//------------------------------//
// Chapter 13 
// Story: Waning and Waxing 
// by Calliope Pony 
//------------------------------//

Everything is dark... and cold... and silent... and still.

I am locked within the moon. Once, I controlled the moon: I made it rise and cross the sky and set at my command. Now I am merely a part of the moon itself, bound to go where it goes. I am still a separate being in a sense, but I do not move or act or exist separately from the larger being of the moon. It is like being asleep and aware at the same time.

Curse Celestia! I’ll make her pay for doing this to me! Some day I’ll get free and then I’ll find her and banish her into the sun!

There was a time when the weeks and months blurred together and I found myself losing track of time. Now I seem to have no ability to sense the passage of time at all. I am aware of long years stretching out, one after another, and yet the passage of a day and the passage of a decade feel very much the same.

When I break free I will take Equestria once and for all! All those ponies who shunned me will get what they deserve when I am the undisputed ruler!

I can sense the movements of the cosmic bodies. I can feel that the sun and the moon continue on the same paths that they have always traveled. Celestia must be controlling them both on her own.

How dare she? The moon is my domain. I should not be trapped here. I should be the one with complete control of the sky.

I can also sense the movements of the stars. Celestia must have the sense not to meddle with them, for they continue on their ordained dance without interference. Once or twice I have felt something odd in their alignment. They have not passed close enough for me to fully grasp it, but I can tell that there is something significant in certain configurations that they go through.

It is only by keeping track of such movements that I can tell how much time actually is passing. Century after century passes by while I am held in this enforced stasis.

I’m lonely. I wish this hadn’t happened.

Argh! Every now and then an aggravating bit of sentimentality tries to push its way into my thoughts, and every time I quash it firmly back down.

I will have my revenge. I will escape from the moon, banish Celestia, and take what always should have been mine. All the ponies of Equestria will learn to respect and fear me.

I have been keeping track of the stars’ movements all the long while I have been here. They track the time quite accurately, down to the minute if I pay close enough attention. It has been almost exactly one millennium, and I feel the stars drawing together into that configuration that I noticed before.

The stars are drawing closer and closer, and now I am beginning to sense why this particular arrangement drew my attention before. Something about the placement of these stars in relation to the moon is weakening my bonds.

I begin to strain and push against the magic holding me locked away. The stars draw closer and closer... and the bonds begin to fray.

At last the stars align just right, and I break through.

I am free.