'Rainbow Dash',” he started, interjecting before they had a chance to start arguing. While at the same time, wondering:

“What kind of name is ‘Rainbow Dash’, anyways?”

“Do the three of you mind explaining to me; just what are you all doing in a place like this?” he finished, with a stern voice.

The three fillies looked at each other, with a guilty look in their eyes.

“We were gonna visit Zecora...”

“... to see if she could teach us her native language...”

“... and then we... kinda got lost.”

“Why am I not surprised by the last one...?”

“Ah, well...” he said, dropping the stern voice, “I suppose I'll leave the scolding to your families. And I can't really hold against you the fact that you're lost since I am as well.”

"What are you, mister?"

“Long story. Maybe I'll tell you about it some other time. But for now, we should get out of this forest. Let’s try that way.” he added while pointing with a hand in the opposite direction the timberwolves ran.

“How do you know Ponyville is that way?” asked the filly with wings.

He was about to snort a laugh on that name, until he remembered that his own hometown's name really wasn't any more original, either. “I don't,” he answered, truthfully. “But the wolves went in the opposite direction.”

It seemed to sound like a good enough reason for the fillies, since all at once, they started walking in the direction he had suggested.

“Why did you want this 'Zecora' to teach you her language?” he asked out of curiosity after few moments, trying to distract himself (and them) from this whole situation. “Seems unnecessary for kids your age to try and learn a second language.”

“We thought that maybe our special talent would turn out to be language learning, or something.” explained the one with a horn, as her head was hanging down

“Yea, we could get a 'language learning' cutie mark!” proclaimed the one pony with a pink bowtie on her head, as she agreed with her friend that had a horn.

“What’s a 'cutie mark'?”

He already knew that he had said something weird the moment he finished that sentence. All three fillies had turned their heads towards him simultaneously, and were looking at him with wide-eyes and gaping jaws, and a shared expression of disbelief.

“Err, sir, are you jokin'...?”

“No, why?”

“HOW CAN ANYPONY NOT KNOW WHAT A CUTIE MARK IS!?!?” the three fillies all shouted in painfully loud unison.

Ihsan just gave them a deadpanned look. "Not a pony remember?" The three just realizing that rubbed the back of their heads with their hooves.

"Hey, is that a road?”

“We're saved!”

“Good,” he replied wearily, feeling even dizzier from all of their shouting earlier. “Do the three of you think you could...”

“Apple Bloom!!!” some voice from ahead exclaimed, both relieved, overjoyed, and upset.

“Uh oh...” the one with the bow quietly whimpered.

“Seems like someone is in a bit of trouble,” he guessed, amused. While the filly was probably uncomfortable that somebody had found them, he for one, was relieved; for some time now, he was keeping himself conscious and standing with only sheer willpower. Now, he could finally let go, and collapse…

*Thump*

'Guess my magic wasn't completely back yet.' Was Ihsan last thought as he passed out.