The romantic storylines of “Animal Tube Zoo Pony” narratives are, at their core, about the negotiation of freedom and captivity. Can two ponies truly love each other if they are both on display? Can a pony and a penguin build a life through a glass partition? By embracing the absurdity of their premise, these videos and stories achieve a surprising honesty about modern romance. We are all, in a sense, animals in a digital zoo, performing our affections for an invisible audience, clipping together our own limited loops of happiness. And in that zoo, a pony nuzzling its beloved against a backdrop of badly compressed foliage is not a joke—it is a mirror.