View source for Mix-and-Match Critters/Headscratchers

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According to Wikipedia, flying unicorns are a modern creation and do not come from any "legitimate" legends or mythology. If this is true, how old is the idea of a winged unicorn? I can't find anything about them online.
* It's at least as old as ''[[My Little Pony]].'' Unicorns are cute, and the original pegasi with little feathered wings molded on were cute--why not combine them?
** [[My Little Pony]] didn't have any winged unicorns except for a few animation errors.
*** The toys did. Unicorn head + Pegasus body = Winged Unicorn. They didn't even need to make any new molds to do it.
**** There were plenty of "Unipeg" ''Fakies'' ([[My Little Pony]] cash-ins by other companies), but officially there were no winged unicorns in the My Little Pony universe. That hasn't stopped the [[Better Than Canon|fandom]] of course.
** That is until ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]''. Go figure, but the two Unipeg's are essentially physical Gods.
* I figured that they're just a little too likely to get paired (possibly literally, cue [[Squick]]) with the worst kinds of [[Mary Sue]]. Combine a beautiful steed that only likes nice girls with Hercules' signature ride? That's just asking for trouble. (case in point: Worst theorised [[Canon Sue]] would be Shadow the Hedgehog dual wielding black katanas with gold kanji on the blades, riding a black winged unicorn. Let's hope Sega isn't reading this, Sonic and King Arthur is looking dubious enough as it is)
** Pegasus was Bellerophon's steed, not Hercules'.
*** [[Adaptation Displacement|Damn you, Disney!]]
** Is it wrong that I can only imagine that in the case that Shadow is, instead of riding normally, riding the unicorn like a surfboard?
*** Its right in the sense that it's probably accurate, wrong in <s> the</s> every other sense
** Unless of course she's [[She-Ra: Princess of Power|Sheee-Raaaa!]]
** The real reason is probably that Pegasus is from a specific story of [[Greek Mythology]] and confirmed to be a one-off, unique creature, while unicorns are from medieval mythology much later and in different countries, and usually considered a species. People never really made the connection until recently.
* I always thought that it was because they were both lumped under "magical horses." Why not put them together?
* My only question is why they never throw centaurs into the mix. Or the [[Body Horror|Cyclops]], for that matter.
** So replace the above with a black colored flying unitaur with one eye?
*** [[Completely Missing the Point|What does having one bull have to do with it?]]
** Fun fact: ''[[Erfworld]]'' actually ''does'' have "unipegtaur"s. They're pretty much what you think they are.
* Does a mule count a mix-and-match? It's the by-product of two distinct species (horse and donkey), and it can't breed, even with other mules, so wouldn't each one be a rare, distinct specimen?
** Fun fact: Some mules are fertile. It's just so stunningly rare that you don't see a female and a male who are fertile, concurrently, in the same place.

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[[Category:Tropes/Headscratchers]]
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