The Thingpone under the bed.

>There was something under your bed.
>You weren't sure what it was, but it had been there since you had moved in.
>It was actually a selling point for the real-estate.
>For sale: Two story house. Two bedrooms, one monster under the bed, utilities included.
>You thought for sure it probably wanted to devour your soul, but so far it hadn't.
>It was probably because you kept feeding it so much.

>The first time you saw it, it appeared to just be a dark pair of glowing eyes.
"Neat."
>"Isn't it? They say the last mare who lived here ran out screaming the day it appeared. Happened last week actually, so it's not even an urban legend or anything. Totally legit." the sales-mare informed you.
"What should I feed it?"
>"Feed it? Umm-"
"You guys haven't been feeding it? What the hell! Poor thing is probably starving."
>You ran downstairs to grab one of your grocery bags.
>When you came back up, the sales mare wasn't anywhere in sight.
>Probably got bored or something. Whatever, you'd already paid for the house and signed the papers, she was just here to welcome you in.
>bit rude of her to leave without saying goodbye though.

>You climbed on top of the bed, and swung your head upside down to look underneath like a child.
>The glowing eyes were wider now, and met yours without hesitation.
>You dropped a large cut of raw meat down onto the floor, and watched the dark pupils lock onto it.
"Eat up little guy, or girl. I don't actually know what you are."
>You leaned back, sitting back onto your bed and looking away towards your window.
>Unbeknownst to you, a rush of barbed tentacles shot out just as you pulled away. They were aimed for your face, but settled for the chunk of meat instead.
"You better appreciate that meat. I got it on the griffon market, it's not cheap stuff."
>A horrifying gnawing and slurping sound quietly met your ears, before silencing itself quickly. Guess the creature was done with the meat.
>You decided to sleep in the guest room that night, let the creature have its space for now.

--

>You weren't home very often for the first week, your job was keeping you busy. Well, technically multiple jobs.
>You were working about fourteen hours a day between the random handyman stuff and the other random junk jobs you had.
>You would have thought employment would be scarce in Canterlot, but surprisingly six foot tall guys with fingers were scarce instead. Lots of things for you to do.
>It hadn't been much of a surprise that with all the working you were doing you finally had enough bits to move into your home. No more staying as a guest at Canterlot castle for you.
>But now that you had your own home, what was next?
>Life in Equestria was certainly busy, but you didn't feel like you had much of a direction at this point.
>However, Summer was almost over, and when fall started you planned on going on vacation. Take some time to settle down a bit.
>Your days at home were very short. Mostly just watering your plants and restocking your fridge.
>The thing under the bed was probably raiding your fridge, but you didn't mind. This was its home too.
>Also you couldn't exactly tell it not too.
>It wasn't always home.

>You always left it a chunk of meat or some other type of food.
>It always disappeared whenever you looked away.
>The creature was fairly nice as far as roommates went though.
>Mostly it's bedroom door was closed, sometimes even locked.
>It sure made some weird noises sometimes. Growls, yelps, screeches.
>Sometimes some slimy sounds, other times some scratchy sounds.
>You thought you heard a scream once, but that was probably your imagination.

>Your favorite sound was the occasional muttering the thing under the bed made.
>It sounded like it was trying to speak, which was strange.
>Silly creature, you can't speak. You don't have the right vocal chords for that.

>Well, you thought it didn't.
>Until quite recently, when you put down a cut of fish filet.
>And you heard it, loud and clear.
>"Thank you." A light feminine voice said graciously.
"Your welcom-"
>You started responding, before realizing what had just happened.
>You felt a horrid shiver go down your spine.
>Dropping to the floor, you peered into the darkness. Two glowing golden eyes met yours.
>It looked concerned, perhaps it hadn't meant to let you know it could speak?
"You can speak?"
>The creature looked away, before looking back fiercely. It answered with a growl, obviously not wanting to engage in any sort of conversation when it's meal was sitting right there waiting for it.
>Right, not dealing with that right now.
>You got up and walked out of the room with a shrug.
"You don't have to stay under there all the time. This is your house too."

