The Pony in the Cupboard
Chapter 1: The Mysterious Box
Note: I do not own My Little Pony or The Indian in the Cupboard. Those are owned by their respective creators. While this is slightly based off of The Indian in the Cupboard, I am not treating this like a crossover due to not sharing any characters with the book.
It was strange to find such a thing underneath his bed. Arthur was told to clean his room since guests would be over soon. "What, are they going to eat on my bed?" he had asked in a smart remark. This just earned him a week of grounding.
But enough of his smart mouth, and back to the strange object that was found underneath Arthur's bed. It was a small wooden box, an old cupboard that may have once been used something such as food or drinks, possibly wine. Arthur found it funny how whoever owned this room before him had had more privileges than he currently had. If he was caught with so much as a glass of water he would be grounded for almost a month.
The cupboard had a little keyhole lock, but it didn't seem to be locked at the moment. A slight grin spread across Arthur's face as a new idea came to mind.
He opened up the drawer to his dresser and pulled out two layers of t-shirts. Below that was a shoe box; on the lid was 'Treasure' written in black marker. When opened, Arthur stood leaning over a collection of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic figurines.
"Okay, fillies and gentlecolts," he said in an exuberant tone, "no longer will you have to be stuck inside a silly shoe box. Now, once I find a key that fits, you will have your own personal cupboard, one with a lock and shelves... I think. I should really look inside first."
Arthur opened the cupboard to find that it did indeed have shelves, three thin ones. Arthur then took a quick look at the cupboard itself. The outside seemed to be made of a nice black cherry, the inside: a thin layer of a very light white oak.
Finding the box to be satisfactual, Arthur looked back underneath his bed to search for a key. "Let's see here," he said to himself. He then began to pick up random tiny objects, tossing them aside if they didn't suit him.
"A hotwheel car, no. A silver dollar, no... but I'm keeping hold of that. An old raisin, yum," he then plopped the raisin into his mouth, only to spit it out moments later. "Okay, not a raisin!"
Finally, Arthur's hand fell onto something cold and metallic. He grabbed hold of it and held it up to his face. "Aha!" he said, "I finally found my slinky!"
Realizing that such an old cupboard would have a wooden key, Arthur gave up his search. He then left his room and went to the kitchen. On the granite counter laid the bowl that the family used to hold lost keys. Arthur quickly grabbed hold and went back to his room.
Arthur had tried many keys. He tried small keys, big keys, wooden keys, and metal keys. He tried strange keys, standard keys, keys with ribbons, and even keys that he knew had once fallen down the toilet.
Arthur did not enjoy those last few.
At last he came to the final key. There was no way that it would possibly work though, and Arthur knew it. This key had been given to him by some stranger in Disneyworld in Florida (a far away vacation from their current Pennsylvania home) when Arthur was just eight years old (him being sixteen now). The man wasn't a theme park character, nor did he work there; but he just walked right up to little Arthur and handed him the key. He leaned down and whispered into Arthur's ear, "If your hope is enough, this key will make a dream of yours come true. Use it carefully."
When little Arthur had shown his mother the key given to him and explained the story, she immediately took it away and told the park security of what had just happened. When they had gotten home, she hid the key at the bottom of the the pile being created at the time. Arthur couldn't reach back then, but when he got older and could he set off to find what dream would come true. He wished on the key, stuck it into many key holes, and even tried using it as a magic wand.
Nothing magical ever happened.
Eventually, Arthur just gave up. He put the key back into the bowl and never even thought about it again. That is, until now.
Slowly and surely, Arthur pushed the key into the keyhole. He tried turning the key, slowly it rotated clockwise until a click was heard.
Arthur pulled the key out and tugged at the door. It didn't budge a centimeter. A big smile spread its way across Arthur's face once again. It had actually worked.
For a moment, a small amount of light seemed to shine through the keyhole, but Arthur just dismissed it as a trick of the eye.
Arthur then unlocked the door and decided that he would treat one of his figures to a first night alone stay in its new room. He went back to the shoe box and grabbed the first figurine he'd ever bought, a Pinkie Pie.
"Okay, Miss Diane Pie, tonight you have a one night stay in the four star, cup-board hotel. I hope you enjoy your stay, because after tonight, you will be receiving many roommates. We apologize for the lack of lighting, and might work on that at a later time." With that speech, he placed the little pony on the bottom shelf.
Arthur locked the door and lied down in his bed. He thought of him becoming a pony and ending up in Equestria, just like the fanfic he had just read the day before. That night, he had dreams of tiny, pastel-colored ponies climbing over top of him and laughing.
He slept through the night, until he was awakened by a boom.
His eyes fluttered opened and he searched for where the noise could have come from. It wasn't until another boom was heard that he realized where the first one also came from. He looked over to where the cupboard was to find that it had two dents in the side that were popped outward.
Note: Well, that turned out okay. It wasn't as long as I was hoping it would be, but I wanted to end the first chapter with some kind of cliffhanger. For those of you who've read the book, however, the next part is pretty obvious.