There’s gameplay in Pony Island, but it’s mainly one of those “experiences” that is very meta. You are playing as a gamer playing a game, but sometimes have to navigate on the gamer’s desktop; browse files and talk to a few characters on Instant Messenger.
To even start the game, you have to go into the options screen and find a certain option. Later you will need to return to find a hidden options menu to progress further.
Part of the gameplay is an auto-runner with a pony. You left-click to make your pony jump over fences, right-click (or spacebar) to attack, with the mouse controlling your aim. Another part of the gameplay is puzzles, switching out direction icons to move a key to a lock, with a coding/hacking theme. The puzzles are quite a simplistic design but many of them can be quite tricky.
It takes a few hours to complete but I didn’t find it engaging enough to play in one sitting, so I did it in 3. There was one moment where I couldn’t interact with an icon, so I had to quit and reload which resolved the issue.
I think I did enjoy this more than similar games, but it’s still a bit too basic to recommend it.