--

>You stayed up late that night, doing some dishes.
>The roof above you creaked several times, so your roommate was definitely a little more active than usual.
>You kept your eyes on the top of the stairs, but to your disappointment, nothing appeared.
>Well, that was to be expected, you weren't really sure if you ready to see just what It might look like.
>It was that terrible feeling between shaking with fear and jittering with excitement.
>You took one last glance at the stairs, before heading to your room for the night.
>You locked your door, as you usually did, then unceremoniously tucked yourself in.
>You had work in about four hours, you probably shouldn't have stayed up as long as you did.

>Sometime much later, you awoke to the feeling of being watched.
>What a strange feeling, who would bother watching someone as boring as you?
>You sat up in bed drowsily, glancing over at the door.
>Nope, still hanging open widely with broken hinges just like it normally is, nothing to see he-
>HOLY SHIT WHAT

>You rubbed the sleep from your eyes, and stared.
>Your door was broken and hanging off of only the bottom hinge-
>And sitting in the doorway was a dark shape.
>It was hard to say exactly what kind of shape it was in the darkness. It was almost pony sized, but looked to have some sort of black tendrils flowing around it loosely.
>You recognized the familiar glowing eyes though.
>Except usually there weren't twenty of them.
>You blinked, and some of the eyes blinked back.
>You looked over at the clock, and in the dim light from your window you could see it was shortly after three.
"Three AM? Really?" You muttered angrily. You didn't particularly want to deal with this shit right now.
>You looked back over at the monster sitting in your doorway.
>And waited. You didn't really want to risk making sudden movements, but if it was just going to keep doing this you might as well go back to bed.
>It was just sitting there. MENACINGLY.

>At you stared, you began to wake up a little more, and as you woke up more, you realized your situation, and fear began to set in.
"Are you going to... Just stay there all night?"
>You tried to sound unamused, but your voice cracked a little, betraying just how afraid you were.
>To be fair you were gazing at a creature that looked like it had stepped out of a Lovecraft novel.
You definitely understood why the last resident of this home had run away screaming.
>The creature didn't really respond, it seemed to be thinking of something to say.
>You swallowed hard, then tried to speak again, this time sounding a bit closer to the not-currently-pissing-yourself tone of voice you were looking for.
"Because I have to get up and go to work in another two hours, so I can make some money, so I can bring home cuts of meat for you. So if you enjoy having those, I'd really rather you let me get some sleep so I can focus at work."
>Please don't eat me. Please don't eat me. Please don't eat me.
>It didn't respond for a few seconds, and you thought it might just keep staring at you all night.
>Finally it turned it's head away, looking at your door.
>"We- I Didn't mean to break it."
>It looked back at you, blinking twenty eyes and only opening back up two.
>"I enjoy your meat. This is good symbiotic relationship. Please bring more."
>The roughly pony shaped thing promptly turned and left, dragging three or four appendages behind it.
>You stared at the door for a moment or two more, wondering what the fuck just happened.
>You certainly hadn't expected the monster under the bed to look quite so monstrous.
>You gently reached over and pinched yourself, to make sure that you weren't in a nightmare.
>You weren't.
>But you were alone.
>And as much as you wanted to, you knew you weren't going back to sleep anytime soon.

--

>Your brief morning was very uneventful.
>You were worried you'd wake up dead, but thankfully you were untouched.
>Apparently you had managed to pass out sometime during the night.
>Which was rather surprising, you thought for sure your heartbeat would never slow down ever again.
>You got up and dressed uneventfully.
>You walked past your broken door uneventfully.
>You walked into the kitchen uneve-
>Hold up! There was a note on the table.
>'Dear... You never told us your name.'
>'We made you lunch <3! Sorry about the door'
>'signed, We never told you our name either.'

>It made you lunch? What could that be?
>Also, where did it learn to sign heart emoticons?
>Or writing and grammar in general?
>And why was it so polite? It was a terrifying tentacle covered monster, were those usually good about 'pleases and thank you's'?
>Questions for another time.
>Right now you had to check what kind of 'lunch' you had waiting for you.
>You opened your fridge, and noticed a brown paper bag sitting with a smiley face drawn on it.
>The smiley face also had fangs and three extra eyes.
>It was a strange sort of cute.
>You opened it up and inside was-
>An apple and a sandwich wrapped in plastic? Pretty standard stuff surprisingly.
>You wondered what kind of sandwich it was.
>Also, you didn't own any apples, where had that come from?
>You'd find out later.

