//------------------------------//
// Ch.12 Safety 
// Story: An Anon-a-Miss Persona 
// by Arcanum -Phantasy 
//------------------------------//

With everything Rarity had experienced up to this point, she had simply made peace with the fact that there was always going to be something that was going to surprise her. Awakening in a bizarre hotel run by a woman that looked like an older version of her ex? Shocking, but something she quickly adapted to. Fluttershy turning into a hatchet-wielding sociopath that ate monsters? Something that haunted her dreams for a few days, but she got over it eventually. Almost dying at the hands of a Witness? Nothing more than a spiteful memory now that she can kill three of them in one go. Vomiting up a piece of living monster meat? ....She, admittedly, still needed some work getting over that particular curveball. 
Then again, the situation she found herself and Fluttershy being forced to deal with might just be eery enough to take the place of that issue for a while.
Just like the map implied, there was a barn and farmhouse set in the heart of the orchard. That was the only fact about the structures that had been made apparent. The farmhouse was a massive three-story building made entirely of jet black stone. The walls, floorboards, and even the shingles were made pure black onyx that shinned sinisterly in the moon's crimson light. The windows were made of roughly-shaped obsidian instead of normal glass with dread fruit seemingly painted onto them with dried black slime. The front door was a thick rectangular slab decorated the same way as the windows with a black crystal doorknob.
As the trio walked into the house, Rarity caught a brief glance at the barn.
The building in question was made of the same materials as the house, sole difference being the state of its massive double doors. While the house's door was pristine in shape, the barn's was covered with massive dents and devoid of decorations. What truly unnerved her about it was the fact that the dents seemed to be caused by something inside of the barn.
The inside of the farmhouse was equally strange.
Unlike the building itself, the furniture was made of wood and held an eerily identically rustic charm to the Apple's house. They were all in aged, yet pristine condition too, a radical change to the rotten state of the amenities found in the homes from the City of Punishment. One other thing about the furniture quickly stood out to the two girls. Aside from the chairs, all of the furniture appeared to be literally rooted to the ground. Another thing they noticed was that, instead of carpet or flooring, the ground was covered with what looked like a thick layer of soft red and yellow grass.
At the moment, Rarity and Fluttershy sat at a large round table in the dinning room, awkwardly munching on sandwiches. Applejack sat opposite of them munching happily on her own sandwich, completely oblivious to her friends' discomfort. Three scarecrows sat on either side of her, two to her right and one to her left. They were made from the same materials as the one from the clearing, the one sporting a tattered pink bow in its "hair" a perfect replica to the scarecrow in question.  The two to her right were bigger, one a whole head taller than the other with a much broader "chest". The bigger one wore a faded and worn plaid shirt under a pair of equally aged overalls. The shorter one had a more hunched posture and wore an aged brown sundress with its "hair" styled into a tight bun.
Fluttershy and Rarity sat in silence, both sporting stiff smiles. 
Everyone, human and scarecrow alike, had a plate of food set before them. The meal was nothing spectacular, just simple TV dinners in plastic trays for the scarecrows and sandwiches for the girls with glasses of water for everyone. If Applejack was aware of her friends' discomfort, she didn't show it as she talked with her "family".
That was what unnerved the girls the most about this arrangement.
While they picked at their food, they watched her interact with the effigies. Applejack was speaking animatedly to the scarecrows, nodding and replying to questions that the two girls couldn't hear. What added to the uncomfortable scene was how normal Applejack looked. Were it not for the obvious, the occasional twitch of her head, and the dead haze in her eyes, they never would've known that there was something wrong with her.
As Rarity took a bite from her food, she couldn't shake the sense of deja vu the scene inspired. The fact that Applejack's small sledgehammer was by its owner's plate reinforced that feeling.
Better play along, for now, she mused, taking a sip from her glass. 
Not even a second after the thought crossed her mind did Applejack shift her focus to her.
"So, how've you bin doin' out there?" she asked. "Crazy place ain't all that friendly to most folks around here."
Suppressing a flinch, Rarity calmly said, "I've been....surviving. Though, I suppose mine and Fluttershy's situation is better than most."
"What do ya' mean?" Applejack blinked.
Taking a breath, Rarity told Applejack everything about what she had experienced sense awakening in the Abyss. The farmer's hazy eyes drilled into her, checking her for any possible lies. When Fluttershy cut in at points to add her own accounts or confirm Rarity's story, the shy teen would fall under Applejack's piercing gaze. After an hour, the two girls finished both their meal and their story. Applejack stared back and forth between them for a long moment, then let out a tired sigh as she fell back in her seat with her eyes closed.
