A notification popped up at the top of your phone, nothing but the text Playpen2.mp4.
You leaned back in your chair, looking around your office. No one seemed to be walking around so you disconnected your headphones from your computer and plugged them into your phone. You could take a short break to watch this.
You clicked on the notification and the video began to play.
It began with grainy security footage of the back of a building. Between the dumpsters was a large pink box with a bright green flap. A purple shape appeared from off screen, trotting up to the box. It turned back as another larger dark green blob slowly made its way over to it.
The scene changed abruptly, now inside a small pink room with a green flap door on one side. Muffled high-pitched voices were just barely audible.
“-fin’ nice house fo’ spechow fwend!”
“Wha’ if nu am safe?”
“Am smawtest fwuffy, am safe.” A purple hoof pushed the door in. “Soon-mummah gu fiwst.”
“Buh-”
“SMAWTY SAY SOON-MUMMAH GU FIWST!!” he screeched. The other fluffy yelped and squeezed herself into the door, just barely fitting through.
The pale green earthie mare looked around cautiously, scanning the space. “Am nice housie, buh nu hab-” Suddenly floor fell out from under her, she plummeted into the darkness with a screech.
“Wha?!” A purple unicorn with a red mane darted in, leaning over the ledge of floor remaining in the room. “Wai dummeh mawe gu in dawkies?!”
After a moment of puffing his cheeks down into the darkness waiting for a reply the floor fell out from under him as well, sending him tumbling away as well.
The scene changed again as the purple unicorn landed on a dirty pillow at the bottom of a chute, a single spotlight over him. He slowly got to his hooves, cheeks puffed but with tears pricking the corners of his eyes. “Dummeh fwoow… make Smawty get huwties…”
“Hello there, Smarty.” The heavily modulated voice spoke.
“Wha?!” His head spun around wildly, looking for the source. “Whew am dummeh?!”
“I’d like to play a game with you. You like games, right?”
The smarty frowned, squinting into the darkness. “Smawty wike gamesies, am bestest at gamesies.”
“I’m sure you are.”
Another spotlight flicked on over the dark green mare, huddled with her hooves over her eyes in a wire cage.
“If you want to leave right now, you can hit this big green button.” The button below her lit up as the voice spoke. “You’ll be allowed to leave, nothing bad will happen to either of you. However,”
To the other side of the smarty another light flicked on revealing a large plate of spaghetti sitting in a raised platform.
“If you win my game, you’ll get this big plate of spaghetti. If you lose, I get to give your special friend the worst hurties.”
The smarty’s eyes were fixed on the plate of spaghetti, drool dripping from his bottom lip. “Smawty wan’ sketties!!”
The mare gasped. “Nu, spechow fwend-”
“SHADDUP!” he snapped at her. “Smawty wan’ sketties!”
“If you want to play the game, press the blue button.” The button under the spaghetti lit up and the smarty sprinted through the darkness to it, ignoring the pleas of his special friend as he reared up and stomped on it with all his might.
“All you have to do is remember the pattern.” Four red buttons lit up in the space between the spaghetti and the trembling mare, a shiny metal pad on the ground below them. “They will light up, and then you hit them in the same order.”
He trotted over to them as the top button blinked once. He pressed it firmly, a confident smile on his face.
“Correct. If you can get four in a row, which is as many as you have hooves, I’ll give you the sketti and let your special friend go.”
“Das easy!” He said.
The top button lit up again, followed by the bottom. The smarty hit the top and then the bottom.
The buttons blinked again. Top, bottom, top.
The smarty hit them, top, bottom, top.
Once more the buttons lit up. Top, bottom, top, right.
The smarty grinned, hitting them in turn. Top, bottom, top, bottom. As his hoof pressed the last one a loud buzzer.
“Wrong.” The voice spoke.
The smarty opened his mouth to protest when the mare suddenly shrieked as arcs of electricity lit up the space between the bars of her cage. The purple unicorn watched in horror as she twitched, electricity coursing through her bloated body. Her body slammed against the sides of the cage as thin wisps of smoke rose from her burning fluff and sparks sprayed out illuminating the stained concrete floor.
Almost as suddenly as it began the mare fell limp to the bottom of the cage. The only sound in the room was her pained gasps. You could see her teal mane was now patchy and scorched black in chunks.
The smarty licked his lips uncomfortably before speaking. “Smawty nu get dat wong. Yu wiaw.” The bravado was missing from his voice as his tail tucked itself between his legs.
“It was wrong." The formless voice replied. "I’ll give you another chance though.”
“Nuuuuu… huuu…” the mare stretched out a hoof through the woven wire. “Tummeh babbehs… nu huwties…”
His tiny brow knit itself together as he looked from her to the plate of spaghetti. He took a small step towards the suffering mare, then looked back over his shoulder to the pasta dish.
