A
Winged Unicorn is
a unicorn with wings. The idea would be to combine
all the mobility of a flying creature with grace and rarity (and occasionally magical ability) of a unicorn.
Also known as a pegicorn, unipeg, or cerapter
* keros (horn) + pteros (wing)
. Occasionally winged unicorns are referred to as alicorns, which is a
portmanteau of the French words for wing (
aile) and horn (
corne). Note that in French, the word for unicorn is also
licorne.
However, be careful with this usage because the word alicorn also refers to the horn of a unicorn itself,
a li translating to "secured" (so
a li corne meaning "secured horn").
When winged unicorns appear alongside regular
pegasi* pterippi is the general name for winged horses
and unicorns, it often indicates a (benevolent) hierarchy where they're usually top of the pecking order. In fantasy universes featuring humans, winged unicorns often serve as the
Cool Horse, and will indicate that their
rider is super-special.
Generally, they are rare — too many of these critters running around your fantasy world might make a work
seem juvenile, since it's
a melding of two magical creatures
little girls generally adore. It's more likely to be a
one-off creature with an unusual background (a "freak" unicorn or pegasus, a mysterious race in itself, or the result of powerful magic). It's surprisingly uncommon for them to be the
actual hybrid offspring of a unicorn and a pegasus.
See also
Unicorn and
Pegasus for the exclusively horned and winged variants of the trope.
Examples
Anime and Manga
- Unimon of Digimon Adventure.
- PegasusAKA Helios in Sailor Moon is winged, of course, but is also a unicorn as well.
- The title character of Unico could use his magic to give himself wings in dire situations.
Literature
- Gaudior from A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
- Piers Anthony and Julie Brady's Dream A Little Dream is a fantasy kitchen sink where the two super-powerful "creators" of the magical world are bonded to a winged unicorn (referred to in the novel as a "unisus"), Esprit. The perfect prince, Michael, also has a winged unicorn stallion, Heat.
- One of Norton's quests in the Incarnations of Immortality book "Bearing An Hourglass" is to free an alicorn from an evil sorceress.
Live-Action TV
Music
Newspaper Comics
- When Wally in Dilbert joins the "1% club" he gets the key from a tiny flying unicorn.
Table Top Games
Video Games
- In the Fire Emblem series, Falcoknights ride what appear to be winged unicorns, although the horn could conceivably be part of the pegasus' armor.
- Although the horse itself is never actually seen, the first Baten Kaitos game has a Magnus card called Pegasus Horn.
Web Comics
Web Original
Western Animation
- She-Ra had Swift Wind, who she referred to as a "Pegacorn"
- Princess Gwenevere And The Jewel Riders: Sunstar was the winged unicorn bonded to the lead princess. Bafflingly, suffered from All of the Other Reindeer among other unicorns, until Starla reassured her that her wings were beautiful.
- In the My Little Pony franchise, these were almost unheard of until Generation 4, the first generation to feature permanently winged unicorns in the toy line itself.
- In My Little Pony: Escape from Catrina, a Blooper causes pegasus Baby Surprise to have a horn for a couple of shots during the song "Let's Not Take A Nap".
- The My Little Pony Tales episode "Up, Up and Away" features the four Glow 'n Show Ponies with wings, despite only Starglow being a pegasus in the toy line. Dazzleglow, a unicorn in the toy line, has both wings and a horn here.
- Four Generation 2 unicorns came with clip-on wings: Copper Glow, Silver Glow, Golden Glow, and Diamond Glow.
- In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, winged unicorns are actually all three types of ponies combined (according to Word Of God) but the show has only referred to them as unicorns; a post
by Hasbro's My Little Pony Facebook page provides the more specific term "Pegasus unicorn" (though this still doesn't acknowledge the Earth pony part of them).
- Pictured above are Princesses Celestia and Luna. They appear to be the "gods" of the world, being able to live thousands of years and having immense magical power—Princess Celestia raises the sun every day, and Princess Luna raises the moon every night.
- Celestia's niece Princess Cadance is another Pegasus unicorn princess, although she doesn't seem to have anywhere near the same level of power as Celestia and Luna.
- In "Hearts and Hooves Day", a Pegasus unicorn princess is told of and shown in a book. It's unknown if this princess is one of the above mentioned princesses or a separate character (though it's extremely unlikely to be Cadance, who's actually rather young).
- In "The Mysterious Mare Do Well", the eponymous heroine appears to be one. This turns out to be because she had a Collective Identity which included unicorn Twilight Sparkle and Pegasus Fluttershy, with Mare Do Well's Badass Cape and Nice Hat hiding the fact that she never had wings and a horn at the same time.
- Unicorn Rarity gains butterfly-like wings in "Sonic Rainboom" via a temporary magic spell, in the toy Glimmer Wings Rarity via an Imagine Spot, and in the licensed art print and shirt Flight of the Ponies.
- From the episode "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", the changelings, while not ponies, are pony-shaped and have horns (which they can use some magic with) as well as wings, though they look very different than those of ponies.
- In one of Adventures in Ponyville's minigames, Twilight Sparkle uses magic to give the player's pony (as well as her earth pony friend) temporary pegasus wings. If the player's pony is a unicorn, she'll be one of these until the minigame is over.
- One of the French magazine stories introduces Canon Foreigner Léon, Princess Celestia's 4-year-old cousin.
- Exclusive to the licensed merchandise, the Doctor Whooves Line men's shirt and Doctor Whooves shirt feature a pair of Canon Foreigner alicorns (Captain Ersatzes of Weeping Angels), the Grown Up Ponies art print depicts Pegasi Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy with unicorn horns, the Engineered Alicorn shirt depicts unicorn Twilight Sparkle as a steampunk alicorn, the All Dem Ponies men's shirt features six Canon Foreigner Pegasus unicorns, and the◊ formerly◊ available◊ Iconic◊ Print◊ shirt◊ features a Creator Cameo of producer Lauren Faust's pony-self.
- The Virtual Paper Doll ponies from the Web Games The Fabulous Ponymaker and/or Rarity's Bridal Boutique can be Pegasus unicorns if they're designed that way by the player.
- A couple of the show's Bloopers have made ordinary ponies into these: three stallions in the Canterlot Royal Guard during a Flashback from the episode "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1" and a unicorn filly in Magic Kindergarten during an Imagine Spot from the episode "Lesson Zero".
- A few of the many suspected factory reject and/or prototype toys are these: of unicorn Rarity, of toy-exclusive Pegasus Flitterheart, and a Glimmer Wings mashup of unicorn sisters Rarity and Sweetie Belle.
- Eunice from Dragon Tales.
- One episode of Word Girl had Becky and her friend Violet come up with a new mythical animal, which turned out to be a winged unicorn. They couldn't decide whether it should be called either a "Unisus" or a "Pegacorn", so they decided to call it a "Pegasussicorn" instead.
