Gifts from Friends and Strangers
We live in a world of mostly mundane things. Simple. Drab. Boring. Each day, we wake up, we eat, we go about our daily routine, and then we sleep. And yet... there is magic, as well, isn’t there? From a simple beauty, like the rainbow over a misty forest fall, to the wild joy of a happy child or the imagination of a creative mind. As we grow up, it’s easy for the mundanity of our existence to slowly but surely replace these simple, magical wonders with the fears and banal processes of adulthood, but it doesn’t make them any less real.
And then, there are other magics as well. Things less easily explained. Some call them miracles; others, simply unexplained phenomena. Most people don’t even believe in these kinds of magic, referring to tales of fairies and spirits and artifacts as little more than superstition and delusion. However, we do know that there are some things in this world that seem to defy explanation.
This story is about one such unexplained thing: an object, unspectacular in appearance, and yet capable of incredible things. A simple and small wooden cupboard which, when opened with the proper key, will help one little girl find hope, friendship and love in a world sorely lacking.
Chapter One: Gifts from Friends and Strangers
Angel is nine years old. She has light brown skin, and blue eyes, which her mother tells her she got from her daddy. Her mother doesn’t really like her daddy, though, so Angel supposes that her blue eyes are a bad thing. Her Mother’s eyes are brown, and so are her older brother’s eyes, and sometimes Angel wishes that she had brown eyes as well.
One time, Angel asked Father Carl if maybe God accidentally put her in the wrong family, because everyone in her family has different eyes then her. Father Carl just looked at her like he was sad, and told her to remember that we are all in His family. He’s always saying things like that; Angel thinks it’s supposed to make her feel better, but it doesn’t really work. Father Carl has green eyes, and Angel wonders if his family also has green eyes.
Angelique is her real name, but everyone calls her Angel. She likes that name better, because Father Carl tells her that Angels were the first of God’s children, and that they are beautiful, and live in heaven with God, and have wings that let them fly around. Angel wishes that she really did have wings, because then maybe she could fly away from her Mother and Samuel when they are fighting, and maybe she could go see her real Daddy.
Angel’s Mother and Brother fight a lot. Her brother, Samuel, is a lot older then her, and is an adult like her Mother. Her mother is always mad at him for some reason, and when they fight, they always yell at each other. Sometimes, Angel wonders if the reason neither of them talk to her very much is because they’re too busy being mad at each other.
Angel doesn’t have many friends. There are a few girls at school that she plays with, but when it’s time to go home, she never invites them over to her house, because she’s embarrassed about the fighting. Father Carl is kind of like a friend, and he’s always really nice to her, but he’s a grown up, and her Mother gets angry whenever she sneaks away from her apartment building to go see him. Father Carl says she has a right to be angry, but that she is never the less always welcome in the House of God.
One day after school, Angel went to the church where Father Carl lives to help him clean out his attic. Her Mother said this was okay, which she didn’t usually do. It was a lot of work, and both her and Father Carl got really dirty and sweaty from all the lifting (Father Carl lifted all the heavy stuff while Angel mostly carried books and boxes), but Father Carl told her that in the house of God, no good deed would go unrewarded. He told her that if she found anything in the attic that she liked, she could have it as a reward for her hard work.
There were a lot of interesting things in the attic. Some of it was old church stuff, like a candelabra, a crucifix or a small statuette of the Virgin Mary, but he also had other stuff too, like books, a few toys, an entire box filled with umbrellas, and one thing that she found most interesting of all: A small, ornate wooden cupboard.
It was a very pretty cupboard, made from some kind of wood that Father Carl called Rosewood which looked red in the light. It was old looking and dusty, but when she wiped off some of the dust, the polish still shone. It’s doors had flowers carved into them, and on the corners on the top were small wooden rose heads, attached by screws. The doors were locked, and no matter how hard Angel pulled, she couldn’t open them.
Father Carl told her that he got the cupboard a few years ago as an anonymous donation to the church, but he never really had a use for it. Angel didn’t know why, but she decided that she really wanted that cupboard. Father Carl gave her the key, and helped her carry it home. There wasn’t anything inside the cupboard, and Angel couldn’t think of anything to put inside of it, so she left it empty.
And that’s how Angelique got her cupboard.
~~~~~
A few weeks ago, the family who lived in the apartment next door moved away. Angel didn’t really know them, but the little girl who lived there went to the same school as her. Her mother said that the Father of the family couldn’t pay the rent, so the Landlord made them leave. Angel was afraid of the Landlord, who was a mean and kind of smelly old woman, and she hoped that her Mother and Samuel could always pay the rent so that the landlord wouldn’t make them leave as well.
Mother and Sam argued about the rent a lot.
