And I thought we were normal. How wrong I was.

   After thanking Twilight, I left rather abruptly to ensure I would have time to get ready for whatever tonight is going to be. After grabbing my night clothes, coat excluded, I just wait around in the living room until the mare in question finally comes in from her room.

   Unlike now I've seen her before; she wears a skin tight black suit that covers her entirely from her neck down. A camo-patterned grey scarf is wrapped around her neck lazily. All in all, nothing too far from what I expected her to look like.

"You ready to go then?" She asks and I pull my cowl over my head.

"Ready."

   Without another word, we both climb the ladder out of the hole of a house. I pull up the face mask and she wraps the scarf around her head like a turban.

"So where's that 'brother' of yours?"

"He's working late tonight and possibly just staying over at Mac's." We exit the forest. "Where are we going anyways?"

"Out and around, wherever I feel like going." She stops on a dime and flicks my forehead and in an instant I find myself in a vat of darkness that I can't hope to see through.

"Shit." I mutter under my breath before lighting up my horn.

"Bad dog." I feel a strong hand slap me across the face, stopping my spell.

"What the hell Berry?" I whisper back to the mare.

"We're here for you to learn about your damn heritage, but not for you to practice magic 101."

"I can't very well do that if I can't see you."

"Switch to your damn eyes idiot." Another slap hits me and my eyes switch to the changeling set... I think.

"Now what?" I feel two fingers taps my eyes and in a single moment my vision brightens significantly to see her standing in front of me with her same predatory gaze.

"Changeling night vision, fairly easy it isn't visible at all."

"Ok, but where are we?" I look around the room.

   The room is pretty small actually; with some worn kegs lining the back wall and a ladder nearby, the only slightly odd part about it is that the entire damn room is made of steel.

"The cellar of a ship."

"What kind of ship?" I raise an eyebrow.

"It kinda sorta, could be and probably is a pirate ship." She smiles awkwardly.

"A pirate ship, in this day and age?"

"Pirating is pretty profitable right now. You raid some villages and ships and you're already making money."

"Ok fine, but what're we here for?" I sigh. Sometimes I think these ponies are just as advanced as earth and other times not.

"I want some new earrings and I remember the captain here having a very attractive pair. She also had nice earrings." We both laugh a little.

"So we're robbing pirates for earrings?"

"Pretty much. It should be easy, and it's a good chance to teach you. Just remember, we may get into a fight. These ships aren't very easy to sneak through." She gestures to the ladder. The shit I get pulled into.

   I exit the small hatch to find myself top side and hidden in the darkness. The top of the ship is completely barren except for the opposite end whichever is raised up about 15 meters, obviously the bow. The problem is that I can easily count about fifteen ponies, all of them carrying rifles, and almost all of the deck is illuminated by the inset lights on the rails and floor. Berry comes up shortly after, cursing her luck.

"Looks like we're gonna have to duke this out." We both sway as the ship takes the waves rather well.

"So what's the plan?" I don't argue; I know all too well she's smarter than me.

"Give me a minute." She disappears in a small gust of red magic and I curse.

"Damn teleportation necklace."

   About ten minutes later she reappears with an angry Uefi next to her, crossbow in his hands and two silenced 9mm pistols in hers.

"Sup, bro?" I kid.

"I'd like to know why we're fighting pirates for earrings." He groans.

"Cause I told you to and you both still owe me." She slaps him. "Now Rosey, you fly onto the top of the bow and give us support. Sonata, you and I are gonna go fuck 'em up."

"That's your plan?" Uefi and I go off at the same time.

"Pretty much." She tosses me one of the silenced pistols, which I fumble with.

"What's this for?"

"They're using guns. There's no guarantee you won't have to try some shooting. Just don't shoot too much; I didn't grab any extra clips." I slip the barrel into my belt as a makeshift holster.

"Shit got real pretty quick." Uefi sighs before flapping his wings a few times and ascending into the air.

"We've got a minute of two so I'm going to give you a few tips. Most of those idiots will be stunned at first by the eyes, unless they're more stupid than I think, use that moment to get them. Two, think about expanding the chitin on your hand. Since your DNA is becoming more like a changeling you should be able to temporarily expand it. It can stop bullets so the more the better. Third, place a square seal on them and hit that spot. It will eat up a good bit of magic, but it's very effective." She instructs me and I nod.

   Before she can give a signal I focus on trying to stretch the chitin of my hand and slowly, but surely the plating reappears on the back of my hand and more triangles of carapace rise out of skin until my whole hand is covered in it. It's odd though, my whole hand feels... Good, like really good.  Almost like... I want to hit something, and hard.

"Try not to hurt them too much Sonata, they're only ponies." Berry's words barely break through the feeling that almost scares me into submission. Almost. If I'm gonna pick a fight with pirates, I'm gonna do it my way. "Now let's go have some fun. We' got a good twenty meters to rush through."

