A Piece of Meat

A Piece of Meat
by Shivered Timbers

Chapter 5

With everyone but Fluttershy at Rarity's, the mood was... anxious. Maybe not tense, though Rarity looked somewhat worried. Pinkie aside, Sunset's friends just looked confused. Rainbow Dash held an ice pack against the side of her face. Applejack was relaxed, though she frowned at the room from a backwards chair in the corner. Twilight played with her hair, doing everything she could not to look at Sunset.

Many parts of Sunset wanted to drag this out, to build up to something, to just leave and never come back. But there was only one way to rip this bandage off.

"Okay," she said, only giving herself time for a deep breath. "The reason I called you all here is the secret of mine that Rarity shared with you. Without permission, I should add."

A murmur ran through the gathered girls.

For being monochrome, Rarity's pure white skin was normally vibrant. It shone with life and vigor, much like the girl herself. The way she moved radiated confidence, bravado, and probably some Prench word that Rarity would have used but Sunset didn't know.

Right now, her skin looked grey. She was pale, for all that 'pale' should not have been able to describe her. The way she hung her head and all but collapsed in on herself drove a stake through Sunset's heart. But this has to be done. She couldn't just let this hang.

"I'm sorry," Rarity croaked. She cleared her throat, then louder said, "I'm sorry, Sunset. It's no excuse, but once I had seen your... Had seen it in the light of day... Ohh, I just couldn't help myself!" She bit her lip, her face crumpling. "I should know better than to spread gossip. If it makes you feel any better, I did not tell a soul who was not in this room!"

"It... does." Sunset scratched the back of her head. "A little. I'm still not happy about it."

"No, no, I understand." Rarity pulled out a very stylish handkerchief, dabbed at her eyes, and wrung it out. "I should have expected this. All I can say in my defense is that, when Fluttershy told me you needed help, she didn't exactly paint it as a secret."

Sunset raised an eyebrow at Rarity, who shrunk back.

"Well, she didn't use those words," she mumbled.

"Wait, wait, wait," said Rainbow, waving her arms. "Hold up a second. Fluttershy gets to know you have a dick, but none of the rest of us do? How is that fair?"

At the mention of the word 'dick', several blushes and gasps broke out across the room. Rarity hid her face, while Pinkie failed to suppress a giggle. Sunset scowled at Dash.

"Because she wouldn't try to sneak a peek at it without asking first," she growled. "And that's the other thing I want to talk about. Rarity, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash, your behavior toward me over the last few days has not been okay!"

Twilight groaned and dropped her head into her arms. Rarity nodded sadly, but Rainbow Dash observed Sunset with a look of quiet defiance.

Sunset put hands to hips. "Do any of you have anything to say for yourselves?"

"I just couldn't help myself," Rarity whispered, though it seemed even she hardly believed it.

"I thought there was something growing between us," was the mumbled reply from Twilight. She didn't bother looking up.

"Twilight, I'm sorry, but you were definitely reading signs that weren't there." Sunset frowned and turned to Rainbow. "Dash?"

"Are you gonna apologize for breaking my face?" she said, nose wrinkled.

"No." Sunset glared at her. "Are you gonna give me a reason for why you thought you could do what you did?"

Dash snorted. "Jealousy."

It was either the word itself or the abrupt and matter-of-fact way she'd said it, but that single word halted all the emotional momentum Sunset had been building.

"What?" she asked, voice weak.

"Uh, yeah, pfft." Dash blew her bangs out of her face and switched hands on the ice pack. "What did you expect me to do when I found out I didn't have the biggest girldick in school? I needed some kind of a win!"

Now they were all staring at Dash. "W-what?" Sunset asked again. It was the only word she could bring to mind. Rainbow grew animate, lowering her ice pack so she could grin wider.

"Yeah! My clit's two and a half inches long! You wanna see?" She reached for the hem of her skirt and lifted it.

"No!" shouted pretty much everyone else.

"I do!" cried Pinkie Pie.

"Rainbow Dash, I definitely do not want to see your clit!" Sunset held her hands up between her eyes and Rainbow's everything.

Rainbow humphed. "Fine, your loss."

Sunset growled. "That still doesn't change the fact that it didn't give you the right to... Yes, AJ, what is it?"

Applejack had been holding her hand aloft, as though waiting to be called on by a teacher. She lowered it and cleared her throat. "Uh, just for the record, in the name of pure honesty, I ain't exactly innocent here neither. Kinda spent the last couple days after gettin' that text from Rarity, uh, fantasizin' 'bout how I could get ya to show me yer, uh..." She licked her lips, eyes trailing down Sunset's front. "Yer pecker."

Her cheeks flushed a deep apple red. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry." She drew her hat down over her eyes.

Sunset let out a frustrated groan. "What is wrong with all you girls? You hear your friend suddenly has a, a male sex appendage, and the first thing that comes to mind is creeping on her? Does the mere thought of a penis drive you all into lustful frenzy?"

She cast her gaze around the room, but no one besides Dash could meet her eyes. She couldn't blame them; who said 'lustful frenzy', really?

"Pinkie Pie is the only one of you who thought to apologize before right now. And she's the only one I'm not mad at. Well, her and Applejack. You really didn't do any harm AJ, honest."

Applejack nodded.

"Well, it's not like I did anything wrong," said Dash.

"Uh, you kind of humiliated me? In public?"

