Fierce Unicorn

He'll eat off your hand... And arm... Shoulder... Anything he can sink his teeth into.

"And take heed unto thyself, O man, and beware of the unicorn, who is the Demon."

— Saint Basil of Caesarea, 370 CE

This trope is an aversion to the stereotypical depiction of Unicorns. Fierce Unicorns are swift, impossible to capture, and ferocious creatures that will kill anyone who dares cross them. These unicorns are belligerent and indomitable creatures that impale or stab anyone with their iconic spiral horns.

As an adjective, "fierce" applies in one of two ways. The unicorn can be a fierce-looking animal that will harm other characters because of their aggressive instincts or they've become fiercely aggressive because their boundaries were not met and accommodated. Fierce can also describe something as aggressive, intense, or powerful. For example, sapient unicorns can have a fierce temper where they would attack or defend anyone they see as a threat. They can also be fiercely audacious, running amok and causing problems for themselves and other characters.

Unicorns are traditionally known for their white coat to reflect their Biblical association with purity but their ferocious nature is hidden by their deceptive bright colors. As dangerous creatures, the benevolent image of unicorns is treated as a deceptive action for Luring in Prey. The unicorn may show a more menacing form when it is in danger or because something has affected its ability to disguise its true form to its prey.

Unicorns are associated with virgins as it is said that only a virgin maiden can subdue or pacify a unicorn. As an unholy creature, this association is played out in one of three ways: either virgins are killed or eaten by unicorns as a delicacy, the unicorn will kill or eat anyone who isn't a virgin, or the unicorn can only be trained or ridden by a virgin.

In stories where unicorns are depicted as animals, unicorns emphasize the danger and harsh reality of nature. Unicorns are mistakenly seen as harmless creatures due to their reputation for beauty and innocence. A unicorn can be just as dangerous and aggressive as any other animal and can hide a deadly capacity for violence when they decide to show their hostile behaviors. Like all animals in stories, unicorns have instincts that drive them for survival and are not a commodity to be exploited as a spectacle.

In stories where unicorns are tainted (i.e. by corruption, curses, etc), the unicorns have become feral after being bedeviled by dark magic, driven mad by environmental damage, or affected by a character's (mainly the antagonist's) actions. Because of their status as pure creatures, they are susceptible to supernatural or magical activities. In their feral state of mind, the appearance of the unicorns can change to a darker and scruffier look to reflect this new status. If the unicorns were previously peaceful, then they have turned aggressive and hostile, they may have even turned carnivorous or have become man-eaters. If the unicorns were magical, they use dark magic to cause havoc through their extremely wild or violent behavior.

In stories where unicorns are demons or demonic creatures, they are undeniably dangerous. These unicorns appear wonderful and awe-striking due to their glamour, but other creatures unaffected by their glamour fear and despise them. Demonic unicorns are, ultimately, deceptive beasts and ambush predators, luring in prey by posing as beautiful, graceful, and innocent creatures. The unicorns lure in victims with their charming appearances so they can kill and consume their prey before they get the chance to run away. Without their glamor, they have a demonic appearance and are more likely to eat virgins, hurt anyone who isn't a virgin, and cause chaos.

In downplayed examples where unicorns are sapient characters, they are an inversion of the child-friendly unicorn where they are perpetually cheerful, graceful, innocent, and pure of heart. Male unicorns, in particular, hate being called cute and perceive any comments about their feminine appearance or girly stereotyping as an insult. These unicorns are complete Jerkasses who are fiercely temperamental and even volatile as they run amok.

Sub-Trope of Unicorn. Subversion of Unicorns Are Sacred. Inversion of Unicorns Prefer Virgins. Compare Hellish Horse where horses are seen as scary.

Contrast Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, Chummy Mummy, Wonderful Werewolf, Friendly Zombie, Friendly Ghost, Friendly Skeleton, Delightful Dragon, and Benevolent Monsters for cases where mythical creatures typically portrayed as dangerous/evil are instead portrayed as friendly/benevolent.

