Aster goes to The Dungeons

Aster nervously popped his head in the dungeons under the Castle. He was supposed to bring a certain prisoner their meal, which seemed to be some kind of mush. Frankly, he didn't want to know what it was. He gulped, and continued through the dunegons. Prisoners rattled their cages, some grinned at him, and he had to look away, terrified. He finally arrived, after some searching, who he was looking for. " F-f-ood is h-h-ere," he stammered anxiously, trembling. The prisoner didn't answer, his head lowered. Or was it a she? He couldn't tell, they were completely covered by the shadows, sitting in the very corner of the cell.

((Hope you don't mind me joining!))
There was no answer.

A pair of crimson, serpentine eyes appeared to stared piercingly at Aster. They did not appear to blink, and followed his every movement.

Snake Eyes examined the nervous Stallion. "Slop time, ah?" She got up from her stone bench and stepped out of the shadow.

The mare had grey fur, and a black mane cut stylishly short and held up by a red hair band. She had a blood red button down shirt on under a dress suit jacket, both rumpled and wrinkled from her uncomfortable stay in the 'pen.'

"How nice! They even have th' common court-a-sies tah send me a maid!" Her thick Manehattan accent rung richly out as her piercing eyes squinted as she chuckled. She took a quick breath as she continued her examination. "Mmmmm... damn fine lookin specimen, aint you? Although Ah like my boys with a liddle moa..." She grunted as she attempted to imitate the buff stoic guards ponies most citizens are used to seeing."Ya know?"

Snake eyes plopped down, keeping eye contact with Aster. Her piercing gaze continued. She waited. "Well?"

She waited a few more seconds. "ain't ya gunna give me mah grub?" She opened her mouth, revealing a pair of too sharp incisors (for the herbivores that Ponies usually are) and said "aaaaaah." like a chick ready to be fed. She pointed her hooves towards her mouth and then indicated the plate of food in the young guard's hooves.

Oddly enough, she did not appear to blink during her entire monologue.

Aster stared at the strange, almost serpent-pony, and let out a terrified squeak, and pushed the plate towards her. Please, please, please don't eat me! I'm a good pony, oh pleaassee don't let her eat me! His eyes drifted to her glowing scarlet eyes, and sharp fangs.

" W-what are you?" the pegasus blurted out, then covered his mouth, hoping he didn't make the strange pony angry. Why didn't they send Thunder Blade down here? Or Hurricane! The pegasus anxiously inched away from the cell, then crashed into a nearbye crate, and he let out yet another squeak of terror. The other prisoners didn't say anything within their crates, just simply kept their eyes locked on the serpentine mare.

When the cute little guard pushed the plate towards her, she hungrily picked it up and started to dig in.

" W-what are you?" The pegasus blurted out.

Snake Eyes slowly finished chewing her bite of hay gruel as she gave the guard a sideways stare, questioning his sanity. She chewed contemplatively, for the first time blinking a couple of times. She gulped the bite down.

"Pony." she picked up her spoon and dug back in, and continued talking messily. "Believe it or nat..." She snorted.

Snake suddenly stopped. "Is it the eyes? Ah bet its the eyes." Her aforementioned eyes narrowed to dangerous little slits. "Its always the eyes."

Her eyes widened back to their usual almond shape. "Why'dya ask? Did the Brass say something about me?" She grinned excitedly, "What'did they say this time? That I eat young cadets fo' breakfast? How I drink the blood of foals?"

She paused. "Naw... wait... maybe nonathose."

Wow, sorry for the late reply!

Aster suddenly felt a bit of pity for the strange pony, but that didn't stop him for gulping nervously. I think I made her angry, he thought nervously to himself.

" I,uh don't know what the authorities say..." he shifted uncomfortably, then bit his lip anxiously.

" I-I.." his voice trailed off as he met eyes with the reptilian eyes, and he quickly looked away, staring at his hoofs.

" I just um, do stuff," he said, shaking like jello.

"Stuff?" Snake Eyes responded incredulously.

"Don' ya..." she made a couple pointed movements with her hooves. "ya know..."

"Go on the beat? Take in some bad guys?" She stared at Aster. "Discord be damned, aren't you a guard?"

After a few moments of silence, Snake broke into a fit of hysteric laughing and pointing at Aster.

Aster hopelessly watched as the prisoner went into a fit of laughter, and said

" Well, I never wanted to be a guard, I wanted to be a flourist!" he said defensively.

" So there!" he added, then quickly shrunk back. Am I crazy? I think I'm crazy. Oh, why, oh why do I have to come down here?! It's creepy, and scary... and dark! He flinched, and carefully watched the prisoner.