>You grabbed a paper and wrote out your own little note to the-
"I really need to find a proper name for It. I can't just call It 'Monster or Creature', that's just rude."
>-You wrote a note for the pony shaped thing that lived with you.
'Hey! Thank you for lunch. Please tell me your name. Or come talk to me at a time that isn't when I'm trying to sleep.'
'Don't worry about the door, I know how to fix that kind of thing.'
'From your roommate, just call me Anon.'
>That should do it.
>There were a lot of other questions you had for It, but you had to go to work now or you'd be late.

--

>You got home nine hours later, having had your second job canceled for the day.
>Apparently the shift supervisor had gone missing, hadn't called or anything.
>It was bizarre, there were an unusual number of disappearances in Canterlot as of recently.
>Though the number of disappearances had diminished since you'd moved into your new home. Strange coincidence.
>Speaking of your home, you were finally arriving.
>Your house didn't look any different then the rest of the houses along the alley way. Two stories tall and an off shade of purpley gray.
>It was pretty strange to have a house in a place like Canterlot, but you still managed it somehow. It was a nice neighborhood too. Lots of trees and even a park with a lake nearby.
>You'd lived in both better and worse places, but it sure was nice to have somewhere to call your own.

>You'd never gotten around to eating the sandwich in your bag, so you decided you'd eat it once you got home.
>The apple had been your breakfast. It was decidedly delicious. You still had no idea where it had come from.
>You'd gone to the grocery store and gotten some similar looking apples though, along with a couple other things.
>The street vending Griffon was beginning to give you odd looks at the bizarre amount of meat you were purchasing.
>"Another one? Didn't you get a full flank just a few days ago? Where are you putting this all, buddy?" He asked, giving your stomach a friendly poke.
>You laughed and shrugged it off then, but you'd have to figure out how to shift your 'Pony Thing' to a less meat-dependent diet.

>Walking through the front door, you kicked off your shoes, then headed to kitchen.
>Nothing unusual around right now, hopefully your note had been seen and replied too though.
>You checked the piece of paper sitting on the table.
>Nope, just the note you'd left, nothing new.
>The house was silent, it sounded almost as if you lived alone like the loner you were.
"Alright, I guess I'll go eat that sandwich then."
>With nothing else to do, you brought your work bag with you to the living room.
>There was surprisingly little to do at your house. Maybe you should go get some art supplies or something one day.
>You relaxed backwards onto the couch, and opened the bag.
>Digging the sandwich out, you cautiously unwrapped it and gave it a sniff.
>It smelled like a normal sandwich, nothing rotten.
>Pulling it open you saw-
"Oh, that's a shame. I was really looking forward to it."
>It had lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and some kind of meat delicately sliced onto it.
>But the meat was raw and uncooked, you'd get seriously sick.

>Just like the apple, you had no idea where the meat had come from.
>You hadn't even had red meat like this in your fridge for at least three or four days.
>You tried not to think about it. Mysterious apples were one thing, but mystery meat?
>It wasn't so much what it was that worried you, but where it came from.
>And who it belonged to.

>Sitting up, you walked over to the kitchen with sandwich in hand.
"No use wasting a good sandwich."
>You pulled a frying pan out of your cupboards, and lit the gas stove.
>The flames were large, blue, and beautiful.
>And as you put the meat on to start sizzling, you missed a small "Skreeeee" of fear from a little ways behind you.

--

>It was a little while before you saw the thing again.
>It responded to your note, but didn't give much information.
>It kinda just said 'Your name is Anon? Hello Anon!'
>And then it had another of the creepy-cute multi eyed smiley faces on it.
>No fangs this time, just a long snaking tongue.
>Like really long.
>It had drawn it so it reached to the back of the page.

>But since then you hadn't seen hide nor hair nor tentacle around at all.
>Nearly a full week went by, with you somewhat settling into your home.
>Hard to believe you'd already been living there almost three weeks. It only felt like a few days.
>No amount of looking under the bed could discover those glowing eyes.
>Any food you left in front of the bed would still disappear, it just usually took several hours.
>And then one day, all the stars and planets aligned, and the prophecies held true. The promised time had come.
>It was a weekend off. Your first since moving in.

