This is a work of total fiction, made entirely for entertainment purposes. No money is gained from the production of this prose.
How the hell does steryl smell so bad? He thought. Isn't it supposed to be...steryl?
The whitewash color scheme of the Castle infirmiry was totally unwelcoming. Wasn't the atmosphere of a hospital meant to bring comfort to the patient? Instead he felt like he was being lulled into insanity. Looking down at his five-foot-eight-inch frame, Xeno could only shake his head.
Well, he couldn't actually shake his head.
He was covered in third degree burns, all over his body. The majority of which was wrapped in pure white gauze that was slowly becoming stained in red.
In his blood.
The most worrying wound of all, however, was the splintered two-by-four that was currently stabbed into his chest, near his heart.
Yeah, that hurt like a bitch.
Things couldn't possibly get any worse.
"XENO!" Aaaannnd it just got worse. I stand corrected.
The cry, prohjected by multiple voices, was followed by the sound of stampedeing hooves, and a crash outside his door. Instantly, the door was knocked down and several mares rushed into the room.
There were gasps of horror and winces in sympathy. Fluttershy even began to cry.
"Oh my word..." Whispered Celestia. "When...I...I didn't think it would be this..." She couldn't even finish her sentence.
"Dearest Xeno," Began Luna. "How do you feel?" She asked slowly, dreading the answer.
Xeno said nothing for a few moments. He could only look at them with his eyes right now, it was too painful to move his head.
"How's the kid?" He asked. His voice came out pained and gravelly.
Rarity approached his bedside.
"Dear, can we get you anything? Perhaps we can ask the Doctor to increase your painkillers?" She asked in her worried voice.
"How is the kid?" He repeated.
Xeno was out on the town in Canterlot. He enjoyed the upscale culture and often frequented restaurants, bars and lounges for drinks and the local cuisine. During his leisure stroll, he came across burning building. The firefighters managed to evacuate the building except for a small colt in the upstairs bedroom. They couldn't magically flood the house in fear of drowning the child, nor would a firefighter dare teleport inside. They didn't know the damage and could end up teleporting inside a wall or between floors. Their last idea was to cut off the house from oxygen, which would suffocate the flames---and the child with them.
Horrified by their no-win situation, the firefighters only stared in shock at the scene, hearing both the child's cries and the mother's devastated screaming.
It wasn't a hard decision to make.
Rushing inside, he paid no mind to the smoke or heat; the only thought in his head was saving the child. Finding him was easy. What was hard was shielding the child from the heat and flames, and protecting him from the falling debris.
He got burned, so the child wouldn't, he took all the heavy, burning debris, so the child wouldn't.
Unfortuantely for him, the damage pushed him to his limits.
"The kid is fine." Said Applejack in her southern drawl. "Just a little smoke inhalation, nothing major."
It was as though a weight was lifted from his shoulders. A shuddering sigh escaped his lips.
"Good. That's good." There was silence for a few moments. "So what'd the doc say?" He asked changing the subject.
Twilight stepped forward.
"I-it's not good news." She began. "Your body is too weak and badly burned to operate." Her eyes teared up a bit. "If you don't die from an infection or shock, then the splinters will eventually find their way into your heart."
"So, I'm dying" He deadpanned. There were some choked sobs coming from the eight ponies. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Twilight were openly crying. Their silence confirmed his comment.
"That's good, because if this is alive then life isn't worth living." He commented humorously.
No one laughed at his joke.
"I thought you said you were immortal!" Demanded Rainbow Dash. "You said that you lived for thousands of years! That you were the mysterious Xeno that shows up at random in history! How can you be immortal if you're dying, huh!" She cried.
"I am immortal." He said. "The problem is you assumed immortal meant unchanging and undying. That isn't so." He explained.
"What do you mean?" This time it was Celestia that spoke. She was obviously very interested in where he was going with this.