"... I wanted to be a florist! So there!"

Snake Eyes wiped a few tears away from her eyes and barely contained her laughter. "Really? you wanted tah sell FLOWAHS? Oh boy... oh man..." She subsided into a series of giggles and chuckles, "You really screwed the pooch there, Flower Power."

She started to choke on a bit of oatmeal and hawked it up in a messy lougy. "hee... oh discord... H-how do you even make that mistake?" She puffed out her chest and spoke with a deeper, yet timid voice, obviously mocking Aster. "oooh~ I really want to make pretty bouquets and arrangements all day long and WHOOPS NOW IM A STAUNCH DEFENDER OF EQUESTRIA HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!!" Her spoof of the guard only made her laugh harder. So hard, in fact, that she actually fell to the floor and rolled in the dirt.

Aster turned red with embarassment, and tried to look intimdating, failing miserably. The guard had absolutely no clue how to respond, and watched as the pony rolled around on the floor, laughing in a hysterical fit. He suddenly felt himself tear up a little, and let out a pathetic sniffle.

" For your information, m-my parents w-wanted t-this, not-" suddenly he heard something skitter past him, and froze. What was that? A monster? A zombiepony? He looked around anxiously, and saw a pair of beady eyes stare back at him in the corner of the prisoner's cell. He let out a yelp, and pointed at the creature- whatever it was.

"For your information, m-my parents w-wanted t-this, not-"

Snake stopped laughing and rolled over to face Aster. She frowned in what could only be concern

"Sorry I-"

Suddenly the guard looked up frighteningly. "Oh don' be sucha baby. Its probably just a rat. Things breed like... well... rats down here." The mare flicked a bit of dust off her jacket in disinterest.

Aster looked at the mare in surprise.

" Doesn't it scare you down here?" he asked, attempting to change the subject. He couldn't believe the strange mare! She didn't even seem fazed by the envoriment in this place. If the guard didn't know any better, he would say she was... bored, even. The stallion knew he would be terrified if he was in the dungeons all the time.

Snake Eyes shrugged and leaned back against the cold stone wall, staring up at the cold stone ceiling with her cold red eyes. "Champ, I've lived a good three quaters of mah life in Manehattan, where the rats could eat a little colt like you up f' breakfast." She laughed again, but not at Aster this time. Now it was much more good natured, not pointed at anypony.

She sniffed as she stuck a hoof in her pocket and produced a small lighter and a packet of cigarettes. She stuck one into her mouth, lit it, and took a deep breath. She sighed with content as nicotine entered her bloodstream. The amber glow of her cigarette illuminated her face slightly.

"What 'bout you, Champ?" She said around the drag in her mouth. "Ah mean, You aint exactly no knight in shiny armor (which is perfectly respectable, by the by). So why don't ya just quit?" She frowned. "Unless you can't quit. That would suck pretty big Buffalo Ca-hones."

Manehattan! That's supposed to be the most crime filled place in Equestria! Aster gave the mare an awed look, then sighed.

" Well... my parents... they wanted me to do this... and, I-I... I..." he gave a long sigh.

" I wouldn't want to disappoint either of them," he said finally. The truth was, they scared him a little. Dad was practically bulging with muscles, as was his mom. Both of them bellowed when they talked, and looked more like gorillas than ponies.

"Aw c'mon!" Snake's cigarette bobbed up and down as she chuckled to herself. "Dis-appointing parents is half the fun! My old Ma would sooner have me throttled than for me to be doing what I'm doing now!" She made the mistake of trying to breathe while laughing with a cigarette in her mouth, and started to cough and hack. Snake recovered and took a deep breath (without the cigarette).

Snake purposefully left out the fact that if she was doing what her parents wanted her to do, she would probably still be in jail. Albeit on different charges.

Aster gave the strange mare a weak smile. " I-I don't know about that," he said, still eyeing the place where the rats had appeared nervously.

" But, um..." his voice trailed off as his eyes darted around the dungeons. When it came to parents, the pegasus became quite touchy, and preferred to avoid the subject.

" How did you get in here, anyway?" the guard asked, instantly regretting the rude question.

Sorry for short post!

The guard's nervousness reminded Snake of a scared little filly who did not really like her parents a lot.

Snake took the nanosecond the guard was occupied with staring at the corner to peek very quickly at the hinges of the cell door. She nodded satisfactory. Before the stallion turned back, Snake returned to her place as if nothing happened.

"How did you get in here anyway?"

Snake's eye twitched slightly.

"My guardian Angel has ah funny tendency to be picky with 'is little fav'ahs." She growled cryptically.