Will we get to see unicorns in season 9?

[ManaMinori 4,149]

You guys may be thinking “Muffin has lost it. We already have been seeing unicorns in literally every single season of My Little Pony: Friendship is magic!”. But I’m not crazy, and I’ll explain why. Truth is, we haven’t seen unicorns in FiM yet. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll get to see one before this show runs its course, and be allowed a moment where the everything is flipped on its head, and the mythical characters have an epiphany and question their entire existence and everything they knew, I the face of the actual unicorns.

 

Ok, what am I talking about, here- I’m sure you guys are asking? Well, I’ll break it down. Webster’s New World dictionary says that a “unicorn” is a mythical horselike animal with a single horn growing from its forehead. It’s what we see in MLP, and have seen since the dawn of generation 1, right? This animal, according to the New World dictionary is mythical, fictional, make believe, and not real. No unicorn, the way Webster’s New World translation, has existed or ever existed in the course of real life history. However, if you have access to an 1828 Noah Webster dictionary, which is the first edition dictionary that Webster came out with, it specifies the unicorn is an animal with one horn; the monoceros. This name is often applied to the rhinoceros. This definition says nothing of a horse or horse-like animal, nor a mythical, fictitious creature, or Greek mythology. If you look up “rhinoceros” in the same dictionary, it states that a rhinoceros is a genus of quadrupeds of two species, one of which is the unicorn, has a single horn growing almost erect from its nose. This animal, when fully grown, is said to be 12 feet in length. There is another species with two horns, the bicornis. They are natives of Asia and Africa.

 

The Kings James Bible was translated 418 years ago, in 1611. If the definition of the world ‘unicorn’ has changed in just the past 200 years from ‘rhinoceros’ to ‘horse’, then it doesn’t make sense to take a modern definition of the world ‘unicorn’ and apply it to a 400 year old translation of the Bible, where it originated. Even today, the scientific name for the Asian One Horned Rhinoceros is “Rhinoceros Unicornis”, with “Diceros bicornis” being the scientific name for the Black Rhinoceros. Where do you think those scientific names came from, I wonder?

 

“Unicornis” and “bicornis” are Latin words. Interestingly enough, in Psalms 92:10, in the Kings James Version, the scripture rads “but my horn shalt thou exalt like that of a unicorn-”, and in the Latin Vulgate, the same verse reads “Et exaltabitur sicut unicornis cornu meum, et senectus mea in misericordia uberi.” “Unicornis” is the same word being used in the scientific name of the rhinoceros. In Job 33:9 KJV, it reads “Will the unicorn be able to serve thee, or abide by thy crib”, while again, the same scripture in the Latin Vulgate reads “numquid volet rhinoceros servire tibi, aut, morabitur ad praesepe tuum?” Rhinoceros is the Latin word that’s being used in this scripture-verse.

 

The World Book Encyclopedia says: “People once believed that the unicorn’s horn contained an antidote for poison, and during the Middle Ages, powders supposedly made from such horns sold for extremely high prices. Most scholars believe the image of the unicorn was derived from hearsay European accounts of the rhinoceros.” However, as we go further back, we see that nine times the Scriptures refer to an animal by the Hebrew term reʼemʹ. The Greek Septuagint rendered reʼemʹ with the sense ‘of one horn,’ or unicorn. The Latin Vulgate often translates it as “rhinoceros.” Other versions use ‘wild ox,’ ‘wild beasts,’ or ‘buffalo.’ Lexicographers Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner show that it means “wild oxen,” with the scientific identification Bos primigenius. This is a “subfamily of the large horned ungulate family.” The New Encyclopædia Britannica explains:

“Certain poetical passages of the Old Testament refer to a strong and splendid horned animal called reʼemʹ. This word is translated ‘unicorn’ or ‘rhinoceros’ in many versions, but many modern translations prefer ‘wild ox’ (aurochs), which is the correct meaning of the Hebrew reʼemʹ.”

Since in current English “ox” has the sense of a castrated male, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures consistently and correctly renders reʼemʹ “wild bull”. The aurochs (wild ox, or bull) seems to have become extinct by the 17^th century, but scientists have deduced that it was quite different from the unicorn of legend. The ancient aurochs had a body height of about six feet [1.8 m], and a length of some ten feet [3 m]. It might weigh 2,000 pounds [900 kg], and each of its two horns could be over 30 inches [75 cm] long.

 

Personally, I would very much like to see these extinct creatures show up as a part of MLP lore, as “the original unicorns”. I won't necessarily mind too much if Hasbro went with Rhinos, instead, since they might not put in as much research, but  the concept of having an "original" unicorn around, perhaps meeting and blowing the mind of the newfangled "New age" unicorns we've come to know, is an interesting one, either way.

Edited November 10, 2018 by Nightmare Muffin

[Misty Shadow 8,200]

Congratulations. This is the first serious question thread I've ever clicked on in my days of using the internet where my reaction to the question has immediately gone from this...

"Of course! " 

And then after reading the context gone to...

"Of course not! "

Though I'm pleased to be educated on the Bible mentioning unicorns, there is simply no way the show would suddenly introduce obscure Biblical lore into the show. Even humoring the possibility of them doing so, what sense would that make for them to throw in a twist like that at the last minute just for the unicorns? They would also have to do the same thing for the pegasi and the earth ponies to balance it out, and that's also ignoring the fact that we already have different kinds of unicorns in the show. They're called Kirin, and their introduction has definitely not flipped the entire show on its head. I think that if there were to be a major twist in the ninth season, it would involve all of the creatures of Equestria, not just the unicorns, but that's just me. 

[Hardway Bet 96]

I'd rather have the unicorn from Ghosts 'n Goblins.

[MangoFoalix 25,058]

Uh, NMM...

The unicorn ponies are still unicorns. They have one horn growing from their skull. They might not be what your Bible unicorn is, but are still classified as unicorns in the pony world. Believe it or not, MLP:FiM's universe doesn't have to correlate with real life since it's a TV show.

[Midnight Solace 5,134]

To specifically answer your question, yes, we will see unicorns in season 9, but only the ponies the show classifies them as. The Bible unicorns you describe probably wouldn't... I think it would make it confusing if the show introduced the "original" unicorns as rhinos.

[Passion 3,489]

You've lost it~ totally lost it~

[Jeric 46,883]

Eh, several Indus Valley artwork that predates several of your references depict drawings, carvings, etc of a horse-like creature with a singular horn extending from the forehead. Sometimes curved, sometimes not. The purposeful KJ translation of a Jewish mythological creature is well known, and common. Mythological creatures also take on a dynamic nature over time like any other narrative element. Folklore of vampires only has a passing resemblance to vampires seen in pop-culture, yet the modern takes on vampires are still accurately termed vampires. 

 

Also so right-clicking and pasting to match the style would help make you text more digestible. The Wikipedia font doesn’t march with your other sources.