The war continues to go well for us. The kelpie focus on attacking non-military targets is allowing us to recover extremely quickly after every operation and counterattack harder.
That being said, I believe I understand why the kelpies are going after my subjects. They want to turn them against us… which is… honestly quite laughable.
The kelpies are monsters and are aliens. Them attacking our seaponies towns are actually increasing our recruitment numbers as many seaponies and deep ponies are now encouraged to join the military. They want to get back against the kelpies.
A rather rare strategic misstep by Tethys, but it’s reaped rewards in an increased killcount in our search and destroy missions. Furthermore, them attacking non-military targets has allowed us to actually set up ambushes to counter them.
Monsoon… does think we need to be cautious, but he can’t say why and in his old age… he’s been somewhat inconsistent in his thought process.
Monsoon and I got into quite an argument today about the course of the war. He has… suddenly come to the radical conclusion that we should treat with Tethys.
To call me flabbergasted would be an understatement. He does realize that I essentially betrayed Tethys and launched a surprise attack on her and her kelpies? Any chance of peace was buried after that.
Yet, I can’t deny that his argument was intriguing.
Monsoon’s argument was that we needed to make peace while we still had an advantage. His reasoning was that there is a significant chance we might lose this war because it was dragging on.
The intriguing part of his argument was that he dug up records of the Empire from up to five hundred years ago. He argued that the war was damaging the seaponies population, economy, and product output. Furthermore, he argued that peace, like he saw in his younger years, would be preferable to the long term outcome of the Aquestrian Empire and he brought up the data to argue it.
The facts are actually quite clear, but… I think Monsoon is underestimating how difficult it will be to incorporate the kelpies into our Empire. They not only have their own leader, they have a need to eat sentients! How will normal deep ponies and seaponies accept them?
He pointed out that we might not have a choice, that right now we are in a position of strength, but if the war went on, like it has for more than five hundred years, it would sap our strength away.
We agreed to disagree in the end, but while I don’t think it can be done, Monsoon isn’t wrong in that the war’s effects have been detrimental on Aquestria.
I compromised with Monsoon today… I didn’t seek peace with Tethys, but well… we sent a message to her and decided on a limited ceasefire. She doesn’t attack my civilians, I refrain from targeting her freed fry. She’s free to try to free her fry, and I pursue them, but my forces won’t hunt her fry down.
I don’t think this ceasefire is going to do anything but limit the war and I doubt she’ll agree, but we shall see her response.
Much to my surprise, and to Monsoon’s smug affirmation, she agreed, but she’s warned me that if I break the ceasefire without warning, she’ll visit on me terrible punishment. Whatever, she knows that if she tries I’ll simply destroy her.
If this ceasefire works, it’ll confine the war to a limited one. There will still be conflict but at least… there will be rules.
But… I… I don’t want rules to protect such monsters. They need to eat sentient life. I know they aren’t responsible for it. They were created that way, but there’s no solution right now.
But neither can we kill them all off easily. I mean…. Typhon... Is a kelpie. My son is a kelpie. I can’t deny that, and we need to heal him.
It’s been about two years and the ceasefire is actually holding. There have been intermittent skirmishes between the kelpies and my forces, but otherwise… they have ceased attacks on my settlements.
It’s brought a degree of comfort and safety to my ponies, at least, from what I’ve noticed and what my advisors tell me, but tax yields… they’re going down.
What were once productive places of ocean are… they’re no longer as productive as they once were. I suspect Yoth-Atal’s involvement of course. Only she could be responsible. Either that or the war has depleted our ponypower to such an extent that our agricultural production has been severely affected.
But a deadlock is not what we can afford, Aquestria has to change the situation, change the paradigm. The ceasefire can stay in place… but we need a better weapon, a better way to kill the kelpies.