A festering heart of darkness lies beneath all this...
"Mortal Beings have more courage and goodness than you realize, Luna. Treat them with kindness and gentleness, and you will see it."
— Princess Celestia to Nightmare Moon
Hùndùn, formerly MLP is an ongoing humanized High Fantasy Adventure fanfic of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic by Akira Hayashi. It is a Darker and Edgier, Bloodier and Gorier, and Hotter and Sexier retelling of the original cartoon in which the author's stated goal is to bring the darker and more taboo implications of the original show to the forefront in order to demonstrate its hidden brilliance.
The basic premise of this fic is very similar to that of the original show: Princess Celestia dispatches her student Twilight Sparkle to the town of Avalon (this fic's equivalent of Ponyville) with an important mission. Twilight brings her apprentice Spike on her mission, and is aided by her five strange new friends in performing it. However, the key difference between Hùndùn and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is that rather than being tasked with studying The Power of Friendship, Twilight and her friends are charged with preventing Discord, the God of Chaos, from escaping his prison in Tartarus and resuming his oppressive rule over the world as he did thousands of years ago.
The ongoing fic can be read here
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This work provides examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: The world of Hùndùn, much like the world of the original show, has characters with names like Twilight, Scootaloo, Celestia, Night Light, and... David Baker, Stephen, and Molly.
- Antagonist Title: "Hùndùn" is Discord's real name.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The Gods are the personifications of primal forces of nature.
- Attack of the Town Festival: The first major conflict of the fic is Luna's release and attempted usurpation of Celestia on the day of the world's one thousandth Summer Sun Celebration.
- Bilingual Bonus: "Hùndùn" is the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese "混沌".
- Crapsack World: The world of Hùndùn is quite similar to the Sugar Bowl world of the original show; however, its more
unsavory and horrific aspects are more heavily emphasized. For instance, the Reality Warper Discord is given Adaptational Villainy and is an Adaptational Badass so that, rather than merely being seen as a significant threat to the world's peace, he is regarded as a full-fledged Eldritch Abomination God of Evil whose return would herald the End of the World as We Know It. - Crapsaccharine World: Despite seeming to be very similar to the Sugar Bowl world of the original show, the world of Hùndùn features such things as child prostitution, oppressive, soul-destroying cults, and a flourishing culture of bigotry.
- Dark Fic: One of the main focuses of Hùndùn is bringing the Fridge Horror aspects of the original show to the forefront as part of its deconstruction.
- The Dark Times: The history of the world of Hùndùn begins with the long, horrific rule of Discord, the God of Chaos.
- Deconstruction Fic: Of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. It is also a Genre Deconstruction of other Friendship is Magic fanfics.
- The Dreaded: All of the Sealed Gods, but especially the God of Chaos Discord.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Everfree Forest is rumored to be filled with these, though nobody knows if there really are any there.
- Eldritch Location: The Everfree Forest, which is impossible for cartographers to map and gets more dangerous the deeper you delve into it.
- Fantastic Racism: Each of the three mortal races of Beings has a deeply racist stereotype of the other two; Elves are portrayed as perverted, pederast warlocks of dark magic, Angels are portrayed as bloodthirsty, warmongering barbarians, and Humans are portrayed as simple, apelike oafs.
- Fix Fic: Hùndùn borrows the plot lines of many episodes of Friendship is Magic; however, the author has altered it in places in order to improve upon it when it's not deconstructing it.
- Functional Magic: Magic is regarded and studied as a science in the world of Hùndùn; there are even specialized disciplines within it and a formal educational program that all Elves must undertake to learn them.
- Friends with Benefits: Rainbow has had this kind of relationship simultaneously with Lightning Dust, Gilda, Fluttershy, and possibly others.
- Gayngst: Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Scootaloo suffer from this due to the homophobia from their peers.
- God-Emperor: Each of the world's kingdoms is ruled by a Physical God.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Discord, the God of Chaos.
- Great Offscreen War: Before the events of Hùndùn, there were three major wars: first, the usurpation of Discord by the other Gods; second, the Civil War between the Gods to fill the power vacuum Discord left behind that occurred immediately after his downfall; and third, an attempted usurpation of Celestia by Nightmare Moon a thousand years before the events of the fic.
- Hegemonic Empire: The world of Hùndùn is one of these; the land is divided into kingdoms, each one ruled by one of the Gods. They are all under the rule of Equestria, which in turn is under the rule of High Princess Celestia.
- Hell on Earth: What the world was like during Discord's rule, and what its citizens fear it will become again if he returns.
- High Fantasy: Hùndùn is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic reimagined as a fantasy epic.
- Hot God: The Gods of this world are explicitly stated to be the most beautiful Beings in the world.
- I'll Be in My Bunk: Spike does this whenever any of his female friends bathe together or allude to having sex.
- Just Toying with Them: When Nightmare Moon fights the main cast, it's made abundantly clear both before and after their battle that Nightmare is holding back tremendously. She does so in order to not kill any of the main cast, who she hopes to persuade to join her.
- Nebulous Evil Organization: The hooded cult that released Nightmare Moon seems to be this.
- Our Angels Are Different: Angels aren't immortal or divine in Hùndùn; they're simply one of the three mortal races of Beings. What differentiates them from the other Beings is their wings, which give them the ability to fly, and a magical ability to walk on clouds.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Humans essentially fill the role of dwarves in Hùndùn, being stronger, hardier, and more stubborn than the other mortal races.
- Our Elves Are Different: In Hùndùn, Elves are nothing more than mortal Beings with pointed ears and the ability to perform magic.
- Our Gods Are Different: Gods are immortal personifications of nature in Hùndùn, though they are as prone to injury and failings as mortals. In this way, they're very similar to the classical greek gods.
- Princesses Rule: The ultimate ruler of the world is Celestia, the Princess of Equestria. However, this might be a Justified Trope; after all, Celestia's full title is "High Princess", and even though he is imprisoned, Discord is still referred to as the King of the World, which might mean that his title is non-transferrable.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Exaggerated; there is not just one, but seven of these in the form of the seven dark Sealed Gods, each imprisoned in their own tailor-made hell.
- Steampunk: The world of Hùndùn is mildly steampunk; their In-Universe Table Top RPG, Steam, is set in a world that is completely so.
- Top God: Discord held this position during his rule, as both King of the Gods and (likely) the God of Gods. Once he was overthrown, this position was appropriated by Celestia (at least the King of the Gods part...).
- We Can Rule Together: Nightmare takes an interest in the main cast after seeing them and their abilities, and subsequently offers them positions as high-ranking servants to her.
- Winged Humanoid: The Angels, natch. The Gods have even bigger wings.