Compare Xenophobic Herbivore, which involves a similar subversion of the Animal Stereotype that herbivores are friendly and accepting.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Delicious in Dungeon:
- Implied. The unicorn has a reputation for being saintly and tamed by virgins but it is still a monster, revealed by its extreme aggression towards humans.
- The Bicorn is supposedly attracted to sin and impurity. This is shown when a Bicorn immediately rips Chilchuck's arm off when he gets too close.
Coffin Princess Chaika: Unicorns are a subset of a class of monsters known as Fayla. Grotesque horse-like creatures with an undead look, tusks and fangs, a territorial and aggressive attitude, a sharp horn, and an ability to project magic attacks and walk on air.
Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn: The Unicorn itself, a Gundam based on the Tapestry of the Lady and the Unicorn, is a fearsome psychically-powered machine that easily overpowers all competition.
Overlord (2012): Aura, Shalltear, and Albedo learn that Albedo's class allows her to ride a bicorn (a huge, armored, vicious warhorse with two horns), but when they test it out, the bicorn refuses to move. They look it up in Shalltear's Monster Compendium and learn that as the Evil Counterpart to the unicorn, it can only be used by sexually-active women (revealing Albedo as an Unexpected Virgin).
Wonderful Pretty Cure!: Nico-sama, creator of Nico Garden, manages to be this and Unicorns Are Sacred. While she's normally very cheery and upbeat, acting like an Idol Singer of sorts for the animals under her watch, her debut episode shows that she has quite the temper if provoked. In addition to outright admitting she once believed Humans Are Bastards just like Gaou, Nico expresses a willingness to remove the Precures' powers if they are unable to vanquish him, showing that she resorts to harsh methods in times of crisis.
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Invoked. Team Unicorn, a trio of D-Wheelers uses Unicorn-motif decks. Their first duelist Andore defeated Jack and Aki. Andore was only defeated because of his own foolishness during the match.

Art

Beast Fables: The knight's unicorn is a chimera that particularly aggressive or protective stallions can transform into. They have sharp teeth, three-toed hooves, and a rhinoceros horn, and make loyal companions for those who can tame them.

Comic Books

Conan the Barbarian: Conan is hired to retrieve the horn of a unicorn for a ruler who had heard it would cure his impotence. The unicorn is an efficient killer that has the skulls of everyone who'd tried to capture or kill it decorating its valley.
Trail of the Unicorn: Donald expects the unicorn to be shy and cautious, but it is a very territorial wild animal that tries to gore anyone who enters its territory and has a horn sharp enough to penetrate solid rock.
Rat Queens: Unicorns are vicious predators that spread a disease that causes insanity followed by death.
Xanadu (Vicky Wyman): Empress Alicia and her late father Alynrudd are anthropomorphic unicorns and have fiercely led armies into battle.

Fairy Tales

The Brave Little Tailor: The main character must catch a dangerous unicorn. He tricks it into getting stuck in a tree by goading the animal into charging and then stepping aside at the last minute.

Fanworks

Fallout: Equestria: Artificially-created alicorns are one of the most dangerous enemies of the Wasteland. They are all female, can teleport, have bulletproof shields, and have a Hive Mind controlled by a supposed Goddess.

Film — Animated

Barbie of Swan Lake: Lila, one of the animals in the Enchanted Forest, is an aggressive and hot-tempered unicorn who's eager to fight the Evil Sorcerer Rothbart.
The LEGO Movie: Princess UniKitty is a pink unicorn-feline hybrid. Although she's perpetually cheerful, when she loses her temper, she goes on a rampage and is powerful enough to eat "metal."
Unicorn Wars: Invoked; The Teddy Bears religion portrays the unicorns as demonic, although it turns out to be a Path of Inspiration. The unicorns appear to be more noble than they look, they're only trying to protect the magical forest and prevent the teddy bears from unwittingly unleashing a God of Evil.

Film — Live-Action

The Cabin in the Woods: When the scientists are gambling on which monster will be summoned to kill the protagonists, one of the monsters is a unicorn. When the monsters inside the facility are released, a scientist is stabbed to death by a unicorn.
CarousHELL: Duke is a carousel unicorn who comes to life and seeks revenge on the people who abused him.
Central Intelligence: Discussed by Robbie Weirdicht/Bob Stone when explaining the fact that he wears a unicorn shirt despite otherwise being so buff and manly in the present. He gushes about how unicorns can impale people with their horns. His explanation doubles as Red-Flag Recreation Material, especially since he has similar thinking about his other, otherwise "girly" interests.
Killer Unicorn: A Brooklyn party boy is excited to go to a huge party event, but the night takes a turn when he is attacked by a stranger. A year later, he gives his social life a second chance, but a man wearing a unicorn mask is killing his friends one by one.
SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods: The unicorns are the only species of monsters that other monsters fear. However, they can be controlled by someone providing them food, and fortunately, they seem to like Skittles.
"The unicorn is the most fearsome creature of its realm. Ruthless and cruel, not like the ponies from your storybooks. They loathe humanity."
Tarnation: A woman named Oscar makes her way to a remote cabin in the woods after losing her job and her boyfriend. Oscar finds herself caught up in a ritual designed to raise Satan because the satanic master of a demon unicorn seeks Oscar's blood to complete a ritual that will raise the devil from Hell.