“Smawty wan’ gu ‘gain.”
“Nuuuuuuuu…” the mare wailed.
“Okay.”
The left button lit up, and the smarty hit it.
Left, bottom.
The smarty hit them both in turn.
Left, bottom, right.
The smarty started with the right button, and again the buzzer sounded.
The mare screeched again. Her hoof still stuck through the bars as she flailed in pain, one of her spasms twisted it out of it’s socket and left it flopping limply at her side. She fell to the bottom of the cage as the current subsided, wheezing loudly.
“Wrong.”
“Dummeh am… am cheatin’!” The smarty stomped his hoof and puffed his cheeks as he looked around for the source of the voice.
“You lost. Would you like to play again?”
“Yus!! Wan’ sketties!!” He snorted.
“The rules will be different this time, if you get it wrong you will get hurt instead. Do you still want to play?”
The purple unicorn chewed his lip, looking from the limp mare in her cage to the spaghetti. “Dummeh voice nu cheat…?”
“No cheating. Do you want to play again?”
“…Yus.” he said, turning back to study the buttons intently.
“Okay.”
The left button blinked once.
The smarty pressed it carefully.
Left, top.
He hit the left, then the top button.
Left, top, left.
His brow furrowed with concentration, he slowly hit the correct buttons.
Left, top, left, bottom.
He hit the left, top, the left again, and then paused. His hoof hovered over the top button for a moment, then to the left, then back to the top. He squinted in concentration as he slowly pressed the left button down.
The buzzer sounded and the unicorn lept to his feet. “Nu! Smawty make oopsie!! Wet twy ‘gain!”
“No.”
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” The unicorn screeched, fluff standing on end as his body arched and contorted in ways it was never meant to. Smoke rose off his body in long tendrils as the electricity coursed through him. The mare in her cage watched, tears flowing freely as she reached towards him with her undamaged limb.
After a much longer duration the screaming of the unicorn cut off, and he fell stiffly to the metal pad. The only sound now was the mare’s quiet sobbing.
There was a click as the front of the green mare’s cage fell open, forming a ramp down to the ground. She remained in the cage, sniffling softly.
“And now for you.”
“Pwease… nu wan’ pway meanie games…” she muttered, curling into herself.
“No more games. Just a choice for you.”
The spaghetti platform lowered to the ground slowly.
“If you want to return to your life as a feral fluffy you can press the button under your cage. The door will open, and you will be free. However, the cold times are coming and you no longer have anyone to care for you when your foals come.”
“Huu… spechow fwend gu foebah sweepies…” she sobbed, pressing her face into her hooves.
“Was he a good special friend?”
The mare sniffled, lifting her head. “… Am spechow fwend…”
“Did he treat you well? Was he nice to you?”
“…Nu…”
“And now you carry his foals. Ones that could be just like him.”
Her functioning hoof reached down to her swollen belly, a conflicted look on her face.
“If you eat that spaghetti, your foals will die, but I promise you no more harm will come to you.”
“… Nu twust voice munstah…” the mare mumbled as she got to her hooves.
“I haven’t lied yet, have I?”
She looked to the scorched body of her special friend. “Nu…”
“I only hurt bad fluffies. He was a bad fluffy. I will give you somewhere to sleep, care for your hurt leg, and good food. Or, you can take your chances on the streets. It’s up to you.”
The mare limped down the ramp, her injured hoof dragging along the wire as she went. She paused at the end, looking back at the green button. She sniffled as she turned away from it, slowly shuffling over to the bowl of sketties.
“Am sowwy babbehs…” she mumbled, passing by the smouldering corpse on the floor. “Nu wan’ huwt babbehs… buh nu wan’ bad babbehs.”
The camera angle changed once again, showing her standing over the bowl of spaghetti. Under the sprinkling of cheese was a thick layer of green flakes atop the sauce. Tears dripped down her cheeks and her body trembled as she leaned down and took a bite. Her lips curled up in pleasure as she chewed, then her eyes shot open as she remembered what this meal would do to her.
“Am WOWSTEST mummah!” She wailed before shoving her muzzle deeply into the spaghetti. She sobbed as she came up for air between bites, chewing frantically. “Huu huu!! Am sowwy babbehs!! Am sowwy!!”
The video continued for some time as the mare noisily ate, continuing to beg her unborn foals for forgiveness. Suddenly she froze, face down in the pasta.
“BIGGEST POOPIES!!” she cried, lifting her head from the dish
The video ended abruptly, the final frame zoomed in on her sauce-stained face twisted in agony and sorrow.
