"Aw, feathers. Don't tell me you're one of those animal cruelty people."
Starlight shook a hot tear off her face. No. No more. She turned to the butcher, who was lecturing about something as he carved into the dead filly's side, and shouted. More tears replaced the first, burning her muzzle; no matter.
"Stop! Stop this madness!"
The crowd fell silent. Then, one by one, every single head turned towards her.
She traded stares with a few of the gryphons for almost a minute. Just as she realized her gryphon glamour had mysteriously dissipated, one voice in the crowd spoke up.
"Mine."
"Stop! Stop this madness!" Murmurs rippled through the crowd; heads turned towards her. "Just—Just stop!"
"Well, then." The butcher turned away from the corpse on the stage and advanced to the edge of his platform, towering over the crowd. An empty circle formed around Starlight Glimmer as the crowd distanced itself from her, and she swallowed a knot. The too-familiar feeling of abandonment gnawed at her as she forced herself to meet the gryphon's gaze.
After a moment, the butcher laughed.
"An Owl dares speak so to a fine, upstanding son of the Eagle bloodline? That is, dare I say, a hoot!"