"That's quite a lot to take," she frowned, eyes still closed as she crossed her arms. "A crazy hotel run by some Sunset clone. Shadows? Personas? Ah'd call ya' nutty if'n Ah wasn't already knee-deep in it."
"So...are you going to come with us?" Fluttershy asked, a tiny flicker of hope filling her nervous tone.
Before she could answer, Applejack's entire body froze. A second later, the empty glaze in her eyes became more pronounced and her face void of emotion. Next, her body twitched at random points, like some invisible force was zapping her with small controlled shocks. Just as suddenly as it came, the episode ended, Applejack blinking as if she had just woke up from a daydream and gave them an empty smile.
"Ah'd love to girls," she said, tone dreamy and distant. "But Ah need to protect mah home. Ah'm needed here."
"B-But Applejack-" Fluttershy started, only to be cut off by a hand on her shoulder from Rarity.
"We understand, dear," Rarity cut in, fake smile spread thin across her lips. "This is your home. It would be insensitive of us to try to force you to leave if you feel that you are needed."
While she said that, she gave a subtle look at Fluttershy and equally discreet nod towards Applejack's weapon. Catching on, Fluttershy gnawed on her lower lip with a faint nod. 
"That being said," Rarity continued. "The journey here was quite taxing."
"Say no more," Applejack chuckled. "We've got more than enough room fer the two of ya'."
"Are you sure, darling?" she blinked. "I would hate to impose."
"Now don't give me any of that hogwash," Applejack snorted. "The Abyss is all kinds'a bad news and Ah ain't gonna leave ya'll in the lurch."
"Thank you very much," Rarity smiled, nodding in acceptance. "We will try not to be a burden while we are here."
"Think nothin' of it," she chuckled, rising from her seat. "Now, let's get some pie!"
Both girls offered her a nod as she made her way towards the kitchen. The second their hostess was out sight, Fluttershy gave her friend a face full of terrified worry.
"What do we do?" she whisper-yelled.
"I...am still working on that," Rarity gulped, the worry she was hiding finally coming to the surface. "For now, we should just play along and see just how far her...delusions extend."
"Will that help us snap her out of it?" she pressed.
"Hopefully," she sighed.
Before their conversation could move beyond that, Applejack came back. What she happily set down onto the table made the two girls' stomachs lurch. In general shape, the pie looked normal enough, but that was where the similarities ended. The crust was an ugly acid green with thick black juice oozing through a few cracks in its surface. A rancid burning-meat smell came off of it like a rotted miasma.
Either ignorant to or ignoring the disgusting features of the thing she put onto the table, Applejack hummed merrily to herself as she started cutting into it. When she expertly lifted a generously sized slice out of the tin, chunks of blood-red apple slices could be seen floating in the pie's black gelatinous filling. After she lowered the slice onto her plate, she went to serve her friends as well, only to be stopped by shaky rejections.
"Are ya' sure?" she asked, putting a slice onto each of the scarecrows' plates.
"Very much so," Rarity nodded, her face turning a shade of green.
"I-I'm full," Fluttershy forced out, her face equally discolored.
"Ya'll do look a little out of it," she nodded, retaking her seat. Maybe ya'll should go lie down for a bit."
Both girls nodded, stood up sharply, and nearly ran to the living room. Watching them go, she shrugged, then dug into her dessert.


***


Rarity laid on her offered bed, face blank as she stared at the ceiling of her guest room. The shadows hid the sparse furnishings in the room, each of them growing out of the floor. Silence dominated the room just as heavily as the shadows, but the same could not be said for Rarity's mind. While she stared at the ceiling, her mind was running through everything she knew so far.
It was clear that Applejack had been eating dread fruit, just like Fluttershy had been eating Shadow meat before she found her. That alone made things a little more complicated, but not in the same way as when she found her shy friend. While Fluttershy was clearly not in sound mind when she found her, Applejack seemed to be mostly lucid. As if she had managed to mix her normal routine from Earth with what she needed to do to survive here. In a lot of ways, that act of normalcy was even more unnerving than the cold-blooded cruelty Fluttershy had when she found her.
Before she could let her mind wander further down that unwanted memory, a soft knock at her door caught her attention.
Sitting up, she turned her head towards the door, cleared her throat and softly called, "Yes? Who is it?"
"I-It's me," a soft voice replied. "C-C-Can I come in?"
Her lips slid into a small smile.
"Of course, darling. Come on in."
