“Alright Rainbow, here’s your tablet. The playlist should automatically go through the episodes, so don’t touch it, okay? Just watch and enjoy the show.” Jitters explained as he set the tablet down in the playpen for the foal to watch.
Rainbow squeals in delight, snuggling up under his favorite blankie with his frog stuffy friend. Smiling, Jitters ruffles the little alicorn’s mane before standing and moving into the kitchen to fix them up some lunch. With the little guy’s teeth steadily growing in, you’re hoping that he’ll be willing to try a milky oatmeal dish.
Heeheehee! Heehaahaahaahaa~ Heeeheehee!"
You are Rainbow Bright, and you are having the best time ever watching videos of your favorite show, Sesame Street. You loved Burt and Ernie the most. They were just so funny!! And smart, too! You loved learning the numbers and the letters of the alphabet! Sometimes there were scary looking monsters on the show, but nobody was really scared of them. You were often confused as to why, but maybe the other characters were just really, really brave and nice. Like Daddeh!
You continue to watch the show, episode after episode, loving every second of it. You’ve learned colours, and confirmed for sure that your stuffy friend, Froggy, is Green with a White tummy! And you have One, Two, Three, FOUR hoofsies! You were still confused about 6 and 9 looking the same, just one of upside downies and the other was right side uppies, but it was still so much fun to learn so many new things!
Giggling in delight as you sing along to the end credits, you roll on your back, kicking your little leggies in excitement for the next episode. Only your back right hoof kicks out a little further than you expected and firmly bopped the screen, connecting with the thumbnail of a different video mid-song. Realizing your blunder, you gasp and sit up. Oh no! Daddeh said to not touch the ‘tablet’ and just watch! It was still playing a video though, so maybe it was okay?
This show was different. It wasn’t Sesame Street, that’s for sure. It was darker, and kinda more boring. There was a man doing a lot of talkies, and explaining something about a place called ‘The Mystery Flesh Pit’. You didn’t know what that was at all, but you were curious. It wasn’t so bad at first. There were pictures of signs, like the safety Stop sign you learned about with Elmo(the stop sign had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…err…something something, 8 sides, you think). These signs only had 1, 2, 3, 4 sides though, with a lot of words and funny looking pictures.
Then it that’s when the screen changed, and showed the most horrifying monster you’ve ever seen crawling through the folds of wet meat and chords of muscle.
You tremble, not even realizing you’ve made bad peepees until you’re already sitting in a sizeable puddle of it, soaking into your Mummah Blankie. The antennas move, the mandibles reaching out to reveal huge, shiny black fangs. It’s big. Bigger than the humans in the screen.
Then the video changes back to the man, who begins talking more as if the horrible scene didn’t just happen. You sit, whimpering in terror, unable to tear your eyes away as more horrifying images appear on screen, accompanied by animated segments of all sorts of monsters and scary scenery of humans and animals being inside what is clearly the tummy of a giant monster.
Jitters flips the sizzling chicken breast in the pan, evenly coating it in a delicious mixture of butter, seasonings, diced onion, and garlic. He had a couple of pots simmering with his and Rainbow’s lunch, and despite having to juggle each one to keep them from burning, life decided that he had to multitask even harder by having his phone ring.
“Shit-” A cursory glance at the caller ID was enough for him to know that he couldn’t ignore it. “Hey, Bryce, h-hang on-”
He shuffles the phone to his shoulder, trying to keep it from falling as he strains his attention to the frantic ramblings of his fellow college student and his sizzling meal.
“Bryce-Bryce, calm down, I can hardly hear you. I-I’m in the middle of cooking-What? What do you mean you lost your notes?! Ugh-Fuck-Okay, Okay, what all do you remember?”
Jitters anxiously stirs his food, trying his damnedest to keep any of it from sticking to the skillet or pots as he listens to Bryce rattle off things he’d helped him study and rehearse for the upcoming biology test. The heat of the stove and the stress of this sudden disruption has beads of sweat forming on his brow.
Taking a deep breath, he tries to clear his head and assist with Bryce’s dilemma the best he can. Through the volume of bubbling veggies and rice, the sizzling butter and meat, and Bryce’s voice directly in his ear, Jitters couldn’t hear the quiet sobs of Rainbow in the other room.
It isn’t until after Bryce hung up and he finished plating his chicken on rice with gravy and green beans that Rainbow suddenly shrieked at the top of his tiny lungs, damn near making Jitters jump out of his skin and drop his food. Setting the meal down on the counter, he ran into his room to find Rainbow screeching in inconsolable sobs, kicking at the air in a desperate attempt to flee from the tablet and burrow under his blanket.
“Rainbow?! Rainbow, what’s wrong?!” Jitters asks, rushing over to the pen to scoop the thrashing foal up, only to immediately take notice of how wet and pungent he was. It was clear Rainbow had completely pissed himself, and despite the sheer disgust of the fact, Jitters tried his best to find the source of the alicorn’s distress.
That’s when he spots the tablet, or more accurately, what was on the tablet. Instead of the colourful and loving childhood educational puppets, was found footage video format of countless screaming humans, fluffies, and numerous other creatures coated in blood, rain, and digestive fluids. The visuals of people stumbling around with half digested bodies in a thunderstorm as some of them were trying to run back into the pit with maddened screams were suddenly shut off as Jitters quickly pressed the power button.
His mind was racing with confusion and alarm. That video wasn’t in the playlist! Why was it even playing?! He looks at Rainbow’s sobbing form tightly squeezing his thumb in a desperate hug.
“Rainbow, what happened!? Why were you watching that?!”
“HUUUHUUUHUUHUUUUU!!! AM THOWWY DADDEH! AM THOWWIIEEEEHEEHEEHEEEE!!” The foal blubbers, sniffling through snot and tears. “NU MEAN TOUCH TEEBEE!! NU WAN WATCH THCAWY TEEBEE!!! UUUUHUUHUUHUUHUUUU!!!”
Ah. Of course. Rainbow must’ve hit a recommended video when he touched the tablet. It all made sense now. Giving a heavy sigh, Jitters felt a new wave of exhaustion rush over him. How was he going to deal with this now?
“WAI MUNTHTAH GIB ICKY HUWTIES?! NU WAN FWENS BE NUMMIES OW HAB ICKY HUWTIES HUUUHUUHUU!!! FWENS NEE’ HUGGIES!! NEE’ FEEW BETTAHUUHUUHUU!!!”
Jitters grimaced, unsure of what to say to calm the foal down. So he opted to stroke Rainbow’s mane and let him cry it out. He’ll explain things later, for now, he needed to get the foal cleaned up and fed. Maybe he could figure out how to explain ARGs or at the very least the concept of fiction over lunch…
