Ajin

I jumped awake in the telltale fashion of having just died. Initially, I was confused. What had I died from? What happened? Then it started trickling in. The purple ali-whats-it, the horn blasting me, the strike to the head. I must've died from internal bleeding.

I opened my eyes to discover darkness. Only now did I recognize the feeling of cloth covering my eyes, and strong ropes holding me down into a chair. At least I wasn't gagged.

"HELP! SOMEBODY! PLEASE!" I struggled against my bindings, only to find that they had been expertly tied, leaving me no room to move my arms from my body.

A rusty door creaked open, and slammed shut just as a clopping sound of hooves could be heard approaching me.

A masculine voice seemed to almost chuckle, as though he couldn't believe his luck, "Well, well, well! I what do we have here? It looks like one of the scumbags that wants to invade our country."

"I don't even know where I am or what the hell you- GAH!" I was struck in the gut, hard. It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my stomach. I coughed and wheezed, trying to recover from the blow. For some reason, it reminded me a little about hand to hand combat training. When someone sees a strike coming, they can act any number of ways to lessen the blow. But if someone doesn't see it coming, they can't react, so all the force of the punch connects with the target.

Whoever it was, growled, "You don't get to ask questions. That's my job. If I don't hear what I want to hear, I'm going to beat out of you."

"I haven't done anything, I swear!" I cry desperately. I feel another impact, this time to my ribs. The bone didn't crack, but it would certainly bruise.

"You and I both know that's not true." He whispers into my ear, "We know that Discord gave you humans the ability to travel through space, and that he told you all about Equestria."

I cough, "What the hell's Equestria?"

This time, he hits me in the jaw. I could feel my teeth being ripped out of my gums, and hear the clatter of bone on cement. I let my head duck forwards, and shoved out the teeth that hadn't left my mouth.

"Now are we gonna do this the easy way, or the hard way?" I spat a bloody glob towards the voice, and was rewarded with the sounds of disgust coming from my tormentor.

"Fuck. You. Monster." I gasped out.

"The hard way it is then."

I soon found myself in an odd position. My arms were clasped in irons, and splayed out tightly enough to hold me slightly aloft. I don't remember how I got here, but I was almost positive that I hadn't fallen asleep.

"Let's get started shall we?" The voice from earlier asked, "When is the invasion scheduled to begin?"

I remembered the Geneva conventions rules about what a captured soldier was required to say when in captivity. Name. Rank. ID number.

"Ed Murchov. Private First Class. 638-20-6712."
[AN:Not a real ID number. Any similarities is purely councidental]

A whip cracked, and heat irradiated off my back. I groaned at the pain, but didn't cry out. I wouldn't let them have that.

"When is the invasion?" The whip cracked again, and more heat developed across my back. I repeated my montra. Another whip crack.

"I don't care about whatever that is, I want to know when the invasion will begin! Tell me!" The whip lashed out at me several more times, eventually to where I lost count. I just knew that my entire back had to be torn apart. The whipping finally ended with the sounds of panting. Exhausted panting.

"What's wrong, pretty pony? All tuckered out from your little tantrum? Take my word for it, there is no invasion. Humanity will forever be stuck on Earth."

"Horse- *heave*- apples!" He gasped.

I snorted, "Is that all you have for a curse? Grow a pair of balls ya bastard." He hit me where the whip had bitten me.

I laughed, "That almost tickled! What's the matter? Run out of gas, pretty boy?" That was a lie. It really hurt like all 7 levels of Hell was burning my back, but I just wanted to piss the guy off.

He growled angrily, "Your turn Glint." The voice said, as his feet (or hooves, I guess?) clip-clopped on the ground. The creaky door opened, and in came someone new.

"My my, look at you. You have quite the collection of scars over the years haven't you?" The voice was soft and seductive, and it sent shivers up my spine, "I bet you have quite an impressive amount of pain endurance. As well as," she got up real close to my ear, and whispered, "endurance."

Oh, she wasn't going where I thought she was going. "You know, if you'd only tell us what you knew about the invasion, you could have me all to yourself. I know you can't see me, but I'm quite the attractive mare."

She did. "Two things. One, I'm married. Second, you're terrible at playing good cop bad cop. I know that you wouldn't let me screw you, no matter how interested in me you act. I know you all hate me. And before you even try to ask, no. There is no invasion planned, I've never heard of anyone named Discord until you brought me here, and even if there was some way, some impossible way, that humans managed to find their way here, and even more impossibly that I somehow knew, what makes you think that I would tell you anyways? I'm a grunt, not some high ranking general."

I heard a huff, "And how do we know you're telling the truth?"

I shout in exasperation, "THEN WHAT'S THE POINT OF ME BEING HERE IF YOU WON'T BELIEVE A WORD I SAY!!!!"