Folklore

In one piece of folklore surrounding the travels of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian conqueror's men came across a herd of animals in the plains of northern India called the Aeternae, which looked like unicorns, except their horns were serrated instead of spiralling. They were also incredibly vicious and territorial, and killed many of Alexander's soldiers who made the mistake of provoking them into fighting.

Gamebooks

Choose Your Own Adventure: "The Magic of the Unicorn" is set in XVI century France has your character looking for a unicorn to use its horn to purify a well. However, the unicorn can kill you if you make the wrong choices.

Literature

Ancient India As Described By Ktesias The Knidian: This transition of “Indika” by Photios is believed to be one of the oldest descriptions of unicorns. Ctesias of Cnidus described them as violent animals who protected their foals and killed anyone who posed a threat to them with their horns Ctesias of Cnidus also described their horns as multicolored and claimed that the faces of unicorns were red, meaning they were either stained with blood or that red was the animal's natural color.
"This animal is exceedingly swift and powerful, so that no creature, neither horse nor any other, can overtake it. There is no other way to capture them in the hunt than this: when they conduct their young to pasture, if they are surrounded by many horsemen, they refuse to flee, thus forsaking their offspring. They fight with thrusts of horn; they kick, bite, and strike with wounding force both horses and hunters; but they perish under the blows of arrows and javelins, for they cannot be taken alive."
Ancrene Wisse: The unicorn represents the sin of Wrath of the Seven Deadly Sins.
The Bad Unicorn Trilogy: Princess is a beautiful white unicorn who gets her sick kicks killing and eating other creatures. It's implied that other unicorns are evil too, though not quite as sadistic as Princess.
Battle Ground (2020): Unicorns of the Winter Court are Giger-esque, exoskeletal, eyeless yet true-seeing, bloodthirsty engines of war. Queen Mab rides one into battle, amplifying her power through its horn, and the sight provokes a rare Sarcasm Failure from Harry.
The horn. What had that Tim Curry character called it, an antenna pointing to heaven? Maybe he'd been half-right.
Black Dogs: Unicorns are mangy, carnivorous horse-like things that prey on those that fall for their illusions. Which only virgins are susceptible to.
Book of Imaginary Beings: Unicorns are described as fierce creatures impossible to capture alive. They can kill an elephant with one strike of their horn and are mortal enemies of lions. A virgin maiden can catch and render a unicorn tame, which, according to Leonardo da Vinci, is due to the unicorn's lust overpowering its fierceness.
Bruce Coville's anthology A Glory of Unicorns has the short story "Tearing Down the Unicorns", in which Stacey is furious when her older sister tears the posters of gentle unicorns from their walls. She then sees a unicorn with a fiery mane and tail dancing in the yard, with flickers of flame trailing behind it.
Chronicles of the Kencyrath: Rathorns (pronounced rath-orn, not rat-horn) are horned equines that are carnivorous, with fangs and sharp dew-claws, and ivory armor that covers their head, neck, chest, and forelegs. Their eyes are red, and they are very violent and vicious, to the degree of being notorious for man-eating.
Dracopedia: Unicorns are denizens of European woodlands and are highly territorial and extremely ferocious when cornered or provoked. Hunters frequently pursued them for their horns, believing they had magical properties.
The Dream Eaters and Other Stories: The short story "The Dragon's Claw" features a malicious unicorn.
European Folk and Fairy Tales: In the story A Dozen At A Blow, the Guile Hero, who is a tailor, meets the king, who orders him to capture a unicorn that is ravaging the kingdom and killing people.
The unicorns of Meredith Anne Pierce's The Firebringer Trilogy, whilst not evil, are certainly fierce - they are noble warriors engaged in ongoing wars with other creatures.
Garrett, P.I.: The unicorns are carnivorous pack hunters who are smart enough to breed and train hunting dogs.
The Halfblood Chronicles: Elvenblood brings up the unicorns of that world — magically created to be war steeds, but unable to be controlled by the elves, they've gone completely wild since their creation. Sheyrena is able, with much use of the more subtle female elven magic, to convince a pair of unicorns to let her brother and her ride on their backs for part of their escape, but even that won't let her steer the unicorns; they have to travel where the unicorns feel like going.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Discussed. After Hagrid is too ashamed to show his face after being exposed as a half-giant, the substitute assigned to teach his class brings a unicorn. The teacher warns the students that the unicorn is dangerous and will only let the girls in the class touch it. Once Hagrid returns, he brings in unicorn foals the class can pet and examine. Being more educated, Hagrid explains that although unicorns are indeed aggressive to men, they only become so when they mature into adulthood. Combining this with the information from Philosopher's Stone, drinking unicorn blood also affects one's lifespan and it inflicts a curse for killing an animal that is considered pure and defenseless by many.
Impossible Creatures (2023): Karkadans are carnivorous, unicorn-like creatures with toxins dripping from their horns who kill for sport.
In Other Lands: It is considered typical that the only unicorn encountered is aggressive towards all non-virgins, with them having to climb up a tree to keep away from it until a virgin can be found to tame it.
Journey to Chaos: Nolien Heleti of the Dragons Lair Mercenary Company mutates into a brand new breed of unicorn. It has bird-like talons, hooves, a single useless wing, and patches of scales. Given that he becomes a monster unicorn, he is not gentle, unless he is around Tiza.
