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Fan Works
I stared at the wretched-looking thing hanging upside-down from Fluttershy's forehoof. It gave a feeble little hack.
"Why are you showing me this?" I said.
"Because you said you wanted to see it with your own eyes," said Fluttershy. "I'm sorry, did I misunderstand?"
"No, no," I said, attempting to hold back a speck of gorge. "It's just that I'm typically used to seeing critters with two or fewer wings, and with all those wings being of the same general type. Not a couple butterfly ones and a couple bat ones all scattered around here and there. Another thing I am used to: critters whose left halves are pretty much the same as their right halves."
"My new natural order says that symmetry can be very limiting," said Fluttershy, sounding pleased. "We don't want to limit our little friends, do we?" She scrunched her snout up and nuzzled at the abomination. "Do we? Do we? No we don't!"
"Why are you showing me this?" I said.
"Because you said you wanted to see it with your own eyes," said Fluttershy. "I'm sorry, did I misunderstand?"
"No, no," I said, attempting to hold back a speck of gorge. "It's just that I'm typically used to seeing critters with two or fewer wings, and with all those wings being of the same general type. Not a couple butterfly ones and a couple bat ones all scattered around here and there. Another thing I am used to: critters whose left halves are pretty much the same as their right halves."
"My new natural order says that symmetry can be very limiting," said Fluttershy, sounding pleased. "We don't want to limit our little friends, do we?" She scrunched her snout up and nuzzled at the abomination. "Do we? Do we? No we don't!"
The Bugul Noz was still for a long moment, considering. Then, gently and with not the faintest hint of magic, the shadows began to slide away from his body and back into their appropriate paths while the mists fell away, drifting down in a spreading pool around the draconequus.
Aldrovanda hissed, sliding back under the water’s surface, and Bon Bon took a few splashing steps back. The being that stood before them was similar to Discord in many ways, his body long and serpentine and patched together from a hodgepodge of different creatures—but he was also, quite clearly, immeasurably older than his wild relative. Where Discord had had only two mismatched horns, the Bugul Noz had many, branching up from his heavyset head like an unruly thicket and protruding in odd patches from his shaggy neck. His skin was a patchwork of many creatures' hides, mostly four-legged—but there were a few odd patches from boneless beasts, soft and shimmering with shifting colors or jointed like a locust’s thorax. Three wings arched above his back, two of which appeared to be pieced together from the wings or membranes of many creatures—bats, birds, insects, flying squirrels, dragons—and the third of which Bon Bon could have sworn was actually a whale’s fin. His arms and legs were chimerical, his tail was a zoological kaleidoscope, and his head was a snaggletoothed abomination, angular and bulging in all the wrong places. Only his eyes were not quite so terrible to look at; they were similar to Discord's, certainly, but where the spirit of chaos' eyes had flared madly, the Bugul Noz's were calm and quiet, like amber glowing with the warmth of ancient sunlight.
Aldrovanda hissed, sliding back under the water’s surface, and Bon Bon took a few splashing steps back. The being that stood before them was similar to Discord in many ways, his body long and serpentine and patched together from a hodgepodge of different creatures—but he was also, quite clearly, immeasurably older than his wild relative. Where Discord had had only two mismatched horns, the Bugul Noz had many, branching up from his heavyset head like an unruly thicket and protruding in odd patches from his shaggy neck. His skin was a patchwork of many creatures' hides, mostly four-legged—but there were a few odd patches from boneless beasts, soft and shimmering with shifting colors or jointed like a locust’s thorax. Three wings arched above his back, two of which appeared to be pieced together from the wings or membranes of many creatures—bats, birds, insects, flying squirrels, dragons—and the third of which Bon Bon could have sworn was actually a whale’s fin. His arms and legs were chimerical, his tail was a zoological kaleidoscope, and his head was a snaggletoothed abomination, angular and bulging in all the wrong places. Only his eyes were not quite so terrible to look at; they were similar to Discord's, certainly, but where the spirit of chaos' eyes had flared madly, the Bugul Noz's were calm and quiet, like amber glowing with the warmth of ancient sunlight.
—Mendacity, Chapter 7
"I have the heart of a lion and the ferocity of a tiger! I'd have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox too, but Doctor Moreau was arrested before he could perform the operation."
— Gneelix, Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space
Literature
"I'm merely improving upon God's flawed designs!" Nedroid replied, "I mean, what's better? A boring, ordinary cat? Or the mighty CATBLADE!?"
Music
True abomination at the beckon of the Nether
From the scales to the fin to the fur to the feather
I'm all of Animalia stitched together by a severed hand
Freed into the cold and told to bring us home a head in sand
From the scales to the fin to the fur to the feather
I'm all of Animalia stitched together by a severed hand
Freed into the cold and told to bring us home a head in sand
— Aesop Rock, "Fixed and Dilated"
Cat-Bug is a cat, but he's got bugness in his veins
Man-House lives within himself with thoughtful human brains
Neither one is equal
To the challenge of the freak we'll
Call the Bee of the Bird of the Moth.
