Entry 170
Oddly enough, Monsoon is for conscription, even being once a common deep pony himself. Perhaps not so odd, though, after all, he’s been putting his life on the line for the common Aquestrian, so why should they not contribute?
The rest of my advisors are split on the matter. Many of the generals are obviously for conscription, and those of the civilian administrators are against. There are a few dissenting voices in both parties however. One general, Grand Stream, argues that while limited conscription is a good idea, prolonged extensive conscription could lead to a dangerous demographic shift in our population, depending on how the war works out. Another administrator, Enigmatic Flow, counters with the fact that unless the Empire goes to full war footing, something which she has been pushing for a while, we will not be able to beat the kelpies, especially considering that they keep evolving.
The result of these discussion has made me realize that whether conscription or not will be introduced is irrelevant. Either decision has great weight and there is… no obvious right answer.
Entry 171
I’ve decided for conscription. The necessity is too great. Yes, conscription may cause irreversible change to our way of life and society, but we haven’t gotten any permanent progress done against Tethys and the kelpies without conscription.
That and volunteers for our forces have reached an all time low. After the recent battles, the long period of peace before the new outbreak of conflict, deep ponies and sea ponies just don’t want to join the army. The cowards. I mean… alright, I can’t blame them for not wanting to face literal monsters, but who would protect their families if not themselves?
We’ll start with 2 year enlistments for every seapony and deep pony at the age of 16. That will provide enough garrison troops that we can put the regular volunteers through more advanced training so that they can become a more cohesive kelpie-fighting force.
Who knows… perhaps having every seapony and deep pony contributing to this common cause will bind the empire together… Monsoon suggests it’s a possibility and he might be right.
Entry 172
The conscription program is being implemented and while we won’t see the effect in some time, the ponypower we have has increased drastically. We definitely can at least now send some of the regular soldiers to search for the kelpies and leave the garrisons to the enlistees.
On the front of trying to suspend Typhon’s age… I’ve had far less progress. Luckily, he is very young and so I don’t require as much magic to stop his aging, but the problem is that time-stopping magic is incredibly taxing and sometimes dangerous to the target.
Right now my mages and I are trying different combinations of spells mostly on ocean creatures. I am fully aware that we might have to try these on some of the kelpie fry we have captured on the odd raid, but that will be for a later time.
Combat reports of kelpies have increased in the last year. They are employing their transformational and hydromancy in much closer conjunction than before. This has necessitated in larger squads of better trained troops, which thankfully our conscription law will assist in.
All in all… we haven't gained any ground, but we are countering the kelpies movies.
Entry 173
There’s been a breakthrough in trying to suspend Typhon’s age, and it came with… honestly an adjustment of thinking.
It isn’t actually possible to stop Typhon from aging. That would mean literally keeping him in stasis and the amount of magic required to do such a thing is far too intensive.
However, once I realized all I needed to do is slow his aging, I could come up with a solution. It’s possible to put Typhon in a time bubble of sorts so that he slowly ages. This is sustainable if I use magic, and the heat from some of the natural geothermal vents on the sea floor. Aquamaris actually has a few that I can use. The power constraints are still very prohibitive, but at least we can put Typhon in the spell for a while.
The only issue is that I can’t put Typhon in the bubble indefinitely, as is anyway. Monsoon, the mages and I tested it with some small sea creatures and the magic has… problematic effects. It makes the sapient in the bubble feel sick to the point that they start vomiting. Our guess is that ponies can actually sense how long time is supposed to pass.
Possible tweaking with the spell might help, we shall see.
Entry 174
Adjustments to the spell has managed to make it so Typhon can stay in the bubble longer, but we do not have much time for testing. I and Monsoon have decided to start putting him in the bubble. It will be confusing for him, but we need to slow his aging.
In the meantime, we have to focus on capturing kelpie fry so that we can gain more insight into why kelpies are the way they are, and if they can be turned back into seaponies or deep ponies. This is because as shown by the village incident, capturing live kelpies is far too dangerous as they will go berserk unless we feed them.
Entry 175
The war is intensifying. The kelpies are starting to launch attacks targeting our mayoral governors and garrisons in towns.
The problem is that I’m not exactly sure of their intentions. Our main garrisons are based at bases near towns, but not in the towns themselves, which seems to be what the kelpies are targeting. We can only guess at their intentions, but it seems a rather foolish decision to switch their targets from military to civilian.