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// Part 17: A Thousand Years 
// Story: Constantine and the Eternal Night 
// by Jaysteeny 
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Chapter 17: A Thousand years
(Pre-chapter Authors note: Due to technical difficulties, I was unable to upload to youtube. When I figure out how to get it to work, I'll add the link to A Thousand Years: The Musical! Here.)

“Jay,” Asked George. “Why did you make a song about this section?”
“Because I might have made a bet that I could write lyrics to a song about this fic and don’t want to watch more Gen1.”
“Well,” Sam put in, “If this increases the number of views dramatically, I’ll watch whatever Gen you’re up to with you. Only a couple of episodes, though. I am not signing up for the entire series just because a miracle happened.”
“Okay, well, do you want me to put in what you say happened as well as lyrics to the song?”
“Jay,” Said George solemnly, “Don’t put in lyrics. A link is bad enough.”
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“Oh Golden Shield, if only you knew the hardships we’ve faced. If only you knew how we were forced to live like we live. All that we want,” Said Twilight, “Is peace. Think about it: A thousand years of darkness, or a thousand years of light. If the choice were up to you, what would you do?”
“Ha! We’ve managed to live in harmony these past thousand years, all because a princess got jealous and then Celestia made her disappear. A thousand years later, an ancient prophecy comes true; and you act like she’s trying to kill you. Let’s think: A thousand years in which to calm her down, or a thousand years for her to brood. They say they didn’t want to hurt her, yet they sent her to the moon? I’m sorry, but I find that just a little bit contradictory.”
“Golden Shield; these are dark days, not only metaphorically, but literally,” Stated Twilight coolly, “So how are you intending to blame us for the past thousand years? We’ve been opposed to you for the past year and a half because your eternal night ruined the lives of everypony here! I can’t believe you.” Twilight shook her head at Golden Shield in a mock scolding manner.
“Come now, both of you,” Said the Doctor, stepping fourth once again to intervene, “Although your argument gives me valuable time to think, it is unnecessary and does nothing to help diplomacy between sides. Honestly, you should know better; both of you; than to honestly believe any of us are trapped like rats.
“I’ve lived for almost a thousand years, and no matter how long you live, you always see pain, and seeing it never gets any easier. But after a few centuries, you come to accept and understand that there is pain in the world, but you also come to realise that there is always a rainbow shining through the rain.”
“I think that’s enough of that metaphor, Doctor,” Growled Golden Shield, getting to his point, “We haven’t got enough time for that. This mare is a criminal, and must be punished.”
“You are, in all meanings of the word, a royal pain in the flank,” Stated Twilight matter-of-factly, “But I’m going to let your unruly behaviour pass, because one of us has to remain civil. Uh, no offence intended Doctor.”
“Twilight, shush. It’s my turn to talk,” Said Sam, surprising all present, including those in the tree, because he was still there, “Look, as much as I dislike ponies, I don’t want this getting violent. If Twilight were to die, I don’t think I’d last more than a week.”
“SAMMY!” George yelled, almost breaking cover, “Is that you mate? Man, it feels like it’s been years! So what did I miss, and is it good or bad? Oh, did anypony cry for me?”
“Constantine!” hissed the Doctor, turning back while everyone was distracted by the now slightly faded projection of Sam, “Get out of sight! You’ll ruin everything if Twilight sees you! It’s our only hope!”
“From what I know,” Sam continued, oblivious to everything happening around him, “Up until about a year and a half ago, somebody got sent to the moon for a millennium. In those thousand years, there were probably countless questions, but you didn’t bother trying to learn the answers, now did you? For now, there is just one question left that needs answering: What do we want?”
“Yes, we had a thousand years of questions,” Answered the doctor sadly. “We tried to answer all the big ones first, and so we didn’t learn anything. From what I’ve read, Twilight has learned much about magic, not only during Celestia’s rule; in which she was the princess’ personal protégé; but even after that.
“However, that doesn’t answer our final question, does it? What do we want? What do we strive for? What do we yearn for? Well, to put it simply; we’ve been trying to arrange it this whole time. What we want,” The Doctor finished, “Is Peace. Isn’t that right?” He turned to the other two negotiators. Twilight’s eyes had the beginnings of tears of awe, but Golden Shield’s features were unreadable.
“Geez, you can talk Doc,” blurted Golden Shield, breaking the silence. “I mean, I’ve heard your speeches when somepony you like is in danger, but this is really something else.” Everyone glared at him, and Sam faded slightly more. The doctor noticed the image strength drop slightly, and took out his sonic screwdriver.
“Uh, let me get that for you,” He said, pointing it at Sam. It glowed and buzzed, and Sam became almost solid looking. “Now you can see and hear us, too. Oh, it’s still just an image Shield; you can’t touch him.”
“So,” Sam started, “How about some peace talks? Something tells me that you’ve been at war and this is occupied territory, suggesting these guys must be the underground resistance movement or something. Did I mention my name is Sam?”
“Close,” Said a slightly impressed doctor. “So far everything has been peaceful, apart from a few isolated incidences of violence, this being one of them. Now what I find interesting is your ability to cast an image of yourself over long distance. Is it technology, or magic? What kind of technology would allow that though, I wonder; but it can’t be magic because how can magic be performed if you have no horn?”
