My Little Pirate: Friendship Ahoy

My Little Pirate: Friendship Ahoy is the fifth arc of IDW Comics' comic series, spanning issues #13 and #14. In the story, Twilight Sparkle and her friends become the crew of the notorious pirate captain Hoofbeard.

Issue #13
Twilight Sparkle and her friends are on their way to Horseshoe Bay. Fluttershy had spent some time nursing a fish named Gil back to health, and she's reluctant to return him back to the ocean. Her friends have to decided to help her out, making a trip to the beach out of it, and encourage her to take it slow.

As her friends relax and have fun around her, Fluttershy is in tears as she prepares to say goodbye to Gil. When she suddenly decides to not set Gil free and keep him, a wave of water splashes on her and carries Gil into the ocean. The wave is the result of a pirate ship washing ashore, and its captain, Hoofbeard, disembarks to greet the ponies. He asks them about any able stallions for recruitment into his crew. Rainbow Dash, evidently a big fan of pirates, is quick to offer up herself and her friends to be Hoofbeard's crew. Fluttershy is equally eager to join, hoping to find Gil.

Twilight is reluctant to join, especially since Hoofbeard's destination is the mysterious and elusive Gallopinghost Islands. But Hoofbeard challenges Twilight by saying only a skilled navigator could find their way to the islands—a challenge that Twilight readily accepts. Hoofbeard tells the ponies that they are to find his old crew and retrieve the "Map of the Wandering X" from them, for reasons he refuses to go into. Twilight's suspicions are raised even more when, during the voyage, Hoofbeard regularly has Spike throw messages in bottles into the ocean.

The ship makes anchor at an old port town, and Hoofbeard tells the ponies to recover his map while he stays with the ship. Fluttershy stays behind as well for unknown reasons. With Spike acting as Hoofbeard's "parrot", Applejack offers to stay behind too, as she's also suspicious of Hoofbeard's behavior and motives. While Fluttershy secretly finds and recovers Gil, Applejack tries to get an explanation out of Hoofbeard by filling him up with pineapple juice. He explains that his messages in bottles are love letters, and that his failure to get the treasure to which the map leads means "a one-way trip to Wavy Bones' locker".

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity go to an old pub in town and encounter Hoofbeard's former crew. Rainbow Dash, enraptured to be around real pirates, makes a scene in demanding the Map of the Wandering X. The four ponies get into a brawl with the pirates, and upon discovering that Twilight is a princess, the pirates briefly consider holding her for ransom. They quickly toss that idea aside when Twilight zaps them with her magic.

Defeated, one of the pirates guides Twilight and her friends through a forest. He explains that when he and the other pirates were part of Hoofbeard's crew, the "X" on the map literally wandered, and Hoofbeard was driven to madness searching for it. The crew thus stole the map and, because it couldn't be destroyed, threw it into the pit of the "Ghost of the Gallopinghost Islands".

The pirate leads the ponies to said pit, and a creature emerges from it: a giant, ghostly crab.

Quotes

 * Rarity: Hello, sunscreen and little umbrella drinks!
 * Pinkie Pie: And pinchy crabbies!
 * Spike: Horseshoe Bay, here we come!


 * Hoofbeard: Ye wee fillies seen any crew-worthy stallions 'round these parts?


 * Rainbow Dash: Are you kidding me?! We could be pirates! Pirates!! I speak pirate!
 * Applejack: Since when?


 * Hoofbeard: Welcome to the Salty Sea Mare! Your quest be two-fold: find me former crew, get me special map back, and mind yer own business, savvy?
 * Pinkie Pie: That's tri-fold!


 * Rainbow Dash: Avast, me hearties! Which one of ye scallywags can point us toward the Map of the Wandering X?
 * Rarity: Well, I'll be—our Dashie can speak pirate!


 * Pirate: Look at the lot of ya—a princess, a fancy frock, a pink thing, and a wannabe pirate—it's the only crew he could get.