Presentable Equinity

by Pony With A Box

Rating: teen
Tags: Mystery, Horror, Crossover, Dark
Length: 965

A single pony kept safe from a virus rages outside. Kept as a prisoner. Is safety really worth it though? What is safety, without freedom?

A sole pony wakes up in a prison cell, with no recollection as to how he got there. All he has is a letter from a friend.
A virus rages outside, consuming all life, but a few ponies survive. For now, he has been assigned him a "Happiness Buddy", whose sole purpose is to keep him happy, and suicidal-free.
Seems like a friendly gesture by his imprisoners, right?
(Based on the game Presentable Liberty, SPOILER ALERT FOR THAT GAME IN THIS STORY)
WARNING: CONTAINS DARK THEMES SUCH AS:
PLAGUE
SUICIDE
PONIES (oh wait, no, that part is fine)
If any of these themes, or a general dark environment put you off, frighten you, or are otherwise not good for you please don't read.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-11-06 20:18:45 UTC

Hello dear friend

“Hello dear friend,

I hope this letter reaches you.

How is prison life going for you?

I wish they would have told us what you did.

But I’m sure it’s nothing serious, with what’s going on.

As for me, I will soon start my journey into the unknown.

Sincerely,

-Twilight Sparkle”

With what’s going on? What could she mean by that? And they didn’t tell her what I did?

Well, at least she’s right about that, it was nothing serious. All I did was…

Wait…

What did I do? I must’ve done something to get myself into this prison cell.

I…. can’t remember. I was a good pony, actually. I could never do anything bad enough for prison.

Speaking of which, I haven’t heard a thing. Am I the only one in this prison?

He tries to look through the bar window on the cell door.

I can’t see anything but doors and red lights through the door. Curious, none of the other doors look like cell doors at all.

And I can’t reach the solitary window, even when standing on the bed, though I doubt they’d give it a view of anything useful.

A letter slides under the door. Oh! Wait, wait, come back! Where am I?!

He goes to the door and tries to see the deliverer of the letter, but there’s no sign of anypony either direction.

That’s odd. Ah, I suppose I’d better read this then..

“GOOD DAY.

WE ARE HAPPY TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED BY ME,

DOCTOR BITS

TO JOIN AN EXCLUSIVE PROGRAM FOR INMATES ALL OVER EQUESTRIA”

Multiple sheets, hmm

“WE HAVE NOTICED THAT DUE TO THE

RECENT OUTBREAK OF A HORRIBLE VIRUS

THE POPULATION OF OUR BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY

HAS STARTED DWINDLING.

THIS IS UNFORTUNATE.

BUT THERE IS STILL HOPE;

YOU.”

“IN ORDER TO FIGHT DEPRESSION

AND SUICIDAL THOUGHTS IN THIS DIRE

SITUATION YOU HAVE FOUND YOURSELF

IN, YOU WILL BE ASSIGNED YOUR OWN

PERSONAL HAPPY-PONY™. ENJOY!”

Happy pony? What’s that supposed to mean. And what’s this virus?

Surely unicorn doctors, or the Princesses themselves should be able to cure any virus. Makes me wonder if…

Another letter slides under the door, in a friendlier looking envelope labelled “Happy-Pony™”.

This looks interesting

“Hello Hello Hello!!!!

I am your own personal

Happy Pony™!

I have a present for yooouuu!!!

FIVE CONFETTI POPPERS!!! HAVE FUN!”

Confetti poppers? Strange gift, but I suppose I’ve nothing better to do.

He pulls the poppers one by one, littering the cell floor.

He also notices the second letter in the friendly envelope.

“It must get awfully lonely in that cell…

That’s why I’ve also sent you your very own

BUG BUDDY!!!”

Bug buddy? What does he mean by-ACK!

A large spider crawls out of the envelope, and starts scuttling around the ground.

Uh, hey there little… thing. Just, uhm, stay over there and we’ll be fine, okay?

…

I’m talking to a bug, aren’t I..

The clock on the wall ticks to midnight

Huh, that’s strange. Last time I looked at that clock, it was about half past 3 in the afternoon.

Ah, well, I am rather tired. I guess I’ve nothing else to do but sleep.

Two more letters slide under the door. He picks up the thicker of the two, and opens it up.

“Hello my buddy friend buddy! Did you enjoy the confetti and bug friend???

If so, I have another present for you!!!!

It’s a Doctor Bits portable magic entertainment machine!!!!!!

Game included!!!!!!!

Have lots of fun! :-)”

Magic entertainment machine?

Inside the envelope is a small grey box, with a magical film on one side and buttons below.

Looks interesting. I’ll check it out in the morning, though, I’m exhausted.

The pony wakes up at roughly 10 o-clock in the morning, and decides to examine the "Entertainment Device" he received.

Well, looks interesting enough. "Happy Pony" said it came with a game, but I don't see any way to use it

He pokes around the device until he manages to move the power switch, and the magical screen flashes to life.

Oh! Well, that's interesting

On the screen, it shows the included game, "Apple"

Well, let's give it a go I guess.

The game appears on the screen, and appears to vaguely depict an earth pony picking apples, in 8-bit graphics.

He plays for a bit, getting a few levels in.

This game doesn't make any sense, it can't even hardly make out what's going on. But for some reason, I can't seem to stop playing it..

He finishes the game within what he thought was about a quarter of an hour, and looks at the clock.

3-oclock?!? How's that even possible, I couldn't have been playing for more than 15 minutes! Whoever put me in here must have altered that clock or something, to mess with me

...

Mess with me? Where did that come from.. Why would they want to mess with a prisoner?

Now that I think about it.... I wonder if I'm the only prisoner here. I didn't see any other cell door outside mine, just normal wooden doors. And I haven't heard anything else living here at all...

Happy pony or whatever his name was mentioned something about a virus in his letter. I wonder if that's why I don't hear anyone else...

He re-read the letter, but found nothing else helpful.

Oh, that's right, I have another letter from yesterday. Maybe there's a clue in that one

He opens the 2nd letter. Bland packaging, with almost industrial looking text.

“GOOD DAY MR. SMILEY SUN.

WE HAVE NOTICED THAT YOU HAVE NOT

MET YOUR HAPPINESS QUOTA YET

REMEMBER:

YOU WILL ONLY GET TO SEE YOUR

DAUGHTERS AGAIN IF YOU MANAGE TO

LOWER THE SUICIDE RATES IN PRISON.”