Man-House lives within himself with thoughtful human brains
Neither one is equal
To the challenge of the freak we'll
Call the Bee of the Bird of the Moth.
— They Might Be Giants, "Bee of the Bird of the Moth"
Tabletop Games
"It's this big, owlish, bearish thing. Big deal. I can play that game too. "'Watch out for the hawklion! Beware the vulturetiger! Don't worry too much about the sparrowspaniel!'"
Video Games
All the creatures around here suck.
We need to make 'em cooler.
So the theme will be
-Tougher!
-Rougher!
-Badder!
We'll mix and match this and that to create
whole new things no one's ever seen before!
I dub it the 'Fascinating Chimera Project'.
Let's reconstruct and modify stuff slowly and steadily.
We need to make 'em cooler.
So the theme will be
-Tougher!
-Rougher!
-Badder!
We'll mix and match this and that to create
whole new things no one's ever seen before!
I dub it the 'Fascinating Chimera Project'.
Let's reconstruct and modify stuff slowly and steadily.
— A message from Porky Minch in a Pig Mask notebook, Mother 3
Webcomics
"I'm sorry, no. I won't take it. If we accept orc zombies, we open the gate to all kinds of crap. What's next? Centaur dragons? How about demon fairies? Maybe buffalo elves? Heck, why not whale vultures? I'm going to make a stand for plausible monsters everywhere. Who's with me?"
— Black Mage, 8-Bit Theater: ('And Badger Snakes'
)
)"Why would anyone crossbreed a perfectly serviceable bear with an owl? ... A bear is already a dangerous predator; what benefit is there in breeding it with a smaller, weaker, less frightening creature? What should we expect next? The dreaded bunnywolf? The ferocious penguinlion? Perhaps the terrible ducksnake?"
— Vaarsuvius, The Order of the Stick, #322
Tarquin: Gentlemen, welcome to the Brontosaurus Express! Beats walking back to town, huh?
Roy: Isn't a "brontosaurus" really just an apatosaurus with the head of a different dinosaur?
Tarquin: And a hippogriff is really just a horse with the head and wings of a bird, but I've still got eight squadrons mounted on the damn things.
Roy: Hmm. Fair enough.
Roy: Isn't a "brontosaurus" really just an apatosaurus with the head of a different dinosaur?
Tarquin: And a hippogriff is really just a horse with the head and wings of a bird, but I've still got eight squadrons mounted on the damn things.
Roy: Hmm. Fair enough.
Web Original
MONKEY BEES MONKEY BEES MONKEY BEES MONKEY BEES
— Head Injury Theater, "Celebrating 30 Years of Very Stupid Monsters"
, "Celebrating 30 Years of Very Stupid Monsters""I'm looking at this from every god-damn angle there is! I can't tell where it starts and where it ends!"
— JonTron reacting to a bootleg creature he dubs as "Abomination"
Western Animation
Katara: (reading a newspaper) The king's having a party tonight for his pet bear.
Aang: You mean platypus-bear?
Katara: No, it just says, "bear."
Sokka: Certainly you mean his pet skunk-bear?
Toph: Or his armadillo-bear?
Aang: Gopher-bear?
Katara: Just... "bear."
(beat)
Toph: This place is weird.
Aang: You mean platypus-bear?
Katara: No, it just says, "bear."
Sokka: Certainly you mean his pet skunk-bear?
Toph: Or his armadillo-bear?
Aang: Gopher-bear?
Katara: Just... "bear."
(beat)
Toph: This place is weird.
— Avatar: The Last Airbender, "City of Walls and Secrets"
Good...bird-horse thingy!
—Sokka, Avatar: The Last Airbender, "The Avatar State"
This creature is called a Draconequus. He has the head of a pony and a body made up of all sorts of things.
—Cheerilee, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "The Return of Harmony: Part One"
Float by,
Drift through my dreams,
Whalemingo! (Whalemingo!)
In the sky,
Likes strawberry cream,
Whalemingo! (Whalemingo!)
You take a whale,
You drop the "fla",
Keep the "mingo",
That's how I named it
Whalemingo! (Whalemingo!)
If you see a big, pink whale
With feathers and a beak
And skinny little legs, then bingo,
That's a whalemingo! (Whalemingo! Whalemingo! Whalemingo!)
— Buford, Phineas and Ferb, "When Worlds Collide"
On a tiny little island
in the ocean called pacific
there's a mixed up group of creatures
who are really quite horrific
mixed together with whatever crap
was found or could be grabbed
re-invented in the bowels of a lab
— Spliced theme song
Real Life
"The Great Roe is a mythological beast with the head of a lion and the body of a lion, though not the same lion."
