Now lad, don´t go telling false stories about us pirates! Sure, we are one fearsome lot, never to be fooled, less you wanna walk the plank.

You say the Princess “tolerate” us, as long as we keep our plundering to the islands outside Equestria but there should no be say that she does that out of fear, no Celestia is a wise mare and she can see in everypony´s heart and she knew that us pirates stay in the sea because of love.

You heard me right, lad. Love is what push our sails and set us on course. All priate stories are love stories and there's no better story than that of Hoofbeard.

Ha, love the look on yer face! Yes Hoofbeard is the most feared pirate in all the Four Seas. No creature in land or earth dared to cross his cutlass, even a griffon would have think twice before facing him! But he didn´t started like that, he started as boy, not older than you, roamin the docks of Baltimare.

Even as a blank flank he was a troublemaker, making a clown out of the Royal Guard but never hurting an innocent soul for Hoofbeard never stole from any mare or foal! His destiny was sealed by the mark of crossbones, the sea was calling him and so he went as a stowaway in a boat heading straight out of Horseshoe Bay, the Galloping Colt.

You heard the story, right? Nopony returned from that trip...nopony but Hoofbeard.

He ended up a castaway, holding for his life to a barrel and then he met her...Jewel. She was no gem but she was brighter than any treasure you could dream off, she was a mermare, member of the court of the sea ponies. She rescued him, took care of his wounds and set him back to shore.

You can't tell where the story is going yet? Hoofbeard fell in love with the mermare and she responded to his love but there´s a law in the sea, that ponies of land and sea cannot be together and their kind took her away.

Hoofbeard then hailed back to the ocean,  determined to be reunited with his love one. He made the fastests ship in Equestria, the Salty Sea Mare, gathered the biggest and strongest crew of stallion and mares and headed for the horizon. Unfortunately, this tale is not all happiness, the crew got tired of following the Captain's directions, that seemed to make no sense. They stole his treasure map and left him stranded in a rock. They soon abandoned the map when they couldn't read it, ignoring that it was  a special map, made to reunite Hoofbeard with Jewel by tracking her very move.

Hoofbeard managed to survive, some say by tying sea turtles to his mane but I don't believe that. He recovered his boat and searched for his crew to recover the map. On his journey, he lost an eye to an angry griffon and a leg to a huge sea serpent but he never stopped…

Don't look so sad, lad: Hoofbeard got his reward at the end. He found a new crew, six values ponies, including a Princess, and a dragon. They sailed to the Gallopinghost island, faced giant sea creatures and eventually they found the elusive mermare and reunited the two lovers.

What happened to Hoofbeard? The Princess made sure they could always be together and if you're truly lucky, you can find the pair still roaming through the sea.

Why don´t you try find them, lad? Go look for them and tell them that to this day we still tell the story of Hoofbeard and Jewel.