Princess,
There was another attack at midday. Expect a more detailed casualty report to follow shortly. It was a full assault. We held, but only just. There are extensive damages to south Baltimare, but the city remains intact, for the most part. The line held, but barely.
That is the good news.
The reinforcements are the only thing that has kept this city from falling, but it is a stopgap measure at best. Only overwhelming numbers are keeping this area under our control, but that advantage is dwindling fast. From what you say about Dodge City, their state is less than a week behind ours. The larger machines will soon reach the city and its defense will require similar resources. This strategy is unsustainable, not to mention the sheer loss of life.
Evacuation efforts continue, but many ponies are too scared to leave what is essentially the safest place in the region. My guards' hooves are already full driving off the beasts daily, so I believe a forced evacuation is impossible. We're doing all we can, and the full use of the police you authorized is helping, but we aren't getting enough citizens out of the city as it is. On top of that, I fear that we won't be able to keep the elongation effect hidden from the public much longer. From what I can tell, rumors are starting to spread. Once they find out what's happening outside the city, it won't be long before there's rioting in the streets, princess.
As if that wasn't enough, the elongation effect proves to be even more horrific than we imagined. The ponies that have been transformed appear to retain scraps of their intellect - they can sometimes manage to speak or, in the case of unicorns, perform very basic spells or magic blasts. Additionally, they appear to be driven to use the shards of crystals as weapons whenever they can. I think whatever is forcing them to change knows how to direct them to spread the effect. It's a plague waiting to happen.
We need to find a more effective way to combat these machines and their effects. Their unnatural magic absorption abilities are forcing us to use physical measures and every day we need to put down more elongated ponies. My guardsponies' extra barding can only do so much to prevent 'infection', and during the attack, we encountered a sizeable number of what appeared to be transformed civilians. We have no way of knowing where they came from but it concerns me greatly. Should a large population center fall to the constructs, I believe the number of elongated ponies will grow out of control. The effect is very capable of spreading like wildfire, and the machines just keep coming.
It's all weighing too hard on my ponies, princess. The constant combat, the hellish nature of our enemy, the threat to the country— nearly everypony suffers nightmares of the things that stalk outside the city, myself included. Exhaustion is setting in fast, ponies are making mistakes. Fear is beginning to push out discipline. We'll keep doing what we can, but we need something, anything, to give us an advantage, or I fear the worst for our country.
Work quickly, princess. Time is of the essence.
Commander Stronghoof