   I take off in a mad dash at the nearest pirate, a poor green pony wearing some sort of combat armour. Before she can even say a word, I drive an uppercut into her stomach and she slumps over onto the deck like a rag-doll. Sadly, Uefi wasn't very clean and soon I find myself with a hail of bullets coming at me.

"Fuck." I layer some heavy barriers at random around the ship to block the bullets.

   I turn to Berry for guidance, but the mad-mare is actually running straight into the bullets and I can see them flawlessly sliding off of her midsection, and she already took out six of my damn targets and Uefi got three.

   The insane urge to not be outdone surfaces and I rocket away from the barrier with my quick step spell. Two meters before the next pirate, who is already trying to load a clip so he can fill me with lead, I teleport behind him and place a square right on his back.

   As soon as my fist makes contact, a full quarter of my magic is funneled into his body and he flies forward with a thick stream of red electricity connecting his body to my bloody fist.

   Licking the blood from my lips, I teleport to the next pirate and pull the same trick, but this time I slam my other fist in him and the wounds erupts into a short burst of green flames. Such beautiful chaos. I look around for more targets and find three more idiots standing next to each other.

  I grab control from my instincts for a moment to raise my fist in front of face and soon a volley of at least ten bullets bounce off of the plating. Bastards. I place another set of squares around them and teleport in front of the group simy for the sake of cutting off Berry's path.

   After moving a square to their assault rifles, I slap them out of their hands and the devices almost fall apart form the force. I couldn't have more than another three of those left in me. Not missing a beat, all three of them draw their blades and I jump back to avoid the first strike from the yellow mare.

   Deflecting the second strike with my modified fist, I drive a fiery uppercut into the jaw of the yellow mare; sending her flying  up a meter or so in a bright burst of flames. I'm not as lucky with the third slash however and the short blade adds to the gash I already have on my cheek.

"You mother-fucker." I pierce his concentration with my gaze.

"Just what the hell are yo-" I don't let him finish before I place my left hand on his chest.

"Just a thief." I mutter and place five squares where my hand is, bringing a huge, but hopefully non-lethal, amount of electricity into his body. He doesn't last a second before falling over and a third gash runs across my face. "Mother fucker."

   In my ignorance the third bastard drove his knife right into the inside of my damn should, thankfully only grazing the bone, but I can feel the exit wound. The stallion wraps him arms around me in an attempt to immobilize me while he fumbles with trying to draw the blade.

   I let instinct back into the front seat and grab the pistol out of my belt and push it right against his stomach along with another square. I'm not sure if this will work, but I'll find out. I think and pull the trigger.

   Like a firework, I feel a large flower of beautiful green flames erupt through the barrel. I turn out of the grip in time to see the red  idiot fly five meters away with a large patch of burnt fur covering the entire left half of his stomach. I pull out the knife quickly  and let it fall to the ground, but oddly it doesn't hurt very much at all. Probably the adrenaline.

"That was fun." I mutter and the plating recedes into my skin. "So much fun..."I fall face first onto the deck as my mind slowly recognizes. What the hell just happened?

   My eyes slowly travel to my two bloody fists and I nearly vomit at the sight. What did I just do? I stagger back to my hooves. A flood of pain erupts in my arm and I gasp at the sight of exposed and shredded muscle. I guess I'll want to get into those medical books tonight. I think as I wrap the wound and bandage my abused face.

"Did you have fun?" Berry's voice breaks the silence and I nod, finishing my impromptu first-aid.

"I did, but... What exactly was that?" I cycle back to my own eyes.

"Changeling instinct, it will come back every time you extend your plating beyond its passive amounts. It's the double edged sword of this blood."

"But what if I actually killed somepony?"

"Don't think about it. That alternate personality won't kill unless you let it. Now come on, we have some earrings to steal."

"Is that all you have to say?" I solemnly mutter, bypassing any sadness or anger and skipping into the void of nothingness.

"Yes. Now come on, we're wasting time." She continues toward the illuminated door in front of the bow and I follow, Uefi landing not too long after.

"What happened down there man? It was like you were insane."

"That's just the thing Rose, I think I was." I mutter and Berry gives him a slap across the face again and he disappears in another burst of magic.

"Try not to tell anypony about this. They don't take kindly to those with our affliction."

"I always thought it was like a gift."

"Only if you're truly insane." We entered the bow without another word and climb the stairwell into the captain's room.

   Surprisingly enough the mare is still asleep, that is until Berry rips her off her cot by her ears and literate shreds the earrings off.

"Thank you for the jewelry." She smiles and in an instant we're gone again and back home.

Just don't think about it and you won't go insane... I think that would be best. Besides, you've got plenty of good things going for you and as long as you don't use that plating it won't happen again. I know I'm lying to myself, but that makes it all the more bearable.