“Ahem,” Said Twilight, breaking the Doctor out of his science-gasm. “I think that we should limit the questions to those that would advance this conversation further, and accusatory. Like, for example, what part of stay put did you not understand?” She directed this at Sam, glaring.
On both ends, he smiled. “I am staying put. I haven’t moved since you told me to sit down and shut up. As for my silence, well, I don’t think that telepathic semi-physical renderings of myself really count, do they?” Anyone could see he was testing Twilight, to see what her limits were, and what happened when one reached, or worse, broke them. His own eyes seemed to widen in shock as he realised what he had said. “Wait, what did I just say?”
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“I’m sorry,” I said suddenly before they could decide who was going to tell the next part, and how. “I’m gonna have to call it. I’m tired and my hip is making cracking sounds again.”
“Jay,” George said casually, but I somehow knew he was going to use a previous statement of mine against me. “Didn’t you once say that the time to call it a night is when you start dancing, not just foot tapping but outright dancing–“
“Badly, considering it’s me.”
“…Yeah, when that happens it’s time to call it a night.” If facial expressions had sounds, I’m almost sure I would have heard a smug grin. “Also, you mentioned recording an alpha version of the song? What does that mean?”
“No, I said that when that happens it’s time to go and watch TV with the family members, and as for the alpha, well, basically it’s without voice actors or instruments. Reckon Ben would be willing to write and play guitar stuff for me?”
“Wait,” Interrupted Sam with great validity, “we’re supposed to be in the song, right? Well how did you do our voices? If it’s crap I’m going to have to do everything.”
“Oh, just because you did magi-Music. I totally meant music.”
“Jay,” George said, sounding like he leaned towards the microphone, “if you’re putting this in, you better write that you said magic, and get back to the story right at the end of this line.” I did just that, because he grew a fair bit since going to Equestria, and got a whole lot stronger; therefore making it a preservation priority to prevent pissing him off.
*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
“Something tells me that your exposure to natural equestrian magic as you came through has caused a mutation in your blood. Basically, you’re a unicorn-monkey, and that equestrian mind is communicating with your monkey one.” For some reason, Sam was able to comprehend the Doctor’s scientific explanation, and this didn’t help to alleviate his confusion.
“Uh, Doc,” Said Golden Shield, rubbing his neck armour nervously, “Mind explaining that in terms I could understand?”
“Of course,” Said Twilight, lighting her horn. Immediately she levitated a small rock from the ground, along with some dirt. “Okay, so, basically, this is Sam.” She indicated the rock. “And this is where he is from. Basically, when he came from there to here, some of the magic that caused the first unicorns to grow horns rubbed off on him, making him like a hybrid.” She made all of the dirt cling to the rock. She then levitated some of the dirt from another spot, where it looked slightly different. “Of course, it took centuries of evolution to actually develop horns, the same as it took centuries of evolution for Pegasus ponies to grow their wings.” She brought the dirt closer. “Maybe some of the magic that pegasi depend on rubbed off too, making him an Alicorn-monkey.” She then made the second pile of dirt cling to him. For good measure, she then gave it a quick coating of moss.
“What’s the moss for?” Asked Sam. Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but the Doctor beat her to it.
“It represents us Earth ponies, whose magic allows communication with the Earth and the ability to will things into growing.” Sam decided that now would be a good time to make a joke.
“So I’m a dirty rock?” He asked, and he got a quite unexpected answer from Twilight.
“Oh, I’m so sorry if I offended you, Sam. See, I was just explaining it in a way some of our lower IQ conversation participants could get. And as for the Alicorn-monkey, that’s because I doubted Golden Shield could realise that you were a human by contextual usage.”
“To buck with it,” Said Golden Shield, flipping a metaphorical table, “I’m going to use all the big words I know. I acknowledge your requisition to have all hostages returned for your hostage. Unfortunately, I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” He suddenly blinked, looking amazed at what he had just said. “Uhhhh…”
Sam, having seen the movie which this was from before, quickly recalled the quote, and put on his best Barbosa voice. “It means no. What? I like that mov–Right, you probably don’t have those here…Basically, it’s exactly the same as a line from a, uh, play about pirates. There were a lot o’ fancy words in there, and we be naught but humble pirates.”
“Now that’s something I can understand.” Said Golden Shield, pointing a hoof. His Grandfather had been in the navy and told him a fair number of pirate stories as a child, so he found this fairly easy to relate to. It only cemented the reason for the Doctor to facehoof, the fact that he looked confused as to why.
“Well, if you don’t want to trade, then I can’t make you.” She turned as if to leave, before suddenly turning and delivering a light concussive wave, focused on Golden Shield. His eyes widened in shock before he fell back to the ground, unconscious, but uninjured. Twilight was a good spell mixer.

(Authors notes) I'm sorry for not having a chapter the last couple of weeks, but I was away from the internet and too lazy to write much more than this. As for the song, well, I'm going to need to do all that stuff I said in the chapter and more. Apart from that, all that need be said is GOODBYE, PEOPLEZ!