The Laundry Files: The unicorns are a vaguely horse-shaped Eldritch Abomination. They are actually formed of two creatures, one resembling an ordinary horse, the other the "horn" (actually something like a snail with a long spiral shell). When a snail connects with an immature equoid, it kickstarts its development towards the sapient, mind-controlling, perilous mature stage of its life cycle. Their mind control is also particularly potent against young girls.
Lords and Ladies: The unicorn is a creature of the elves and therefore is a thing of chaotic destruction and murderous hatred for humanity. The Elf-Queen deliberately releases one into Lancre to divert attention before a full-scale invasion.
Market of Monsters: Unicorns are a species of monsters that feed on virgins' souls for sustenance.
The Obsidian Trilogy: Unicorns are firmly on the side of Good, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous. They're intelligent and fierce creatures who are sometimes ridden into battle by mage warriors, and Unicorns Prefer Virgins takes a rather dark twist in the first novel: when Kellen summons the unicorn Shalkan with a Wild Magic spell to escape the Outlaw Hunt, Shalkan tells him the Mageprice for the spell is to remain chaste and celibate for a year and a day, or else Shalkan is required to castrate him on the spot.
The Orphan's Tales: The third book introduces a unicorn, which tells its tale, "A Tale of Harm". The tale relates how unicorns are savage and destructive, and are only attracted to innocence because it is their opposite. This particular unicorn was lured into a trap by a virgin boy — who stole its horn with a calm smile, having now completed his collection of poisons and antidotes.
Princesses of the Pizza Parlor: Untamed unicorns are more dangerous since they have an Emotion Bomb that makes fighting them difficult and seem to be non-sapient magical animals that can run fast and have horns.
Rampant: Unicorns are stone-cold killers with poisonous horns, and only virgin descendants of Alexander the Great can kill them.
The Reluctant King: In "The Unbeheaded King", Jorian and Karadur run into a wild Unicorn, which is, essentially, a giant woolly rhino with a misplaced horn and a very bad temper, forcing them to run up a tree.
Skandar Series: All unicorns are destructive carnivores difficult to control. Unicorns in their natural, unbonded state are even worse — they're undying, zombie-esque monsters straight out of a nightmare. One reason the rider-unicorn bond was popularized was to decrease the wild unicorn population (which would otherwise overrun the world), eventually replacing it with its healthier, more sapient counterpart. The unicorns themselves prefer this, which is why they created the bond in the first place and Kenna's destined unicorn wanders into civilized areas looking for her.
Florence: Our unicorns get their immortal life spans compressed when they bond with us, but wild unicorns? Their lives are stretched out too long. So they’re living but they’re also dying – forever. There’s no escape. All they think about is blood and murder. That’s all they have. Some of them can’t even fly anymore.
The Spiderwick Chronicles: the Field Guide describes unicorns as extremely wild and territorial creatures of the deep forest that should be approached with severe caution, and that the idea that they lie down for maiden girls is a myth not to be relied upon.
Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms: Unicorns are attracted to and very protective of virgins of the opposite sex, and tend to become mindlessly fawning around them.
Tortall Universe: Discussed. Although they haven't made an official appearance, there are two types of unicorns, regular and "killer" unicorns. Killer Unicorns have claws and fangs and are regularly a threat to people.
Tortall: A Spy's Guide: Non-killer unicorns are quite fierce and may gore and trample people they think are threats, but they love and protect children, who are sometimes used as virgins are in some media as bait to hunt them — and the children used as bait usually try to protect them from the hunters. Even killer unicorns, while they don't protect children, won't harm them and prefer to leave the area.
The Unicorn Chronicles: It's explained in the first book that the unicorns of the setting were originally peaceful, but got a reputation for being fierce when a unicorn died of natural causes, leaving his horn behind, and a man found it on the ground but lied and claimed he took it from the unicorn after a vicious battle. This reputation unfortunately eventually led to a man attacking a unicorn, an event that ultimately left both of them dead and the only witness with a bitter hatred of the species, consequently founding the Hunters — a group whose goal was to wipe the unicorns out forever. It also led to the unicorns having to eventually make their reputation the truth, as many of them became fierce fighters in order to defend themselves against the Hunters and other enemies.
Villains by Necessity: The villains encounter a male unicorn which instantly attacks them. He's muscular, tough and very hammy in his speech. They manage to trap him when his horn gets stuck in a tree trunk when he's dodged and Kaylana (a druid) makes the wood grow into place, keeping the beast in place (to his rage).
In Kim Newman's Warhammer-universe novella "Unicorn Ivory" (included in Genevieve Undead), unicorns are ferocious and dangerous, highly-intelligent equines who have a matriarchal social structure in which each mare has a harem of stallions; females are far rarer, in part because mother unicorns tend to try and kill their fillies. Mares live considerably longer than stallions and often take their colts as lovers once they mature, leading to increasingly inbred herds as they replace sons with grandsons and great-grandsons. Only the mare's horns can be taken as trophies, as the bodies of the stallions decompose with extreme rapidity after death.