Only a few days later, a new person moved into the apartment. He was a nice looking man who was a bit chubby and had blue eyes like hers. For some reason, Angel got in trouble when she asked her Mother if this man was her Daddy. The Man didn’t look any older then Samuel, however, so she guessed his eye colour was just a coincidence. Still, sometimes when her Mother and Samuel were fighting, she would imagine the nice man was her Daddy, and he would take her away from the yelling. In these dreams, they would play games together, and he would take her to the mall, and to the zoo, and he would always listen when she told him stories. But Angel knew that this man wasn’t really her Daddy, and she never told her Mother about these dreams, because she didn’t want to get into trouble.
One day, Angel did really well on a test in school, and even got a little golden star in the corner, and she was very excited. She hoped that her mother and Samuel would be really happy with her for working so hard, like her teacher said they would be, but when she got home, her Mother and Samuel were yelling at each other. Angel tried to tell them about her test, but they didn’t seem to hear her. She tried tugging on her mother’s shirt, but then her mother said “Not now, Angelique!” in an angry voice and pushed her hand away.
Angel was really sad that her family didn’t seem to care about her gold star, and went out to sit in the hall. She does that, sometimes, because the yelling is less loud in the hallway then it is in her bedroom. Usually, she just brings out some toys to play with, but this time, she just cried, and wished again that the Man next door really was her Daddy, and that she could go live with him instead; she never heard yelling coming from his apartment.
Angel just sat outside of her room for a long time. She didn’t know how long she was out there, but even after the yelling stopped, she didn’t go back in. She tried to do her homework, but she couldn’t concentrate on her Spelling words or on her math, so she just kept sitting out there.
At one point, she saw the Man next door come out of his apartment. He gave her a funny look as she was sitting there, but he didn’t say anything, and quickly made his way down the stairs leading to the door of the building. Angel just kept sitting there for a long time. No one came out of her apartment looking for her, and after a while, the yelling started again, just like she knew it would.
Eventually, the Man next door came back. He was carrying grocery bags from the same store that Mother buys groceries from, and he gave her a funny look again before he went into the apartment. After a few moments, he came out again, and just continued to look at her for a while. Angel tried not to look at him, but she couldn’t help it. Eventually, he came over to where she was sitting, and sat down beside her.
He asked if she was alright, but she didn’t answer. After a few moments, he asked if her parents fought like this a lot, because he could hear them yelling through the door. She didn’t bother telling him that Samuel wasn’t her parent, and instead nodded. Then, he asked if she had been sitting out here alone the entire time he was at the store. She nodded again.
He was quiet for a while, before asking if she had any relatives she could visit when they were fighting like this. She shook her head no, and he asked if she had any friends she could be with. She started to shake her head, but then decided to tell him about Father Carl from the church. She also told him that she got in trouble when she went to see him without permission, so she usually didn’t go.
The man asked if Father Carl knew about all the fighting. She told him that he knew they did fight a lot, but she hadn’t told him that they fought all the time. The man nodded, and was quiet for a while again.
Suddenly, he offered his hand to her, and when she shook it, he told her that his name was Lee. She told him that her name was Angelique, but that everybody called her Angel. He smiled, and told her that that was a nice name.
After that, they talked for a long while. Lee told her that he was a Counselor, and that his job was to help people feel better. Angel told him about school, and when she showed him the Gold Star on her test, he congratulated her. He smiled a lot as they talked, and that made her smile. He always seemed interested in her stories, and laughed at her jokes. She never told him about how she wished he was her Daddy, but now she wished it more then ever.
Eventually, Lee looked at his watch, and told her that it was Eight O’clock, and that they should both be going to bed. She started to feel sad, but then he told her to wait right there for a second, and he rushed into his apartment. After a very short while, he came out and he seemed to have something in his hands.
“I know you’re not supposed to accept gifts from strangers, but... I want you to have something, Angel.”
He opened his hands, and showed her what he was holding.
It was a small toy; a plastic pony, like the pony toys some of the girls at school played with. It was light purple, almost pink, and had really big diamond-shaped eyes with purple irises. The pony’s hair, which was also plastic, was a darker purple then the rest of her, with a pink stripe running down the right side. There was a small horn on her head, as well as a funny-looking pink ring attached to a small piece of plastic, which looked out of place on the toy’s head. Instead of being made out of plastic, the pony’s tail was long and frizzy, and was kind of like hair. The strands were oddly shiny, and were a combination of dark purple and pink, just like her hair. Near her tail, on the right side, was a large pink star, surrounded by five smaller stars that were also pink.
“Her name is Twilight Sparkle.” He said. “She’s a Unicorn, and she represents Magic. All unicorns can do magic, but her magic is special, because her magic comes from Friendship. So, I guess you could say that Twilight Sparkle here embodies Friendship.”
Lee showed her how the plastic right could be detached, and how it was actually a brush for the frizzy tail.