"You asked me before what my goals in life were, and I told you that I wanted to finally die. Do you remember that?" They all nodded. "My immortality is a curse. I've done everything imaginable to try and finally kill myself off, but I keep regenerating."
"How can your immortality be a curse? What is so awful about eternal life!?" Asked Luna.
"I don't have eternal life, Luna. I have eternal death." He said. "Unlike traditional immortality, where one doesn't get sick, grow old and is impervious to physical damage, or is simply capable of healing right away, I can die. I can get sick. I can get hurt, I can grow old. But at the moment of death, my body is reformed from scratch. I am one hundred percent healthy and fit."
"You are like a pheonix then?" Asked Fluttershy.
"Yes and no. When I say that I have eternal death, I don't just mean that I will physically die with every regeneration, I also die mentally."
"What does that mean?" Asked Pinkie Pie.
"It means that me, this Xeno, will be gone forever when I regenerate." He said. "My memories carry over into the new body, but everything that makes me me, every synapse, every though process is changed."
"So even though you'll come back to life, you won't be you anymore?" Asked Rainbow Dash.
Xeno nodded.
"Everything about me is changed. Everything about this me dies and some new person goes sauntering away, with my memories, my name and wearing my clothes." There were tears in his eyes. They didn't fall but they were there. "I don't want to go." He said softly. "I like me. I always like who I am, and then that person dies. That's why I want to die. When I finally die, for good, it will end. One final, good death, and then nothing. I want to be free." He was silent.
The ponies didn't know what to say. What can you say to that?
"Xeno, dear?" Asked Rarity. "How...how much time do you have?" She asked tentatively.
Sighing, Xeno began to move.
"My time is up." Despite the terrible agony that overloaded his brain Xeno swung his legs over the bed and stood up. The ponies tried to protest but he ignored them. He stepped into the corner of the room, placing a good distance between them and himself. They all watched him curiously. "It was nice knowing you." He said finally.
Immediately, he flashed an orange-gold color that enveloped his whole body. The intense light made it so that they couldn't look directly at him. A thundering sound was heard coming from him, but thankfully no cries of pain and no sound of shattering bones or squelching flesh. At least, that's what they assumed it would sound like.
Moments after the light vanished and the sound was silenced. Finally looking at their friend, they were surprised to see a totally new person standing in his place. This person was shorter and much lighter skinned then their Xeno.
Xeno stood at five-foot-eight, and was very dark skinned. They had heard him refer to himself as a "black man." His hair was nappy and usually cut very short to his scalp, and he had deep brown eyes.
This new Xeno was approxiamtely five-foot-two and was very light skinned. They also had long blonde hair that fell down to the small of their back, and deep blue eyes. They were also much curvier than their Xeno.
"I've got boobs again!" Squealed a new, higher pitched voice. Obviously, Xeno had become a woman. She brought her hands up and immediately began squeezing and bouncing the breasts in her hands.
Awkward...
Author's Note
I know, I know! I shouldn't be putting out new stories! But I couldn't help it!
I was talking to some friends, and one of the topics brough up was "What would you give up for immortality." Eventually, we got on the subject of Regeneration from Doctor Who. Would you be willing to live forever, if every several years/decades you had to die and someone else with your memories would replace you?
Anyway, with that idea in my head, and reading up the latest chapters of (Re)Birth Through Fire (Check out that fic, it's awesome! It is the only Human/Philomena story that I know of. Definitely worth reading!) I started thinking how would an immortal character that is forced to change affect our favorite ponies?
Xeno is NOT a Time Lord! He is a human who has been cursed. Keep reading and you'll find out why.
Getting To Know Her *EDIT*
Getting To Know Her *EDIT*
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This is a work of total fiction, made entirely for entertainment purposes. No money is gained from the production of this prose.
It had been a few days since Xeno's regeneration.
The ponies had no idea what to think about it. Despite being told of his impending transformation, it was difficult to process the fact that this was no longer the Xeno they knew. They knew for a fact that it was Xeno as she had information only known to him...her? Plus, they did see the transformation with their own eyes.