Live-Action TV

Doctor Who: Played with in "The Mind Robber". Jamie dreams of being charged by a unicorn with its "head down ready for the kill". As the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe explore the Land of Fiction, they find themselves charged by a unicorn trying to kill them. However, the Doctor realises it is a test and orders his companions to stand their ground. Shouting "It doesn't exist!" immediately removes the threat and turns the unicorn into a harmless statue.
Happy! (2017): Happy is a tiny winged unicorn and is Hailey's imaginary friend who seeks Nick to help him rescue her from a kidnapper. As the series progresses, Happy starts sharing Nick's traits and starts going through puberty, which makes him violent, and sexually active. He also gains the ability to make people insanely aroused and compels them to have sex.
Kamen Rider Fourze: The Monoceros Zodiarts is a unicorn-themed monster.
Legends of Tomorrow: in "The Virgin Gary", the Legends have to catch an escaped unicorn at Woodstock. While the unicorn at first seems to fit the classic image of unicorns as a beautiful white mare with a horn, it is soon revealed to be a demonic creature that feeds on human flesh. When John Constantine banishes the creature to hell, the banishing spell rips off its veneer and reveals the Unicorn's true form: hairless and emaciated with bloody fangs.
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Invoked. One Monster of the Week called the Polluticorn, an evil unicorn trying to destroy the world with pollution.
Power Rangers Jungle Fury: Invoked. The third set of villains includes Unidoom as part of the roster, who possesses the spirit of the unicorn but is just as cruel and prideful as his brethren.
Power Rangers Dino Fury: Invoked. The first monster is Shockhorn, a Unicorn-themed Sporix Beast who is deadly with a sword and hates being called "Horsey".
Supernatural: In Plucky Pennywhistles Magic Menagerie, Sam and Dean are investigating a series of murders and discover that Howard, a worker at Plucky Pennywhistles, can summon manifestations a child's fears through a spell. In one case, a man is killed by a unicorn.
The Troop: While absent from the show, the supplementary materials reveal that unicorns are vicious predators who will devour any unassuming victim. The reason society views unicorns as peaceful is the Troop failed to properly Snark the citizens of Rome and thus the idea of virtuous unicorns was born.

Music

Gloryhammer: The unicorns are undead and dangerous, under the control of Evil Sorcerer Zargothrax.
The unicorns used to be good
Now they are forced to serve Hell.
—>— "The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee"

