Shouts echoed in the air.

Whimpers and triumphant cheers swirled in the mass of ponies.

She was one of the few in her unit watching the scene. While the others looked away with scrunched eyes, she stared at it all with stoicism.

This was an execution of innocent ponies.

Masked earth stallions hefted the sentenced ponies to the row of nooses. Some had to be dragged due to their unconsciousness. The unicorns had their horns snapped and dark blood caked their faces. The pegasus' wings had been sawed off or broken. The earth ponies had deep lacerations in their legs. They all wore muzzles and they were slung with heavy iron chains. The weight bowed their heads and bent their knees.

Aria shifted, the warmth of the surrounding ponies uncomfortable against her sides. They gave her narrow glares. She ducked her head and her hood obscured her eyes, resigning herself from their attention.

The cavern of a room was full of unicorns. There were few pegasi — they mere pages in the empire. The only earth ponies were the ones sentenced to death and the executioners. Pale colors swarmed the pristine hall. Light cloaks and light eyes.

Colors of purity.

Shades of peace.

All of it a façade to cover the Solar Empire's crumbling reign.

Aria knew that half of the ponies in the chamber had dyed their coats lighter colors to please and fool the empress into a blind trust. Like the stallion to her left; he'd missed patches along his legs, and his dark brown fur was visible through the thick cloud-white paint. Or the mare in front of her; Aria could see that her black tail wasn't completely obscured by golden dye.

The Solar Empire: the society that was run by an immortal and corrupted Alicorn.

Celestia herself was only twenty rows of subjects away from Aria. She stood tall and regal, her aurora mane in an everlasting dance of pure magic and power. Every day passed by her doing and every night was brought forth by the moon and her younger sister, Luna.

But ever since the war had begun ten years ago, the Solar Empire had only known a blistering day. Agriculture was nonexistent due to lack of the farmers and weather pegasi. This resulted in an unfortunate consequence of cannibalism and eating flesh of wild animals.

But most ponies starved, and this brought forth lies and disloyalty.

Aria raised her head, her blue eyes gleaming within the darkness of her white cloak.

The empress was garbed with a bone-white cape, interlaced with gold and pale purples. She wore a black veil, a stark contrast against the brightness of herself and the rest of the world she had created. A massive crown laid upon her head and veins of silver and gold twined themselves through the bone in her horn. Gaudy ropes of silk and medals and diamonds were slung over her shoulders, neck and wings. Delicate golden shoes glistened on her hooves.

Aria did not hear what the tyrant called to her subjects, raising her scepter with sunlight-yellow magic.

She did not see the crying families in crowd as their loved ones' crimes were listed in front of everypony.

She did not feel anything as the executioners slung the nooses around the ponies' throats, leaving the unconscious ones to lay half hung and their choking breaths beginning to sound out. Ruby blood dotted the platform and dripped silently onto the pristine marble floors.

She was Aria Spellweaver.

The Sun empress spread her massive wings and extended her swan-like neck. Celestia lowered her scepter and tapped it onto the ground.

She was a unicorn.

The executioners simultaneously pulled their separate levers, opening the trap doors beneath the victims.

She was twenty-eight years old.

Deafening cracks shattered through the room as the ponies' necks snapped easier than twigs.

She was an elite soldier with no family. Her mother died within the torrent of a fire bomb raid, her father tortured, and her little brothers abducted by guerrillic savages.

Screams sounded out freely from those who were overcome with fear. The rest of the subjects cheered and stomped their hooves.

And she was one with the New Lunar Republic.

Aria gazed straight at the Alicorn. The tyrant stared back; her purple eyes narrowed as if she knew what Aria was and who she was loyal to. One word, and Aria would be dead.

Behind her veil, Empress Celestia smiled.