Part One
War.
It was one of those things that never truly left you, it lingered and lurked in the back of your mind like an ambush predator ready to strike when you least expected it. Sometime's Ironforge would go years without an attack and then one night they would come to him, those gnawing memories which tore away any hope of a peaceful sleep and left him adrift in horror and torment the likes of which not even the rising sun could chase away again.
Tonight...was going to be one of those nights.
The cracking thunder was a good backdrop for his sub conscious mind as it relived the memories that would never truly leave him, the pouring rain a good echo for heartache the dream would leave him with as he revisited one of the worst days of his life.
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The day had dawned bright, sunny and warm - a good day all in all and a good omen for the battle to come, his troops would certainly find the nice weather a welcome relief from the rather dreary weather they had marched through to get here. Rain and storms and miserable cold had slowly withered away the morale his troops had had at the beginning of the march and Ironforge rather hoped the suns warmth would restore a good portion of it.
A seasoned warrior the white stallion knew the importance of morale in battle - hopeless troops were as good as dead when things did not go to plan, while troops in a hopeless situation but full of heart oftentimes managed to pull through impossible odds. Heart..it was as important to winning as tactics and strength. His troops had a lot of heart - Ironforge knew that well, throughout the course of this war they had distinguished themselves in several impossible situations and earned for themselves a place as the Queens premier troops. It was a distinction worth bragging about and today, surely, they would only add to stories which would someday be told about them.
It should be a fairly straightforward battle, the Queen had instructed them to take control of a pass through the mountains, such an important travel route simply could not remain in the hands of her enemies and would be crucial in supplying the forward troops in the quickly approaching winter where the more dangerous paths they had been using would become all but impossible to navigate. Ironforge had been told to expect a small resistance - the Queens scouts had reported a small force left behind to guard the path, but they were few in number and would almost certainly be no match for the group Ironforge led and this thought bolstered the stallion as he assembled his troops fro the attack.
They had marched through the night and gotten only a few hours of rest but such a sacrifice was necessary if they wanted to take the enemy by surprise and Ironforge could already imagine the looks of surprise on the enemy's face when they realized that an attack was imminent. Turning he addressed the troops he led. "We're tired..and we've come a long way but this battle will be nothing compared to ones we have faced before..so lets get it done quickly so that we can spend the rest of the day lazing in sun!"
His jovial remarks had been met with laughs and cheers and stamping hooves and they had set off to attack. Ironforge had planned his attack as carefully as he planned all of them, maneuvering the Soquili he had available so that they would be used to the best of their abilities, the swift sent in for a blitz attack, quick strikers that might not do a lot of damage but were good at sowing confusion while the slower more powerful members moved into clean up behind them. It should have been easy, the enemy had been camped in a small natural culvert, sheer rock walls kept them penned in on three sides, they would take them by surprise and finish them off with no hope of escape. It was almost to perfect.
And that had sadly turned out to be true.
It wasn't long into the attack that Ironforge had noticed something wrong - the confusion of the other enemy seemed fake..odd, certainly not the confusion he had expected and once his power hitter had moved in this thought was verified as the enemy had quickly rallied - proving they had not been surprised at all. But that was not the worst to befall his soldier..no sooner had they all been drawn into the culvert then the true nature of the enemy had been revealed, sweeping in from the other side of the path a second force had cut them off, trapped between the two groups Ironforge had sought to rally those who remained so that they might break through a specific point and get away, but the enemies forces were whittling them down and Ironforge watched even as he fought his own battles as one after another his troops were torn down, screaming..wounded..hopeless they fell apart and Ironforge his voice hoarse from trying to reform his lines , his hide bloody from the hooves and teeth of his enemies could only continue to fight and watch and hope.
Hope was not enough. Refusing to be taken by the enemy alive Ironforge and the small handful of soldiers he had left fought until they could no longer do so, wounded and bleeding Ironforge had been forced to submit, recognized as the commander he has watched as any of his troops still alive were put down - for some it was likely a mercy as they would not have survived regardless but for others it was merely the cost of war and Ironforge did not fool himself about the other troops motive. They had killed his wounded soldiers because survivors just meant they would come back and fight again some day and prisoners would be to costly in the coming winter unless they were worthwhile.
Ironforge was worthwhile, as commander he had information that could prove useful and as such he was roped and tied and dragged along back to the enemies true camp.
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It was always along this forced march to hell that Ironforge found himself awaking for the first time, waking with a jolt to shudder in the night and recall the cries of his fellows as they fell, recall the look of despair in the others eyes as he had watched them put down with no way to stop it. He had failed them, had killed them all - each and every one as surely as if the blood had been on his own hooves. It was always the first memory his tortured mind recalled but it would not be the last. It had been the beginning of the end.