Mythology & Religion

The Bicorn is a fiendish black horse with two curling goat-like horns from Medieval European works. Originally it was a satirical creature said to feed on loyal, loving husbands; it has since evolved into the Evil Counterpart of the unicorn, symbolizing impurity and wickedness as the unicorn represents purity and virtue.
In China, the Xiezhi, a goat-like unicorn with gold eyes and a gold horn, was a symbol of law and justice. The legend goes that it can always tell the guilty from the innocent, and it will attack the guilty parties as punishment. It could also finish arguments by pointing out the person that is wrong.
Christianity:
- Saint Basil described unicorns as demonic creatures who kill and devour men in his Collective Homonies.
- Physiologus, a Christian natural history book describes unicorns as "A baby goat-sized, exceedingly fierce creature that could only be captured using a virgin as bait."
- In the story of Saint Barlaam and Josaphat, Barlaam tells the story of a man chased by a ferocious unicorn who desires to consume him.
  "These I consider to be like a man flying before the face of a rampant unicorn, who, unable to endure the sound of the beast's cry, and its terrible bellowing, to avoid being devoured, ran away at full speed."
- King James the 1st is cited as the one who turned the unicorn into a sacred animal. When he formed the United Kingdom in 1603, he commissioned the King James version of The Bible, and he cited the unicorn as the first animal named by Adam and Eve and further claimed the unicorn as the Re'em for Christian readers. It is believed that using the unicorn as a divine creature suggested King James's new kingdom was divinely ordained and thereby the will of God.
Persian Mythology: The karkadann is an aggressive beast resembling a rhinoceros and is compared to the unicorn. A being from Mongolian folklore called "Indrik" or Lord of Beasts has a similar appearance.
The shadhavar from Arabic legends had a single horn with 42 hollow branches that played extremely beautiful music when the wind passed through them. Some accounts state that a ferocious carnivore used the music to lure prey to their deaths.

Professional Wrestling

Before Angélica unmasked her, Hailey Hatred Wrestled in LLF, FILL, LL VIP, LLU, and AAA as "Dark Unicorn"
Laynie Luck occasionally comes to the ring in a giant unicorn mask.
The New Day has a unicorn motif, as shown by their unicorn horn headbands and their signature move was "Unicorn Stampede", where each member stomps the opponents.

Tabletop Games

The Dark Eye: While unicorns embody the classical version of "good" races, a hero group of orcs, whom they have a deep hatred against, will portray them in this way. In one official adventure, an encounter with a low-level group turns into a horror scene, with the vicious, raging unicorn picking them off one by one within a magical mist it summoned.
Dungeons & Dragons:
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition supplement Spellbound. Black unicorns result from magical experimentation upon normal unicorns by the Red Wizards of Thay. Black unicorns are Chaotic Evil and have burning red eyes. The Thayan military uses them as cavalry with evil female riders. They love to inflict pain and suffering on other creatures.
- Dragon Magazine #190 describes several unicorn varieties, including black unicorns, a Chaotic Evil different for the Faerûnian kind in that their powers focus on magically manipulating darkness; pyrocorns, Neutral Evil bay-colored unicorns who can cast several fire spells; and criocorns, palomino-colored Lawful Evil unicorns with ice magic. As riders, black unicorns accept any evil fighters or thieves, pyrocorns will bear evil women with affinities for fire magic, and criocorns accept only exceptionally evil women who wield icy magic of their own or who worship evil gods of cold or winter.
- Ravenloft: Addar was a unicorn from an unknown mortal world who refused to submit to a mortal maiden as his kind was expected to and was seduced into evil by a nightmare — a demonic horse from the Lower Planes — who preyed on his resentment. His rebellion led to the destruction of his forest and his exile to the Demiplane of Dread alongside the nightmare, with whom he sired a breed of evil shadow unicorns that inhabit his realm, the twisted and haunted depths of the Phantasmal Forest.
Earthdawn: Unicorns are vicious, dangerous monsters, whereas those in Shadowrun are benign Awakened horses with an extreme sensitivity to pollution. It's implied that the Horrors' influence corrupted the Fourth Age unicorns, while those of the Sixth Age are free of this taint. Shadowrun also has greater unicorns, a larger and stockier variant without the pollution allergy and possessing empathic powers. Regular unicorns live among regular horses and only breed with them; only about a third of their foals grow into unicorns, while some unicorns are born to horse parents. Greater unicorns instead live and breed amongst their kind. Both versions are often hunted for their horns. There are also unicorn-like creatures Awakened from water buffalos and red deer; the former have chitinous armor, while the latter associate with regular deer like unicorns do with horses.