"Because we know that your kind will be invading our home any day now."

That... that was funny. Any country, at all, managing to assemble an invasion force, on an unknown planet, and launching that invasion in only a few days? I burst out laughing, something I hadn't done in recent memory.

"You're serious? Lady, the officers back home could barely decide on the location of a fucking latrine without the help of their sergeants, much less an invasion. Plus, no military in their right minds would ever invade a country they don't know the terrain of. Even if they're using outdated maps. Besides, I've seen what one of your horn heads can do. We wouldn't touch this country with a mile long pole."

I heard a growl, "What. Did. You. Just. Say!"

I was going to regret this, no doubt, "A horn head, you dumbfuck."

"Apologize."

I laughed again, "Fuck you, let me go, and have that prick apologize to me. Then I'll-OOF!!"

She scream a feral rage, kicking, punching, clawing me with her finger nails, doing anything and everything in her power to hurt me. At one point, she kicked me in the shoulder, and I heard the pop of the joint dislocating. I screamed in agony, as she seemed to latch onto that shoulder, brutalizing it further.

She just kept screaming for me to apologize, until she too was exhausted, and left the room. I could hear the *drip*drip*drip* sound of my blood pooling on the floor, and feel the gouges in my chest where she'd scraped me. My arm was useless now until I died again and the reset fixed it. I was hanging in a very painful way, with my left side hanging frightfully lower than my right. I pulled as much as I could with what muscles would respond to keep myself up, nashing my teeth in agony.

Hours pass by with nothing happening. Eventually, I can feel sleep begin to overcome me. Hopefully, I'd die in my sleep so my wounds would heal.

*Royal Lodgings*

"So, sister, we have found ourselves a human. What has become of it?" Luna asked. She'd heard little of the events that had unfolded over the day, and she wanted to learn what she could.

"It is currently undergoing interrogation, however, we have learned little other than his name and rank in the military. He claims that there is no invasion planned, however I find that doubtful. Could you look into his dreams, and see if you can coax some information out of him?"

"I will try, sister. But our subjects needs come first. If I have the time, I will see to him. By the way, what is his name?"

"Ed Murchov. He was a private in his military, see if you can use that, and he might open up. Be warned, he seems to be a steadfast liar."

*Ed*

Seeing as much hell as I have, nightmares were an inevitability. I never could have thought they'd be so bad.

Buddies, long dead, accused me of letting them die when I could've done something. "You can't die, so why did you let us?" I tried in vain to make them leave me alone. That bastard who'd sold me out appeared in front of me.

I was chained once again, and he whipped me in the same way as my interrogator had, with the same words, and the same voice.

"STOP THIS AT ONCE!" A loud, overwhelming voice commanded. Everything faded until I was lying on cold concrete, panting.

"Who's there? Please, help me!" I cried. A tall, dark figure stood before me. She had a very beautiful body, save for the fur, and a very seductive stance as she walked towards me. However, all this was set aside by the glare coming from her face.

"Why the fuck am I dreaming of this?" I ask aloud.

"I am not a dream. I am Princess Luna of Equestria, human. I control the moon, and have domain over the dreamscape. I am here to ask you some questions."

"Yeah? You going to torture me with nightmares? Beat it, I already told Chump 1 and Chump 2 all I know. Besides, I'm not entirely convinced that you are real."

"We have reason to believe you do know something. As for your disbelief," She kicked me in the balls, and I bowled over in pain, "I believe that is enough evidence."

I gasped, "What's your problem with my balls? Urgh. Fine, you've convinced me. Was it this 'Discord' you people mentioned? Look, I don't know who that is, and even if my government had hidden him, there's still no way that any country on Earth would ever dare to try and invade this place."

"I find this difficult to believe. Discord may be a trickster, but he doesn't lie."

"Great, you don't believe me. Well let's see. First, we don't even know of your existence. Well, I do, but that's because of recent events. Second, we don't know of any other planets that can support life. Third, we don't have the technology to get here. Lastly, why would we attack someone without knowing who we're attacking, and what the terrain is like? That's just asking to have our asses handed back to us on a silver platter.

"As for your friend Discord. Well, people change. A trickster is one step away from a liar, and it's an easy threshold to cross."

Luna shook her head, "In all the time I've known him, he has never lied. Half truths, maybe, but never lied."

I gave a sigh, "A half truth is also half a lie. You aren't building a convincing argument. I'm guessing he lied just to mess with you. If he can use magic, then I'm thinking he brought me here, somehow, to make it more convincing."

Luna straightened after hearing this, "My sister warned me this might happen. You may have a silver tongue, but I can see through your lies!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Uh, be careful when you say 'silver tongue'. Where I'm from, that usually describes someone who's good at getting people in bed."

She frowned, and disappeared from my dream. "Well at least I can get a good nights sleep."