>All six of your regular jobs had told you to take today off, seeing as it was some obscure holiday called 'Princess day' or something.
>You were woken up by the sound of enormous crowds and parades and cheering.
>Looks like you wouldn't be going outside today.

>You got out of bed and dragged yourself over to the living room, nearly tripping on the still broken door as you went.
>You thought for sure you'd have had time to fix that by now.
>Guess you'd be doing it today.
>Not right now though, it was too early for doing things if you didn't have to.
>You made it to the living room and collapsed onto your couch, squinting at the early sunlight trailing into the room.
>You sat there for a little while, just enjoying the calm of the morning.
*Click clack!*
>The sound of some early morning mail being delivered made you jump.
>You got up to go check what kind of things had arrived.
>Walking past the kitchen and down the hall, you noticed that the table was still empty and devoid of any notes.
>You grabbed your mail, then went back to the kitchen.
>You put it down on the table, right next to-
>Right next to a note that had materialized in the five seconds you had looked away.
>It had three words, in large black sketchy letters.
>'LOOK BEHIND YOU'

>Well, there was officially some horror story level shit going on.
>It was time to turn around slowly, open mouthed, like an idiot. And then proceed to be the first main character to die.
>On second thought, maybe you should-
>DUCK AND ROLL!
>You not-so-gracefully dove to the left, rolled on your side, and flopped over sideways. You also smashed your face into the wall.
"Ow, shit. Why did I think that was a good idea?"
>You looked towards the kitchen door, where your doom awaited-
>Waiting there was what appeared to be a perfectly normal mare, staring at you with amusement.
>You definitely recognized the eyes though. They weren't glowing right now, but you'd recognize them anywhere.
>The rest of her body was sort of pale orangeish, with a brighter orangeish mane. Maybe Auburn?
>"Hello Anon. What is it that you are doing?" She said with a grin.
"Umm, evasive maneuvers?"
>You were clearly at a disadvantage here, seeing as you were lying on the floor like a moron.
>"Evasive maneuvers? What is that that you are evading? Is it common sense?"
"I- Uh."
>"If you were trying to evade us, I don't see why you would do such. If we were going to attack you, wouldn't we have do so at a previous time?"
>Her English seemed a little weird. You reckoned she probably hadn't had much practice talking to anyone.
"Well, someone left a note saying 'Look behind you'. It might not have been you, it could have been a spooky ghost or something else trying to get me, right?"
>She shook her head, "Not possible. If there was another sort of monster in this house we would have found it and eaten it. We are the only monster allowed in this residence."
>Well that's cold. Guess you'd have to cancel the monsters anonymous meeting you promised to host here next week.
>Skeleton Jim would be so disappointed in you.

>For reals though, she just admitted that she thought she was a monster.
>You stood up, towering over her. She wasn't very big, smaller than most mares even. If you didn't know better you would have thought she was only a few years out of fillyhood.
"Do you really think of yourself as a monster?"
>She was, by all accounts, a legitimate monster.
>But it didn't feel right calling her that. It was like calling her an 'Abomination'.
>"Anon, I am sure you will have seen and comprehended our nature by now. Calling us monster is no different than calling a pony a pony. It is fair representation of what we are."
>The little mare before you didn't look all that monstrous right now-
>She blinked, and for a brief second her pupils were nothing but vertical slits. Her irises were also a shade of red.
>She blinked again, and looked normal once more.
>Okay then...
>She may not look monstrous now, but that could apparently change within seconds.

>You sighed, slouching your shoulders a bit and relaxing.
"Well I don't want to call you a monster. Do you have a name at all?"
>She gave a smile. A very wide smile.
>"Of course! We are known as- SCKXarRRAETRIVHIEEKIWREEIoooooALL!"
>The sound she made was a cross between a bone-chilling schreech, a venomous hiss, and a pleased hum.
>Her tongue split into two, flicking deftly around her enormous fangs.
>Two extra mouths opened up in her chest to provide extra sounds. One of them harmonizing with her primary mouth, the other making chirps and whistles that actually sounded quite delightful.
>She closed her eyes and smiled as six pointy clawed appendages burst from her back, and formed the shape of an arc.
>A thin material formed and stretched between the things, making it seem like one over-sized bat wing or dragon wing.
>It looked like a crown or mane of pure horror.
>She gave a little bow.
>Seeing her flesh remold and transform like that, your body did the thing where everything is made of goosebumps, and you feel like you should run away but you cant move.