Video Games

Alice: Madness Returns: Invoked. The Hobby Horse is one of Alice's weapons and acts like a giant hammer that she can use against heavy-duty foes and enemies with tough defenses. The weapon appears to possess a living quality as it neighs when used. The Hobby Horse is upgraded to level 4, it changes to the form of a silver unicorn, with a single horn protruding from the forehead.
Bayonetta 2: One of the new demons that Bayonetta can summon is Diomedes, Severer of the Dark, a nightmarish unicorn with eight legs and a Ridiculously Huge Sword for a horn that it can cut enemies to pieces with. According to the backup lore, Diomedes is actually one of the mares of the Greek king of the same name, who Ascended to Carnivorism. After this specific mare ate Diomedes himself and went to Inferno, it was transformed into the monster unicorn it is now and took its former master's name. Luckily, like most of the demons on Bayonetta's side, Diomedes is dark, but not evil.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!: Invoked as a motif. Lady Aurelia Hammerlock has a downplayed unicorn motif. Her reveal trailer has her title card with an emblem of a unicorn and the white stripe in the front of her hair can be compared to a unicorn horn. Her name card also has unicorn heads on it. Aurelia tortures animals for fun, hunts dangerous creatures, and lives to plague her brother's existence.
Brawl Stars: Despite being in the support class, Berry is a belligerent unicorn who's constantly on the verge of going on a rampage due to his pent-up rage and frustrations towards his job.
Diablo III: Whimsyshire is a bonus level that has unicorns. Despite the level's nice appearance, the unicorns are trying to kill you.
Dragon Age: Inquisition: Invoked. The "Bog Unicorn" is an undead horse with a sword through its skull.
Gems of War: The game features two sinister variations on the unicorn - the dreadcorn (a black unicorn) and the necrocorn (a zombie unicorn).
Kingdom Hearts χ: Invoked. Ira is one of the Foretellers, and the unicorn symbolizes him. His name means "wrath", a reference to the "Ancrene Wisse". Although he is considered the logical of the union leaders, his assumptions and inaccurate statements sew the distrust and paranoia indirectly leading union members to fight each other.
Final Fantasy XIV: The unicorns in Eureka Orthos will lock onto you on sight and attempt to ram you into hazards like traps or other monsters. Failing to get out of the way of the "Innocence" attack they launch afterward will almost assuredly kill you and end a solo run.
Hotline Miami: Invoked as a motif. One of the masks in the game is the Peter mask, a white and blue unicorn mask that can reduce noise from firearms. Jacket, and Peter who was likely a previous operative, are agents of 50 Blessings. 50 Blessings is a nationalistic organization that sends its agents to locations occupied by the The Mafiya to kill them.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: When Ganondorf turns into the Demon King after murdering Queen Sonia and stealing her Secret Stone and starts laying waste to Hyrule, he rides atop a gigantic demonic horse with an equally large horn jutting from its forehead.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain: When Big Boss flees from the hospital on horseback, he sees a demonic entity known as "The Man On Fire" riding a flaming pegasus with a unicorn horn.
Mortal Kombat 1: In the Animality for Ashrah introduced in the Khaos Reigns DLC, she turns into a Winged Unicorn, gallops past her opponent, and then turns around to stab them through the head with her horn, after which they fall to the ground and she breathes rainbow-colored fire over them until they incinerate, finishing off by rearing up and letting out a whinny that sounds positively demonic.
NetHack: Each god has a sacred unicorn and each unicorn has different allegiances (white unicorns are lawful, gray unicorns are neutral, and black unicorns are chaotic). Each unicorn will be friendly to characters of their corresponding alignment and hostile to other alignments. They increase your luck when given gems, can teleport, and their horns can cure most of the bad status conditions in the game. Unicorns of a different alignment to the player, however, will try to kill them, forcing the player to kill them in self-defense. Sacrificing a cross-aligned unicorn to your god will even give a sizable boost to your alignment devotion.
Overlord I: The Evernight forest was once a harmonious place where the inhabitants co-existed peacefully. After an evil force taints the forest, the unicorns become feral flesh-eating killers, as shown when the first unicorn is found eating a dead dwarf. The ghosts of dead elves request that you kill the unicorns to put them out of their misery.
"Once they bestowed healing, but now they crave the blood of living creatures, all living creatures."
Overlord II: The unicorns have been captured for use in the arena after having had their magic removed by the Glorious Empire. The Fourth Overlord has to defend himself from the unicorns when he fights in the arena.
