I… I… dam it all. Even writing this down is infuriating me.
My investigators have reported to me and… I didn’t believe it at first, but it seems Tethys is telling the truth.
One of the villagers had kept a log of what they were trying to do to “treat” the kelpie, which had been greatly damaged in the rogue kelpie’s rampage. However, after piecing it together, what is written in the log is only confirming Tethys’s story.
Up to three hundred seaponies dead all from a single crazed kelpie, and it was the fault of my subjects idiocy.
On one hoof, this answers the question on whether Tethys is trustworthy… she was… being honest. Blunt and uncompromising, but honest.
Still, the issue is… as evidenced by the tragedy that happened with the rogue kelpie, there is a clear and immediate danger to the mere existence of the kelpies. I am… finding it a little more difficult to hate them because of what they are. They didn’t choose this existence after all.
The problem is that they are still a threat to not just Aquestria, but the entire world. After months of research and sharing, we are no closer to discovering a cure for the kelpies. How long can the kelpies feed on the surface-worlders before we are noticed? We are safe in the ocean, but the surface-worlders can enact measures that will cut them off from the ocean, leading to the kelpies starving. And then… well that would be a massacre waiting to happen.
The issue is no longer whether Tethys and the kelpies want a war with Aquestria, not any longer. The issue is that simply allowing such predators to exist is… is too dangerous.
And that is not even adding in the fact that the kelpies are related to Yoth-Atal and that Tethys is her head priestess! As my predecessor has insisted to me, the Primal Gods all want to dominate the world and enslave all beings underneath it’s tyranny. As such, any servants or beings created by the Primal Gods cannot be allowed to exist.
But… what if we could find a cure?