Blood Brothers

Big Macintosh walked into Mr. Cake's bar, his head held low in shame and sorrow. Mr. Cake looked at his friend as he approached the bar.

"Any luck finding her, Big Mac?" he asked.

Big Macintosh replied in a low, sad voice, "Nope."

"Don't worry pal she'll turn up eventually." Mr. Cake gave him a beer "All you got to do is hope. The beer is on the house," and then walked away to help some other customers.

Big Macintosh sat there for a while, drinking his beer. This was the third time Mr. Cake had given him a free beer and like every other time he would leave the money on the counter. While he was sitting there he noticed three ponies sitting in a booth to his right, one was a yellow earth pony , his mane was black, and he had large cut down one of his eyes. There was also a pegasus, his fur was black, his mane was blue with some yellow streaks in it and it was in a mohawk. The last one looked familiar, he was a unicorn, fur was white and his mane was blue. Big Macintosh thought for a moment, then remembered that the unicorn was Twilight Sparkles' brother. He'd visited ponyville a few times before.

Big Mac thought nothing of the three ponies, except for when the earth pony opened up the laptop they had, he saw, in the reflection on the picture behind them, a slideshow of pictures of ponies tied up, beaten, bruised, dead. He stared at the pictures in horror then a picture of her popped up, his daughter, AppleJack. It looked like she'd been through Hell, bruises and cuts all over her, tears rolling down her face.

A mixed feeling of rage and relief flooded over Big Macintosh. He got up, walked over to them and as he approached the pegasus quickly closed the laptop. He was wearing some strange hooflets.

"Hello sir, can we help you?" The earth pony said looking up at Big Mac he noticed a fire in his eyes. He knew this was the pony they needed.

"That was my daughter." Big Mac said as he stared down at the smaller pony.

"Was it? Well sir I can promise she be back home in a couple of weeks."

"Where is she!" Big Mac exploded at what he knew was a lie.

"Listen old timer, you better keep it down otherwise you risk your life, our lives, and the life or your daughter so shut up and let us work. Don't tell any pony what you saw. Keep your trap shut." The pegasus chimed in.

"Shut Up Sparky. The Stallion deserves an explanation for what he just saw."

"But..."

The earth pony glared at Sparky, which instantly got the pegasus quiet. He had a very intimidating look with that scar.

"Please sir, sit I'll explain as much as I can. I'm Gold, this is Sparky."

"Yo," Sparky said stubbornly, he clearly didn't like the idea of Gold Telling Big Mac anything.

"And this is Shinning Armor."

"We've met before." Shinning said.

"Ah'm Big Macintosh." He told them.

"Well then Big Macintosh I have a quick question. How long has your daughter been missing?" Gold asked.

"'Bout a month."

"A month, if they keep her alive for that long she be valuable to them. Is there any thing special about her?"

"She's the element of Honesty."

"Yeah, that is a price for them."

"What do you mean!?"

"Listen Big Macintosh, I'd love to tell you all I know of your daughters location, but I can't for her safety and the safety of our mission. But, I'll tell you what, meet us behind the library tonight and I'll tell you everything."

"How do ah know ah can trust y'all?"

"Who else do you have to trust?"

Big Mac thought it over for a second then said, "Ah'll be there." Then he got up and left.

"You crazy bastard." Sparky said to Gold.

"He's perfect for the team," Gold said.

"WHAT!" Sparky shouted. "He's old as crap, how can he be any use to us?"

"The fire in his eyes and his desire to save his daughter." Gold answered.

"You crazy piece of fucking shit."