“Twilight here... means a lot to me. I found her one day on the side of the road. I don’t know why, really, but I decided to take her home and wash her up; I even trimmed her tail, to get rid of some of the access frizz!”
Angel giggled at the thought of a grown man washing, combing and even trimming a the tail of a small pony doll.
“Hey now... don’t make fun! The thing is... when I found her, I was having a rather sad time in my life. Somehow, fixing her up and talking to her helped me through that hard time. I needed a friend really badly, and I still think she was really the one who found me that day.”
Angel felt bad taking her then, even if it still seemed funny to think of him playing with the little toy. She tried to give it back, telling him that she didn’t want to take away his friend, but he didn’t let her.
“I can tell that you’re a very special girl, Angel, and I want you to have her. Once upon a time, Twilight was my friend when I needed her, and now she can be yours. It will make me happy, knowing that Twilight is making new friends. It will make me happy knowing that she’s watching over you.”
Angel could see tears in his eyes as he walked away from her and went back into his apartment. She looked down at the toy pony for a moment, and smiled as it seemed to smile back up at her. Angel shed her own tears as she hugged her new friend to her chest.
And that’s how Angelique got Twilight Sparkle.
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So. My first story involving Ponies, and I am happy with the result. Obviously, I plan on writing more.
I hope you like the writing style; it's not my usual, but then you wouldn't know that, since this is my first submission :3
Hopefully, I will be able to use the cover Image I requested. Until then... no cover image
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
I freaking LOVED that movie. This is going to be AWESOME.
Yay! Comments!
663801
I'm assuming "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" is a good thing? Well, Applebloom is there, so it's a great comment no matter what's in it!
663942
I was literally laying there, looking at my Twilight Sparkle doll and thinking about how it was a shame that I didn't have that cupboard... and suddenly I knew what had to be done.
.
.
.
What? My Real Life friends are boring!
Paradox... This was simply adorable.
I'm so favoriting this
-Glassed
you get a thumb up for involving "Indian in the Cupboard". I loved that movie, and I'll enjoy this fic.
*reads title* *squee* *likes* *marks as read later* *goes back to !@&#*
I've read the original Indian In The Cupboard book when I was in sixth grade, and even saw the movie in theaters when it came out.
I was seriously thinking of an Indian In the Cupboard Crossover, but one inwhich Apple Bloom and the Cutie Mark Crusaders get the magic cupboard along with Little Bear, Boon, and Tommy already in here with the key. Of course, I would have to explain how they got their from the human world.
Even earlier than that, I though up some IitC crossovers with other animes, like Love Hina and Tenchi Muyo, in which Little Bear, Boon, and Tommy & the cupboard & key get lost and end up in Japan, in the hands of someone like Sasami from Tenchi Muyo, or Kaolla Su or Shinobu from Love Hina.
Anyways, I'm glad to see The Indian In The Cupboard get a MLP:FIM crossover treatment, and glad see some taking a pony-on-Earth story with a twist for once. I had a similar idea for a "Little" ponies on Earth story about a year ago about the mane six jump dimensions and droping in the real world the size of the pony toys, and in the hands of a little girl and her older brony brother! XD.
Anywho, I was hoping the entire Mane Six would get brought to life by the magic cupboard, but having Twilight for a start would be great! I can't wait to see her reaction when she appears. Should be really cute!
Keep up the story, and update as soon as possible.
665622
I won't lie... I really have no idea yet just where the story will go. I would like to keep with the current writing style, where Dialog is mostly implied unless it's important, but I have a feeling that's going to be difficult once Twilight shows up... But, we'll see!
That being said, if you want to do your own crossover of Indian in the Cupboard and Ponies, go right ahead! As far as similarities to the book/movie... well, I'm really just stealing the magic cupboard for my own purposes... I really doubt any of the characters from the books are going to show up in any way, shape, or form. In fact, the only reason I tagged this as a crossover is because otherwise I guarantee somepony would call me on it, otherwise
Also, I want to point out that, although Twilight (and, possibly, other ponies, as well) will feature prominently in this story, it is still going to be about Angelique and her struggles with family and friendship. Ponies are just going to become a big part of it
As far as updates... I may be a bit slow with those, since I tend to have to be in a very specific mood to write. But! I will update whenever possible!
*ahem*
Go on.....
I nearly cried.
And that's coming from a half-Mexican Ex-Texan dude, who has a beard, and prefers to eat meat with a cutlass. Please, continue.
678715
I, for one, accept the comments of our half-Mexican, ex-Texan, bearded, cutlass-steak knife using Overlord.
Or maybe I should call you Omnius?
I can't remember the last time a children's story made my eyes water.
WOW just wow thats....a really good story and i agree with Orange Pudding its such a happy story that it makes you cry for some reason