//------------------------------// // Befriending Monsters // Story: Befriending The Monster Under the Bed // by BrokenGears //------------------------------// He wasn’t afraid, Balefire didn’t do afraid. Why should he be? Sure it was the middle of the night and other than make scary noises, bump into things and move stuff around, the creature under his bed wasn’t that bad. They listened to me when I rambled about my day and they kept me company every night. More so than Pa ever did, seeing as I rarely saw him, day or night. Never meet my mama, or if I did I don’t remember it. Anyways, back to the creature under his bed. He couldn’t call it a monster, as monsters were only those that hurt or attacked others on purpose. Trying to come up with a name for them was hard too, as he’d only caught glimpses of them. “Maybe I should call you Zip? Because you know, you zip around and out of sight before anyone can see you?” He asked aloud, while looking under his bed, only seeing a vague shape shifting in the shadows near the very back. “Speedy? Runner? Shadow? I’m not entirely sure, but I have to call you something. I can’t call a potential friend a thing, that’d just be rude.” He heard a very faint snort as he righted himself on the bed, pulling his legs under him, as he rubbed his chin with his foreleg. This was hard, he didn’t know what to choose. Debating on the various names his young mind brought up. “I think i’m gonna call you Zip. It’s simple and I can remember it easily!” Looking under his bed yet again, he could see this time four reddish-yellow eyes reflecting back into his two gold ones. “What do you think? Is it okay if I call you Zip? I don’t wanna be rude by calling you something you don’t like. Like my Pa, he calls me all sorts of things that I hate when he’s home. Like a waste of space. I don’t like it, and teach said it’s rude to call people things like that.” The eyes simply blinked back at him, before disappearing back into the darkness. Huffing at the lack of response the foal flopped onto his back, bouncing a bit before staring at Luna's moon through his window, high in the sky. Why was making friends just so hard? Sure he looked a bit weird, but he wasn’t mean or anything like that. Sitting back up, he let out a loud yelp of surprise when he saw how close the creature had gotten to him without a sound. Barely a few inches apart, the creature decided today was the night it was going to fully show itself. They were a lot bigger than the foal expected. Snorting the beast leaned in even closer to the foal, looking them over closely, tilting their long thin head this way and that, almost completely blending in with the darkness. Well other than their eyes, and many gleaming needle sharp teeth. Balefire could proudly say he didn’t scream once he saw them, but he was more than a little afraid. But fear wasn’t about to stop him. “O-oh, hello! Um- I wasn’t actually expecting you to uh...come out from under the bed…” He trailed off, not knowing what else to say to them. It was not everyday the monster under the bed actually came out from under it. At least not in direct view. He never knew that something that could fit under the thin space under where he sleep could be so big though. They stood at least a good pony and a half tall! Before he could say anything else or even react he found himself being pulled forwards by his hind leg. Yelping a second time in surprise he couldn’t get much out before he found himself...in a hug? Yep, seems he was in a hug. Zip as he’d come to call them, had yanked them off the bed, into their lap, and rested their head on his, in a very weird type of hug. He wasn’t quite sure if his friend had bones or not with how they were bending though. Awkwardly he tried to hug back, not familiar with close contact so not entirely sure as to what to do. Hearing a snort and then suddenly he found himself on his new friends back as they stood up to their full height. Looking up and meeting their eyes, he was curious as to what they were up to. He pushed himself into an awkward sitting position and watched as Zip grabbed his backpack and dumped out all of it’s contents onto the floor. Before grabbing a few blank notebooks, feathers and inkwells, pencils and erasers, and a few binders and putting them back in. Any of his school work was left, and only his books that had to do with learning were also put back in. Next to go into my bag were his winter clothes, a coloring book, crayons, and a few of his favorite toys before there was no more room left. Once the bag was handed to him, he put it on curious as to what was happening. Zip walked out of his bedroom, into the main living area of the small apartment he lived in, and plopped him on the old and broken couch, before heading towards his Pa’s room. He stayed put and waited, before grabbing the picture of his family off the badly stained coffee table, that sat next to the couch. He was still looking at it when Zip came back and dumped a half full duffle bag on the floor by him and heading into the kitchen to raid the pantry of its non-perishables. Putting everything they could fit into the bag, including some cookware. Next they raided the closet and pulled out a tent I didn’t know we owned, an old sleeping bag, and some other camping gear and filling the duffle the rest of the way up. “What are you doing with all this stuff?” Curiosity was a big thing that often got me into trouble, but I couldn’t help it, I had to ask. I was surprised when I got an answer. “Away.” Zips voice was gravely, and a bit odd but sounded like they were a she. She then gently took the photo of my Mama and Pa from my hands, and stuffed it careful into the bag. “To where? Is Pa gonna be coming?” “...I don’t think it’d be best if he did little one…” Zip had picked up the duffle bag she’d been filling and closed it, slinging it onto her back. I was then placed on her back. “Are you taking me away because Pa is a bad pony?” She paused at the door when I asked this, before nodding. She then made a shushing motion, before she sneaked both of us out of the building, silent as the night. Once we were out of the building, she took a lot of twisting alleyways and backways that it made my head spin. She was moving fairly quickly, I noticed as we went Zip avoided any light if at all possible, and darted through the street lights if she couldn’t. Soon we made it out of town and exited near a field of wheat, where the farmland meet civilization. I didn’t know where we were going, but hopefully it would be an amazing adventure. I made my thoughts known by stating this out loud. “I don’t know where away is, but I hope we have a fun time getting there!” I smiled wide and received a small one in return. Zip walked down the paved road, with me on her back, moonlight shining down on the both of us. I guess tonight I gained a friend.