Dash shrugged. "No one else saw. I didn't share the picture, like I promised I wouldn't, and besides, I'm gay! It's fine if I want to look at a dick sometimes, I don't mean anything by it."

Sunset stared. She could not comprehend the depths of stupidity to which Dash was sinking at this very moment. It was like Sunset was adrift in a raft bobbing atop an idiot sea. And yet the girl babbled on.

"Like, I know how to get ladies goin' with my stuff, but I'm not ever gonna try anything with a guy, right? So here you are, with all the goods, and like, that's really great for me, right?" She licked her lips and snapped her fingers. "Oh, I get it, I never asked. Sunset, you wanna like, measure dicks and fuck sometime or something?"

"No!" The word exploded out of Sunset's mouth. "No, Rainbow Dash, I do not want to fuck you! Or Rarity! Or Twilight, or AJ, or Pinkie! You're all my friends, we don't have that kind of relationship!"

Rainbow gave her a sly, sidelong grin. "I notice you left someone off that list. Got anything you wanna tell us?"

Desperate terror seized Sunset's heart.

She knew that tone of voice. She'd used it herself, on student after student who she'd gotten dirt on, to shake them down for lunch money or humiliate them in the halls, or just let them know that she could blackmail them into social oblivion at any moment.

If she and Fluttershy were going out, she could use that as a defense against this nonsense. But they weren't, and she couldn't, and she didn't want to tell them what was going on. It wasn't any of their business. And would it make any difference in the first place? With Dash, out of all of them?

Hot tears sprang from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She tried to sniff them back, to no avail.

"What is wrong with you, Rainbow Dash?" she croaked. "'That's really great for me'? Really great for you? What I have between my legs has nothing to do with you!"

Panting erratically, Sunset began pacing in a circle. "That's the problem. You were all just thinking about yourselves. Not once did you think about me!"

Rainbow opened her mouth, but Sunset snapped. "No! Just shut up and let me talk!

"You're not even considering what I want! Not considering that maybe I hate having a penis! That I stay up nights wondering why in Tartarus that thing is where it is, just dying inside because there's nothing I can do about it! Because in not too long, we're going to be going back to school, and what happens when I pop a boner in class? I bet you don't have to worry about your stupid clit doing that, Rainbow Dash, do you?"

For the first time that afternoon, Rainbow Dash had the decency to look away from Sunset.

"If this secret gets outside this circle, it's going to ruin me! I'll be the laughingstock of the entire school, or worse! And that doesn't even begin to cover the heartache and anxiety and, and... And the shame what you did to me has caused!" She scrubbed desperately at her eyes, and her voice dropped to a whisper.

"I can barely stand to look at any of you! Because I know you want what I've got, this freaking piece of meat between my legs. That's all you care about, not me, and you're treating me like a piece of meat because of it. You're just trying to use me to get to it, and you don't care that I hate this thing and I wish I'd never gotten it!"

Sometime in the middle of Sunset's rant, they had all noticed a car door slam outside. Footsteps had clacked up the walkway under Rarity's bedroom window, followed by the front door opening and soft voices exchanging words. The footsteps had then ascended the stairs, turned down the hallway, and approached Rarity's bedroom door just as Sunset reached the end of her tirade.

They were all taken aback when the door slammed open to reveal Fluttershy in the hallway. And she was livid.

She marched straight into the room, eyes only on Sunset. When Fluttershy reached her, she wrapped her in a tight hug, cradling her head against her chest. Sunset would have broken down sobbing right then and there if she hadn't already been crying. It was the first moment of safety she'd felt since Pinkie's apology cupcake.

"How dare you!" Fluttershy shouted, and Sunset could only imagine the expression she gave the rest of their friends. "All of you! Sunset and I have been sleeping together for the last month!"

There were gasps of surprise, along with a tiny "Knew it" from Dash.

"Sunset's been keeping it a secret because I asked her to," Fluttershy continued, her breath coming short and fast. "And now I see that it was a mistake. But I expected better of you! Except you, um, Applejack, I guess you didn't do anything?"

"Uh, not exactly." Applejack swallowed. "Nothin' physical at least. Nor Pinkie Pie neither, for what it's worth."

"Fine." Fluttershy narrowed her eyes. "All of you, then, just keep this in mind. Sunset is mine, do you hear me? You keep your hands off her! If I ever so much as smell one of you trying to come near her with perverted thoughts on your mind, you can count our friendship over! Do you understand me?"

Everyone, even Rainbow Dash, murmured a penitent, "Yes, Fluttershy."

"Come on, Sunset," Fluttershy whispered in her ear, "we're leaving."

Fluttershy wrapped an arm around Sunset's shoulders and force-marched her out of the bedroom. The hallway, the steps, the front door, the walkway and the car waiting in the street flashed past Sunset like reels film on the wrong projector.

Sunset was dimly aware of Fluttershy helping her into the passenger seat and buckling her in. When Fluttershy took the driver's seat and started the car, Sunset noticed her yellow fingers digging into the soft foam rubber of the steering wheel.

Sunset stared at her in complete, numb silence.

About the time Sunset realized Fluttershy was driving to her place, she said, "Fluttershy?"

"Not now," Fluttershy immediately replied. Her tone was soft, understanding even, but there was a warning of barely-repressed rage behind it.

They said nothing more for the rest of the drive.