//------------------------------// // Entry 7: The Ice Seal // Story: Samudra's Journal // by vren55 //------------------------------// Dear Diary, It’s been a while, a year in fact, but well, nothing of real note needed to be added and I’ve been busy. My reign has been unchallenged, despite the rapid transition from Panthalussa to me. She had a very different ruling style from what I’ve decided to adopt. Panthalussa tended to rely on symbols. She had been alive for so long that all people had to see were the vestiges of her authority. The Myrmidon Guard, the Aquestrian Army, her Royal Seals on guard posts and in other facilities, such as the Aquestrian Courier Service and the Seawatch, the institution that maintains the health of the oceans. Since I’m the new ruler, I’ve had to travel a lot more, from settlement to settlement, trying to introduce myself to thousands of communities and travelling clans. Going to big cities and trying to ensure the loyalty of my governors. This… well this was when I faced my first crisis. Shi-Nihalar’s cultists… they attacked our cities of Echinoi and Platonicus in the Western Ocean. Oh it was horrible diary. It’s true that seaponies and deep ponies have always preferred the warmer waters of the Eastern Ocean. Moreover, the West has always been rather wild and temperamental, but we did have two major cities there. Echinoi and Platonicus being among them, hosting half a million tails. Shi-Nihalar… he wasn’t even awake. But his influence had corrupted hundreds of ponies over the years. Today, they launched their assault, the first attacks overrun Echinoi, capturing outposts and more importantly, sea ponies and deep ponies for him to influence. The cultists wanted to grow his army large enough so they could finally free their god. I acted the moment the outposts fell, leading the Aquestrian Army to the Western Sea. I was too late though, Echinoi was overrun. I could guess that the cultists would be after Platonicus next so I had the city evacuated at once. Ponies were already fleeing through the Northwest Passage into the Eastern sea so they needed little encouragement. The cultists tried to stop this, they flung themselves on our legions, forcing us to boil, eviscerate and crush them with our magic, and our mastery of the currents. But hundreds of my army were killed by these fanatics, and we had to slaughter the cultists to the last. I personally wiped out scores of the fanatics. Only then, I finally was able to go to the place where he was sealed. He had been buried in a trench, kilometers deep, and that… that was when I found out he was still asleep. He wasn’t even awake! Nothing that he did had been done while he was conscious, but the damage his followers did… I… *scribbles, furious, anguished… indecipherable* More protection was needed. I- We couldn’t afford something like this ever again. With my magic, I managed to deepen the Old God’s imprisonment, building a massive, barren island on top of his existing prison. I and the rest of Aquestria then agreed to leave the Western Oceans for good, to seal off the Northwest Passage with a wall of ice. It still amazes me that I can so easily freeze such a long channel. The power that the Empress left me…it amazes me to this day. I don’t care how long it takes, or how long I must keep my watch. The Old Ones will never hurt my ponies or Aquestria, ever again.