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// Entry 17 
// Story: Queen of Storms 
// by Silent Whisper 
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Dear Mother,

Do I even need to disguise this as a diary anymore? I know you’ve been reading the pages, even the ones I tear out. I don’t know how you find them, but you never fold them the same way after you’re done. I know you care. I know it’s because you love me. 

Doesn’t mean I don’t hate it.

Sugar Berry’s training is going well, as is mine. She’s got this crazy fantasy in her head, about how she’ll be my right-hoof guard, and I’ll be her Princess of… something. We’re both not sure of what, though that isn’t stopping her from guessing! I think she just wants our story to end the same way yours did. I know she has feelings for me, though she has yet to tell me. She’s absolutely terrible at hiding it, and I would find out eventually regardless.

And it’s not like I don’t care about her too, because I do. I just feel like I need more than her dreams. You understand, right, Mother? I don’t want to stay in the palace and be a figurehead like you are. I want to see the world. There’s more to the Northern reaches of Equestria than just the Crystal Kingdom. There’s just got to be! The storms that howl and beat against the shield protecting us must be hiding so much. I want to see it all, and I don’t know if Sugar Berry wants that, too. 

I’m sure she’d go along with me if I asked, but I don’t know if she’d be truly happy about it. I know you aren’t quite happy about it either, but at least you understand. Father does too, in his own way. That’s why he’s training Sugar Berry as hard as you’re training me. You just want us to be ready. 

I hope I will be. It’ll just be a few months, right? When the worst of the storms subside would be the ideal time to go. I don’t want to wait another year.

Sincerely, It’s Still Me, Mother