Chapter 3

     No meals. Two weeks. This probably wasn't legal, but Mr Tiara didn't seem to care.

Fluttershy had "pushed" Diamond Tiara into the swamp on Tuesday, and it wasn't until Friday that she was allowed to leave her closet.

     "Go get the mail!" Mr Tiara barked the following Monday.

Fluttershy walked out and grabbed the stack of envelopes sitting on the porch.

     As she walked back to the kitchen, she rifled through them and handed them out to everypony.

The last envelope was different. In stead of a boring old stamp, it had a red wax seal on it. Instead of the address printed in boring black letters, it was written in green ink.

To Fluttershy

Cupboard under the stairs,

123456 Pony Drive,

Little Whinny

Fluttershy carefully tore open the envelope.

     "Mum! Dad! Fluttershy got a letter!" Diamond Tiara ripped the letter out of Fluttershy's hooves. Fluttershy tried grabbing it back, but Diamond Tiara pushed her to the side. 

"Um," Fluttershy stuttered. "Could I have that back please? I mean, it is my letter, and-"

"Your letter?" Mr Tiara spat. "Who would be writing to you?"

He looked down at the envelope and read the front. Suddenly, his blue face began to turn very white.

*****************

     The next few days were chaos for the Tiara family. Each day the same letter would show up in the mail. After a while, they began finding three or four copies of the letter in the mail. On the bright side, Fluttershy was no longer responsible for getting the mail everyday, but she was far too curious about the letters to appreciate a break from one of her many tedious tasks.

     What was so secret about these letters, that Fluttershy wasn't even allowed to read them? Each one was clearly addressed to her, so it wasn't like they weren't her business.

Fluttershy wished she had been more discrete with the first letter. She wished she had slipped it underneath her closet door instead of trying to read it in the same room as the Tiara's.

    That wasn't the only strange occurrence over the past few days. Owls had been appearing outside the Tiara's house during the day.

"How odd!" Fluttershy said one day when the owls were gathering outside. "Usually owls are nocturnal!"

"Owls are owls, stupid," Diamond Tiara replied.

Fluttershy simply rolled her eyes.

     One Saturday night Fluttershy got up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water when she saw Mr Tiara sitting in front of the fireplace. He had a stack of the letters in his left hoof, and he was throwing them into the crackling fire with his right.

     Fluttershy watched the letters burn one by one.

About half way through the stack, Mr Tiara looked back at Fluttershy and grinned. Fluttershy's heart sank. She only hoped the letters kept coming so she might get a second chance at reading one.

**************

     "What a fine day Sunday is," Mr Tiara said. He sat reclined in his leather chair in front of the fireplace reading the newspaper. "Why is that Diamond Tiara?"

Diamond Tiara shrugged. 

"Because there's no post on Sundays?" Fluttershy replied as she held up a tray of crackers for Mr Tiara to snack on.

"Right you are Fluttershy! No post! Not one blasted letter today, no sir!"

     Fluttershy heard the soft ruffling of wings outside, and when she looked, she saw the strangest thing.

     There were more owls than Fluttershy had ever seen in her life. The neglected brown and yellow grass was covered in a moving carpet of white and brown feathers. Owls occupied every available surface.

Mr Tiara didn't seem to notice. "Not one!" He said, "Not one blasted, miserable le-"

     A streak of white shot from the fire place and hit him right in the face. It was a letter. 

Suddenly, the whole house started shaking. 

     "Earthquake!" Mrs Tiara shrieked, and she ducked underneath the coffee table. 

Another letter shot out of the fire place, and another, and another. Soon hundreds of letters were flying through the room.

Fluttershy didn't know when she'd have another chance. She caught one of the letter in her teeth and flew down the hallway. 

     "GIVE ME THAT LETTER!!!" Mr Tiara boomed. He bolted after Fluttershy. Fluttershy tried flying up the stairs, but Mr Tiara was one step ahead of her. He grabbed her right wing in his teeth, and dragged her back down.

Fluttershy let out a shrill yelp. Partly out of surprise, and partly from having her wing tugged on.

     "That's it!" Mr Tiara shouted, his blue face now a bright shade of red. "We're going away! Far away! Where they can't find us!"