A true pirate will never get caught.
A true pirate will always be rich.
A true pirate escapes prison and sails again.
All true except that a pirate is nothing but another pony.
A true pirate can still succumb to anything.
It's always wonderful to smell that sea salt spray, to feel the wake of your own ship crashing through the waters at a natural or magical pace. But it's not day, and the ship is sailing slow. The only thing that braces against the ship, is a warm breeze that bounds off the sails.
Captain Cutlass, Infamous pirate captain of the Leviathan, and best known for being a pirate in his waters. Stretching from the Blue Blood Coast, to the warm shores of the Griffon Sands on the other side of the sea. His waters, his sea...
But as said, a true pirate can succumb to anything. In his case, sword wounds. He coughed hard in his cot, chugging the water he was offered.
"Sir, we're nearing Port Canterlot.", the second hand mate explained.
"Good...Good...", he wheezed.
"Sir, we're in no shape to show up there, especially when we just robbed them a month ago! The ship takes one cannonball to the lower deck and she sinks!"
"Listen to me, you pansy stallion! I own this ship, I command this ship! I'm dying right now, and I will honor what every captain has as a code. The captain goes down with his ship!"
His second hand mate left him, storming out the door.
"The captains orders are to die tonight!", he bellowed.
Nopony made a sound, nopony looked away from the storming and scared stallion. Everypony was injured in some way. Makeshift peg legs, showing bandages under coats, and not a single care given.
"We knew what he was wantin ta do afore he made the command.", The captain's first hand mate spoke.
There was no objection, nopony panicked, all except the second hand mate, who retreated back to the captain's quarters. He ran into the burly stallion who had risen from his bed, and backed away.
"Scared, are we Mr. Yellow?", the captain pushed him back outside.
"None of us will survive!"
"It's understood. My crew is loyal, and so am I. I will follow the old code of every captain that has ever set sail. The captain goes down with the ship."
"Down with our captain!", the crew echoed.
"I-I'll have none of this! I'm leaving before we get there!", the stallion turned to the lifeboats.
"Nay!", the first hand mate stopped him, drawing his sword, "No pony of this crew lives past tonight!"
The crew cut the ropes holding the lifeboats to the ship, and each splashed heavily in the water.
"We will meet Davy Jones soon, lads. And we'll not take a coward with us. Kill him."
It was quick, and nopony looked away. Three blades impaled the cowardly stallion, and he gurgled his own blood before falling limp.
"Now. Any pony else going to back out?"
There was no reply.
"Good."
Captain Cutlass slowly made his way up the stairs of the cabin side as they neared Port Canterlot, setting one hoof on the handles of the wheel.
He paused for a second and looked over the many ships coming to meet them.
"Time to meet our maker...."
He jerked the wheel to the side and it spun wildly, jerking the ship with it in a hard left.
"Ready the cannons!"
"Ready sir!", one stallion answered.
"FIRE!!!", he commanded.
A chorus of loud explosion rocked the ship, but not from their own cannons. Several gunpowder loaded cannonballs slammed into the ship, splintering the entire starboard side. The whole ship rocked to the right as it took on water. A single small explosion from the distant ships and the cannonball hit it's mark. The powder room. It exploded, and in reaction, so did the many stacks of powder kegs in the hull, creating a concussion that rocked the waters themselves.
And thus did Captain Cutlass fall.
The captain of the small fleet that had gathered there stood solemnly on his deck, no pony to be seen on the ship except him. A smoking piece of shrapnel twirled and whizzed it's way towards him, impaling the wood next to him. He looked at the sword which had made itself onto his ship, and let out a long breath, wrenching it's hot blade from the deck.
The sword which was given to him by none other than Celestia herself. Taken by Captain cutlass long ago when Captain Armada had been spared by that one stallion. He'd present the blade to Celestia herself in honor of the stallion that took it.
"He deserves to be given honor, for bravery, and his truth filled words. The captain goes down with the ship. And I made sure of it when he returned to Port Canterlot for us to finish the job."
He was offered a chance to be the leader of the Equestrian military later on, but refused. In his old age, he wasn't going to be in command long, and he still had one last wish of his own. A large settlement of thousands of Pirates had accumulated in one spot in the absolute middle of nowhere. With ships hauled high onto the long-dead volcano's side, cannons could be used to protect them at a great distance.
He made it to that place, and his last words he said to his crew were those exactly said by Captain Cutlass.
"The captain goes down with the ship!"
"Down with our captain!", the crew echoed.
Each took place, and he gave the commands. Before he could even tell them to fire upon the invincible fortress, the ship was shredded, splintered, and just like the Leviathan, the Mermare was blown apart by it's own stockpile of gunpowder.
For many centuries as Piracy continued, this Code of Captain's Honor went back and forth between the captains of Equestria, and captains of Pirates.
They say that every few years, you will see a ship near Port Canterlot, or a single ship leave Port Canterlot. Either way, by Celestia's long placed spells, you can hear the cries of the ship's crew.
"The captain goes down with the ship!"
"Down with our captain!", the crew echoes.
And the sword. Displayed in Celestia's castle she now shares with her sister, she tells the same story to anypony who asks why such an ugly, warped, and twisted blade is held in a beautiful glass case for everypony to see.
"Because there once was a time when Equestria had huge seas that covered nearly half of the kingdom. This sword has a legacy that started over a millenium ago, and which had continued on for centuries until the seas dried up and became nothing more than gulfs and lakes. I restored the seas the best I could, escorting ponies further in land in hopes that I could bring back that legacy of pirates and red coats.
It never took on after the seas had dried up, but I keep in check that the seas stay as they are called.
And when asked what of the legacy, she begins with the same phrase that countless captains, pirate or not, had said each time they set sail for their last time, into the flames.
"The captain goes down with the ship!"
"Down with our captain!", the crew echoed.