But this new Xeno was totally different from the man they had come to know and love.
For one, she hated physical activities.
"Hey Xeno!" Called out Rainbow Dash. Turning around from her book, Xeno saw Rainbow and Applejack approaching her with a hoofball. "You wanna join us for some hoofball?" She asked.
"No thanks." Replied Xeno in a sweet voice.
"What!?" Cried Applejack. "You love hoofball!"
"We used to play for hours!"
"Maybe the other Xeno did, but I don't like the idea of rough housing and getting all sweaty and dirty."
"You never cared about that sort of thing before!" Rainbow challenged.
"The other Xeno didn't care about getting dirty. He did whatever he wanted without a care in the world." Supplied Applejack.
"Now he's dead." Responded Xeno.
Her words effectively shut them up. Unable to reply, the two sportsmares walked away and Xeno returned to her book.
This new Xeno seemed to be far more domestic. She hated doing anything that could get her dirty, and preferred things like cooking or reading to drinking and playing sports.
It didn't take long for the ponies to learn that Xeno didn't like being reminded of who she used to be. She hated being compared to her previous incarnation, and she was hurt at any implication that they preferred the old her as to who she was now.
According to Luna, she frequently had nightmares about the ponies running the new Xeno out of Equestria. She felt inadequate and feared rejection.
She even ried to sneak off several times.
Luckily they always caught her. She felt that the ponies would be better off with her gone, that way they would be able to properly mourn their dead friend.
"Please, just let me go." Xeno pleaded. She was in the Throne Room with Celestia, Luna and the Element Bearers.
"We won't let you run off like this." Chastised Celestia. "The old Xeno would confront every challenge head on!" She challenged.
"The Xeno you knew is dead and gone!" Yelled Xeno. "He's not coming back! Even if I regenerate a billion times, that particular persona will never resurface. I will never be the Xeno you knew ever again!" Xeno was openly crying.
Xeno never cried.
"All I ever hear is 'Xeno did this' or 'Xeno would', I will never be the person you once knew. That's the point of this curse. I remember everything, but all that is dead now. I've said it before, I don't have eternal life, I have eternal death." She covered her face with her hands and cried.
She fell to her knees on the polished stone floor, covering her face as the sound of her sobs reverberated off the walls.
"This isn't fair. You deserve to properly mourn your friend. You can't do that while i'm here. This isn't fair to me either. I don't deserve this. I don't deserve to be compared to a dead man!"
It wasn't long before she felt warmth surround her. She felt hooves and forelegs envelop her in a protective embrace. Lowering her hands she saw she was held in a group hug by the ponies. Even Celestia and Luna wrapped them up in their wings.
"W-we're sorry, Xeno." Whimpered Fluttershy.
"Yeah, we didn't want to make you feel unwelcome." Added Pinkie Pie. For some reason her mane and tail had lost their curls and were now straight.
"We're sorry." They all said simultaneously. They all meant it. Xeno could tell.
It was difficult, but she reached out with her arms and hugged those closest to her. She could never hope to hold them all.
"It is...difficult." Said Luna. "When we speak, we can hear remnants of the Xeno we knew. Perhaps you will say a particular phrase, or some obscure hand gesture that reminds us of him. But then we look at the bigger picture. You are nothing like the Xeno we knew. And that is okay. Our friendship can withstand this." Luna hesitated.
"That is, if you still would like to be friends?" She asked.
Xeno laughed. It was different from the other Xeno's laugh, not to mention far more feminine. But it was a good, happy laugh.
"Yes, of course. I would love to be friends with you all." She said with a teary eyed smile.
Rarity stepped forward and addressed Xeno with her cultured accent.
"Then, let me be the first to say: It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Xeno. Welcome to Equestria."
Author's Note
I hope that you all were able to have some insight into Xeno's new character. Someone commented that they liked my character, well I hope that replacing Him so early in the story doesn't scare you off.
I hope you all won't be too harsh on Xeno...
