A Piece of Meat

A Piece of Meat
by Shivered Timbers

Chapter 4

When are you coming

Sunset erased the text and started over. She didn't really care if anyone heard her crying.

Did you tell anyimr

Her hands were shaking. Her body was shaking. Stupid shaking ruined the text.

I need y

Tears fell onto the surface of her phone. Some anachronistic part of her warned they would smear the ink. As good a reason as any to erase that text, too.

Stupid Rainbow Dash! Why did she have to secretly be a humongous pervert? Why couldn't she have just... asked? Not that Sunset wanted anyone asking to look at her dick. How the heck was she supposed to respond to that kind of thing? This was all her fault.

Stupid Twilight. Sunset didn't want her friends having crushes on her. What was she supposed to do, just marry Twilight because Sunset was the first girl she'd worked up the nerve to ask out? If you could even call what she did "asking out". Because it wasn't. Sunset had been in relationships before; you didn't act like that if you wanted to ask someone out! This was all her fault.

Stupid Rarity. In the middle of trying to do something nice, she just had to go and make Sunset feel like something to be fawned over, lusted after, desired, just like a piece of jewelry. This was all her fault. What kind of person just completely lost control of herself when she saw a... a...

A penis.

Stupid penis! It wasn't the first time she'd thought about lopping it off, for all the good that would do her. She'd already tried going back to Equestria through Princess Twilight's portal to undo the magical mistake, to no avail. Twilight had even chastised her for 'wearing out' the portal device. She glared down at her skirt, willing the damned thing to move, just an inch. It didn't. This was all its fault.

Her fingers slapped at the on-screen keyboard of her phone, inputting random letters and numbers. She had no idea what was happening anymore.

Stupid Sunset.

Fluttershy wasn't going to drop her vacation just to come listen to her sob. Besides, she probably couldn't, she was halfway across the... the state? Sunset still wasn't super good at human geography. All she knew was the spaces were infinitely more vast than they appeared on the maps. Fluttershy might as well be on the moon.

And since when was it Fluttershy's job to deal with Sunset's problems? It wasn't like they were more than friends or anything. Friends were great to help get you through rough patches, to pick you up when you were feeling down. Sunset knew this. She'd learned it. She'd earned it.

Yet friends were why she was sitting alone on a bench in a different park, hot tears rolling down her cheeks, an agonizing fist crushing her ribs. She didn't need a friend. She needed something more.

"Hey," said a soft voice behind her.

Sunset had to draw in a long, shaky breath before she could even think of speaking. She didn't, though. Pinkie Pie came up behind the bench and leaned over the back, offering her a cupcake.

"I had a feeling someone else was feeling really sad," Pinkie said plainly. "Cupcake?"

"Thanks, Pinkie," Sunset whispered, not daring to raise her voice lest it come out as a shout, or more sobs, or worse. She took the cupcake -- it was topped with a little sugar sun, reminiscent of her cutie mark -- and set it on the bench beside her. She set her phone next to it and folded her hands in her lap, not reacting as Pinkie gingerly took a seat on the other end of the bench.

"You wanna talk about it?" Pinkie usually wasn't this quiet, but Sunset appreciated it.

"No," she said, then shook her head. "Nevermind, I might as well. Rarity, Twilight and Rainbow Dash have found out, why not you too?"

Sunset took a long, shuddering breath, steadying herself. Pinkie was silent.

"The last couple of days, I've been having..." She sighed. "Unwanted sexual encounters with our friends." It hurt to admit. Maybe it was like pulling a bandage off super-quick. She'd learned the literal meaning behind that human-world metaphor sometime before she learned how to shave her legs.

"Oh," said Pinkie, her voice small. "Is this about your--"

"Yeah."

"So you're not gonna be happy if I ask you to see it? Cuz I'd been planning to, the next time I saw you."

Sunset grit her teeth. "Pinkie, I've already punched out one of my friends today. I'd rather not make it two."

"I'm sorry, Sunset," Pinkie said immediately. "I didn't realize it was a sore subject."

From somewhere unseen, she produced another cupcake and offered it to Sunset. "Would an apology cupcake help?"

"I..."

Sunset stared down at the cupcake. It was frosted pink, with a dusting of pink sugar. The words "I'm sorry" were printed on a little sign affixed to a toothpick stuck in the top. She took it, gently, as though the wrong movement might destroy it, and cradled it in her lap.

"No one else apologized," she whispered.

"When I got the text from Rarity, I didn't know it was a secret," Pinkie said, voice still contrite. "I promise I didn't tell anyone else, but if she told all our friends..."

The deep well of sadness that had suffused Sunset's body and mind up to that point suddenly metamorphosed. Like magma spurting up a volcano to become lava, it towered into an inferno of rage. Only the memory of Pinkie Pie's soft apology kept her from crushing the cupcake in her hand.

"This stops now," she said, voice low and threatening.

Pinkie actually scooted away from her.

"I'm not mad at you, Pinkie," Sunset said quickly. "I need your help, though. Text all our friends, tell them to meet at Rarity's ASAP. You're better at that kind of thing than I am."

"Roger-dodger!" Pinkie threw her a sloppy salute, then whipped out her phone and began tapping away at its screen.

Sunset took a long, deep breath. Then she took another. Then she took a bite of the apology cupcake. It was far less sweet than she would have expected for a confection made by Pinkie Pie.

It was perfect.

She lifted her phone and finished her text to Fluttershy.