>It took a few seconds to find your voice.
"Okay, there is no possible way I can even begin to repeat that. So let's just settle with a nickname."
>"You aren't even going to try? Come on, say our name."
"Sckarrrkllblahhhh." You garbled, trying to make six sounds at once.
>She smiled with delight. "Oh! We knew a- We knew- Someone? Yeah, We knew someone with that name once!"
>Her third mouth chirped with what you thought could possibly be amusement, and some of the claws on her back wiggled happily.
>Well you hadn't offended her yet. So far so good.

"Really though, your name is a little bit impossible for my vocal chords to manage. There's gotta be a nickname or something I can give you."
>"Anything is fine. We are most excellent at adapting to new things."
"Okay."
>She gave you one of those tilted head looks and smiles other ponies sometimes gave you when they were expecting you to just 'know' something you couldn't possibly know.
>In this case probably a good nickname.
>Umm...
>Well she looked ponyish, how did ponies usually get named?
>Most times it was based on their destiny and other bullshit.
>Well you couldn't predict the future, so that was out.
>The other half of the time it was based on physical appearances.
"Is it okay if I- You know- Take a look at you?"
>She nodded and stepped closer, seeming to enjoy the attention.
>She retracted her extra limbs and parts, and went back to her supposedly primary form of earthpony mare.
>She still had her Auburnish mane, and pale orangeish coat.
>When she wasn't playing around and changing them, her eyes were a lovely light gold.
>You leaned in close to look at her mouth.
>She opened wide, revealing jagged carnivorous teeth beaming back at you with a smile.
"Wow. I didn't realize you had such a good dentist."
>"We have attended no dental facilities. Doing such would be impossible."
"It was a joke. I'm just saying you have good teeth."
>"Oh. Your compliment is appreciated."
>Judging how often she changed about her body parts, she probably truly enjoyed hearing that they were well formed.
>You'd have to remember that.

>You stood up and walked around to her backside.
>A normal mare would have simply turned her head to watch you circle around.
>This mare simply continued staring forwards without a care.
>Well, her head continued facing forwards.
>Her eyes melted through her flesh, and swam around her body. Following you and leaving her eye sockets empty and void.
[Internally screaming.gif]
>If you wanted to keep having any sort of interactions with this mare, you'd have to get used to your heart stopping out of sheer fear.
>Her mouth spoke, despite facing away from you now as you studied her body.
>"Your skin has paled, and your eyes are very wide. Are we frightening you Anon?"
>You looked back at her face, which turned to meet yours with empty eyes and a decidedly creepy smile.
>You then looked back to the eyes that were sunken into the side of her chest, unsure of which part of her to respond to.
"You do look a little bit scary, yeah."
>"Your fear is quite amusing."
>Well at least you knew what kind of things she thought were amusing.

>You finished circling around her body, and met up with her eyes in their correct sockets again.
>"Well,have you observed sufficiently?"
"I still can't think of any names for you, but yeah.
>You tried thinking of some, but they weren't very good.
>Orange brown? Gold scary eyes? Golden eye? Copyright violation? Evil eye?
>"What have you been mentally referring to us as?"
"Huh?"
>"Before we acquired your note and were informed that your identity was Anon, we were referring to you as 'House guest.'
>"Before you started giving us meat every day, that identity was simply 'next meal'."
>You started to laugh, but her expression told you that at one point she was quite serious about that.
>You didn't really want to think of your friend pony thing as the type that wanted to eat you.
>Oh, there it was-
"I've kinda just been calling you a 'thing'. A thing pony- Wait, other way around. A pony thing."
>You stumbled over your words a bit. Oh well.
>"A thing pony-pony thing? Are we more pony, or thing? Define thing for us."
"Well, It's just... A thing. It's not really a specific word. And since I can't really begin to describe what you are, you count as a thing. I guess. So long as you don't mind and aren't offended by it.
>She mused over it. "We still do not take offense at mere words. We will accept being known as this 'Thingpony'."
>Well that was easy. Turns out she'd pick the first name you suggested.
"Okay, I can call you that as a temporary name. I'm sure we'll think of a better one eventually."

>Well that was that then.
>She was ThingPone now. No backsies.