After a short moment of silence, a soft click broke it as the door faintly creaked open. Fluttershy quickly shuffled in, but was much more careful when she closed the door behind herself. Like Rarity, she was no longer wearing her cloak, weapon, or equipment belt, both tools likely hanging on a coat hanger in her own room like Rarity's were. The girl wore a form-fitting green t-shirt, light brown jeans, and simple gray tennis shoes with a few butterflies printed on them.
Rarity sat up fully to face her friend, said girl looking at her with nervous eyes. 
"You couldn't sleep either?" Rarity sighed, motioning for her friend to sit next to her.
Fluttershy nodded, gracefully accepting the offered seat.
Silence settled between them, one patiently waiting for the other for find her voice. When Fluttershy found it, it came with a brittle tremble. 
"What do we do, now?"
Rarity let out a tired sigh, staring up at the ceiling in thought.
"I was wondering the same thing, darling. This is a completely different situation from when..."
She grimaced, giving a concerned frown to her friend.
Fluttershy looked away, a deep sadness heavy in her features.
"I'm sorry," Rarity sighed, looking away. "I'm sure that you would rather I...didn't mention that."
Another moment of silence passed between them before Fluttershy broke it with a question.
"Was it like this for you when you found me?"
"What do you mean?" she blinked.
Fluttershy brought her knees up to her chest, holding them tight and trembling as she stared into the distance.
"At the table, it was like I was watching someone pretending to be her. Like some stranger was wearing her face. Then there was her eyes. Every time I saw them, they looked so dead and empty.When she stared at me I...felt like she was trying to look into my soul."
Trembling, she turned her head towards Rarity with terrified eyes and asked, "Was I like that when you found me?"
Rarity didn't answer. She couldn't. Instead, she scooted over and pulled her curled and shaken friend into a gentle hug. Fluttershy leaned into it, already knowing the answer to her question. 
After some time, the two friends pulled out of the hug with better states of mind.
A minute later, Rarity voiced her thoughts.
"The first thing we need to do is figure out how to bring her back to us."
"How do we do that?" Fluttershy blinked.
"I haven't the foggiest clue," she sighed. "With you, it just seemed to happen."
Fluttershy thought about that, trying to remember how she came back all those days ago. Try as she might, all she could recall was a hazy sense of emptiness. Like she was floating in a dark void too deep for anything to hurt her. She remembered faintly hearing the cries of her enemies, but those memories were fragmented and muffled. The only memories that were clear were when she was cooking, eating, and bathing, all of it with Angel within reach. She remembered all of the encouraging whispers of her weapon, whispers she now knew came from the void that drowned her mind. She was at peace in the dark. She was safe. 
Then Rarity came and a bright light cut through the darkness. From that light, a new sense of peace came to her. When she came back, she wanted to stay safely in that light her friend created. While the void did try to pull her back into its hold, the safety her friend's light promised was just enough to help her fend it off.
Nodding to herself, Fluttershy said, "She feels safe here."
"Pardon?" Rarity blinked.
Giving her friend a determined frown she continued.
"When I was...gone, all I cared about was being safe, even if that meant becoming a monster. I think Applejack is going through the same thing."
"That, does make sense," Rarity mused, massaging her chin in thought. "Applejack would find comfort with her family and this orchard is fairly similar to Sweet Apple Acres. After eating a few Dread Fruits, I could see her trying to have some sense of normalcy."
"I...think she may have eaten more than just a few," Fluttershy grimaced, face turning a bit green. "She...is strong enough to kill Witnesses without a Persona."
"Right," Rarity nodded, her face also taking a faint verdant shade. "Viper did say they give people a power boost."
Both girls let out disgusted sounds, eager to push that particular thought to the back of their minds.
She will not be happy when she has to purge all of that out of herself.
"Coming back to what you were saying," Rarity said, clearing her throat. "Are you saying that I made you feel... safe?"
Fluttershy blushed, staring down at the ground with a sheepish nod.
"I-I think that...m-maybe if we....convince her that she would be safe at the hotel, then...maybe she'll snap out of it."
"I see," Rarity nodded, choosing to ignore her friend's mild frazzling. "Though that may be easier said than done."
"Right," Fluttershy wilted, remembering just how stubborn the farm girl could be even on her best days.
A bold smile spread across Rarity's lips as she added, "But at least now we have an idea of how we can move forward."
Fluttershy gave her a smaller, yet equally determined smile. For the two girls, a tiny ember of hope started to spark within them. They knew that an uphill battle awaited them in the morning, but it was one that they were more than ready to face.