When Applejack disappears during the Autumn Harvest Festival, Twilight follows her into the Apples' corn maze, expecting to find her just around the next bend. But something else is in the field with Twilight, something wearing a familiar face as it hunts her from the shadowy stalks. And when the sun stands still in the sky and the boundaries of reality itself turn against her, Twilight's chances of finding her way out grow ever slimmer.
The field is hungry. The field will not let her go.
Phenomenal cover art by SunisCathorsis!
Huge shout-out and thanks to AShadowOfCygnus for beta reading, feedback, and firm insistence that this was indeed worth publishing.
Chapters (6)
Excited to see this get the readership it deserves, and very glad you're writing again, dude.
So far, liking what I'm seeing. The premise of this fic reminds me a lot of "Zardy's Maze", based on the way the fic also throws it's protagonist into a corn maze... and with absolutely no idea what the buck they're getting into, no less! You can hear a youtuber I like to watch explain Zardy's Maze here.
I find it interesting how you managed to make the whole chapter feel like a slow burn, but also with a frantic element to it. Quite enthralling.
It's amazing to see you write again. I look forward to the rest!
Oh I am very much looking forward to seeing where this goes~👀
Well, this looks promising and scary.
This looks terrifying
That image alone is terrifying to a genuinely uncomfortable degree.
YES YES YES YES YES YES
YES
The slow build-up of unease and tension as the search for Applejack continued had me on the edge of my seat. It felt too real.
This is going to be bone-chilling.
amazing story honestly, I might even do a reading of it, kinda like scribbler
I don't usually read horror, but tis the season. Both the art and the fic are creepy AF.
I especially liked this line.
Good stuff.
what gonna happen to spike
Interesting. Let’s see where you take this.
A deceptively silly pun for such a harrowing story. I'm excited to see where this goes.
Very nice story, will you do a reading of it on your Youtube Channel after that?
The situation is becoming more surreal and interesting.
I find it curious how Twilight tries to rationalize what is happening to her, and from the looks of it, she is not far from the truth.
Wooooah! Good one so far! Can't wait to see where it goes.
Set a fire in a dry looking field of corn? My plan exactly! except it was to burn the field itself, Twilight should try.
And the monster of the story finally makes its appearance.
I didn't expect the Flim and Flam brothers to make that kind of cameo.
Is this story in any way based off of Stephen King’s Children of the Corn?
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I'm not planning to do one in the immediate future, but I've had some interest elsewhere in making an audio version so I'm hopeful it will happen one day.
I have yet to read this, but I want to say that, at first, I thought the title art was just a field with nothing special.
Thought the title was neat and clicked on it...
DEAR GOD I DID NOT NOTICE THAT THING IN THERE
This feels like the kind of story that is normally contained in one chapter.
I am glad to see there is more of it. I love liminal space kind of stuff.
Well, it was a good attempt.
I would say she has all the time in the world if I did not know there was something with her, or that there is seemingly no water here.
Well that was horrifying.
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I know right?
Do NOT go in there, Twilight
I am really am liking the slow burn mystery and the subtle body horror to the story, I hope we get to see the whole process of twilight getting corrupted by this place and become a scarecrow like AJ. Looking forward to see more of this.
I wonder what is this place Twilight is trapped in, and why it lured her with ah illusion and get her to eat? Was it because it wanted to torture her, or maybe feed her with what little stuff that she can be plausibly be consumed to stay alive a little longer? I wonder if this is a magical trap or some sort of wold magics combining together to create this pocket dimension? Or could it be another worldly being that liked to trap ponies and sadistically torture them? I wonder if it really was Flam, or an echo of his presents? Looking forward to see what comes next.
I think Twilight might need either Luna. Celestia or some sort of hero even if it's just a mad pony in a box or even just a villain who needs her alive for the time being for their own schemes...
What an amazing chapter this turned out to be. May I know what work served as inspiration for this? The first part made me think of Coraline.
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I wasn't really thinking of any specific work while writing this one, though I adore the Coraline film and I'm not surprised to find echoes of its influence whenever they pop up. I don't know that I can go into the story's thematic inspiration without going completely overboard, other than to say that how the world seems determined to be indifferent towards life, how it discards and uses people, and how much easy cruelty is obfuscated behind fantasies, are all definitely emotional inspirations. A lot of the imagery flowed from things like that, I think.
Well this was a fund little horror story, a forgotten wild magic in, and the amoral indifference of an uncaring world aspect to it . I would have loved to have seen more of Twilight's body horror aspect and what exactly, and what did the field do with her once it spits her out after consuming her, but that would go against the theme of the ambivalent open mystery.
Oh man this was such a good story. I desperately want there to be like, a sequel where we follow Applejack as she recovers, but i know that would probably break the intended end of the story. Its just such a fascinating idea that I want to know more of
I love stories about cheating forces beyond comprehension and the price one ultimately pays for doing so.
What a fun horror story this was.
Maybe I'm reading too deeply into it, but what sticks with me is the detail that Celestia might know of similar cases, meaning she might know what really happened to Twilight. That after Twilight's disappearance there were 3 years of bountiful harvests is a detail I feel wouldn't go unnoticed.
And speaking of those three years, that means that somehow Equestria was able to deal with at least three major events, Tirek, Chrysalis round 2, and the Storm King's invasion, without two of the Elements of Harmony.
njnj
Great story! I really liked this one. Definitely going on the favorite shelf.
Well that was unexpected.
A good trap, I must admit.
See, this is the downside of tying the natural cycles of your world to magic, instead of physics.
You gotta move the clouds yourself, care for all the wild animals, and sacrifice a loved one every year to the non-euclidian satan field.
Fantastic story.
this was freaking horrifying !!!
10/10!!!
Poor Twilight. I wonder if the field will ever let her go like it did with Applejack, or if she's doomed to stay there forever.
To quote 8, 10/10!!!
This… was nice and creepy. But still, I hate it for that partially. Twilight has to suffer and die or worse because she “cheated the rules” and stuff like that? And why can’t Celestia do something to stop this madness? Is “the field” somehow more powerful than her now?
Sorry, just had to vent. But I just truly dislike these despairing fics with no hope at all.
DEVASTATING. I am so sad. Incredible story. It will haunt me forever that I will never know what happened to Twilight.
I know it's not exactly an original observation, but this story has a serious Lovecraft vibe about it. The idea of the earth as a living being that gives and takes, a manifestation of the primordial magic of Equestria, is an idea that I've seen teased in other fics on this site, but never like this.
There's historical precedence of sacrifice to bring a new harvest within some old pagan practices in our world. So the idea of needing to "give back" in this way is not unfounded, but having it be the field itself reaching out to take someone is exceptionally creepy.
10/10! A well-crafted, creepy tale!
Well then. It’s always the fertility and harvest deities you have to watch out for, isn’t it?