Overlord: Fellowship of Evil: One of the antagonists is "Sparkle", a telepathic unicorn who leads "The Shining Justice". After The Shining Justice killed the fourth Overlord, the empire grew stagnant because they had no enemies left for them to fight. In response to this Sparkle began to abduct citizens and turn them into monsters for The Shining Justice to fight so they can keep up their heroic image. It's also shown that The Shining Justice can encroach a plague of light known as "The Golden" which cutifies and beautifies everything in its path. Later in the game, it's revealed The Golden was a product of Sparkle's excrement.
Pokémon Black and White: Blitzle is an Electric-type zebra unicorn, with its "horn" being a fully functional extension of its mane. When it evolves into Zebstrika, it gains a second "horn," also made from its mane.
Pokémon Red and Blue: Rapidash are unicorns with manes made of fire. Their hidden ability "Flame Body" can inflict burns on foes that physically strike them. According to the Pokédex entries, the Rapidash Pokemon are obsessed with proving themselves the fastest.
Pokémon Sword and Shield:
- One of the legendaries introduced in the Crown Tundra DLC is Glastrier, a pure white horse covered in ice, with a horn on its head similarly made of ice.
  Glastrier emits intense cold from its hooves. It's also a belligerent Pokémon—anything it wants, it takes by force.
- Downplayed. Galarian Rapidash are dual Psychic-and-Fairy type Pokemon that resemble unicorns. The Galarian Pokédex entries say their "Psycho Cut" move is powerful enough to cut steel. Unlike their fire-type counterparts, the Galarian Rapidash have Pastel Veil as an ability rather than a damage-inflicting ability. Pastel Veil prevents the Pokémon and its teammates from being poisoned. It also cures teammates of poisoning when it enters the battlefield.
  Little can stand up to its psycho cut. Unleashed from this Pokémon's horn, the move will punch a hole right through a thick metal sheet.
Pokémon Uranium: Oblivicorn is a Dark/Fairy type evolution of the formerly-cutesy Minicorn with a deeply unsettling appearance- it's Red and Black and Evil All Over, with Black Eyes of Crazy, Hellish Pupils, hair that stands up in massive fire-like puffs, and instead of just one horn, it has five- four of which are curved like those of a goat. The additional horns are because Oblivicorn happens to be a dark version of a Kirin, which means it's a darker, more aggressive, and sinister version of two mythical horned equines.
The Pony Factory: Unicorns appear as enemies in the game. The unicorns were former humans who were converted into equine monsters.
Red Faction: Invoked and Played for Laughs. In Armageddon, Mr. Toots the Unicorn shoots rainbow laser blasts out of his butt.
Shrek SuperSlam: Anthrax is one of the unlockable fighters. Anthrax's Super Slam is called "Chaos Clouds", where she runs into the players much like Donkey's Super Slam, but is noticeably slower and releases clouds that will damage players who touch them.
The Simpsons Game: Lisa and Homer have to defeat Milhouse in the Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game level. Sherri and Terri appear in the level as "Sparklemon" who fight for Milhouse to spread dirt and filth. They appear as a single unicorn for the boss fight and relentlessly tease Lisa.
Skylanders: Whirlwind is a half-unicorn who fires rainbow energy blasts from her horn.
South Park: The Stick of Truth: Kenny invokes this with his "Unicorn Stampede" ability, summoning a unicorn to trample his foes. The unicorn will kill him instantly (via horn through the skull) if he fails his action commands, however.
Team Fortress 2: The mayor of "Pyroland" is Mayor Balloonicorn, who has an anger problem and is a chain smoker. His wife is also cheating on him and he's an alcoholic.
Terraria: Zigzagged. Unicorns are an uncommon hard-mode enemy that spawns in the Hallow biome, and they attack the player on sight. However, when killed, they can drop a Blessed Apple, which lets the player ride on a non-hostile unicorn when equipped.
Them's Fightin' Herds: The Unicorns of the Order of the Horn, in The Woodland. They don't participate in violence and believe that Light Magic will ultimately prevail (though they do not presume to know how). Oleander became their Key Keeper against their will by dabbling in Dark Magic.
Viva Piñata: Downplayed. Chewnicorns don't get along with and will fight other horse-like pinatas.
Whack Your...: You pull an actual one from your trash bin and impale your boss and proceeds to prance around with him.
Wrath Unleashed: Unicorns appear as enemies and are members of each factions, they are shown wearing chitinous plates and spikes.

Web Comic

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja: The Sparklelord the unicorn has been transformed into a motorcycle with seemingly magical abilities. According to the unicorn, it was the closest approximation of his magnificence when he came to our world. Notably, the Sparklelord was the Radical Land's Sauron equivalent.
Hooves of Death: The Unicorns are the only things standing between humanity and the hordes of the undead. They all have magic powers, are naturally Immune to the zombie plague, and have horns sharp enough to cut a zombie in two.
The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: After a female unicorn is mutated by a strange pollution, her offspring becomes giant monsters that torment Generictown as Unigar the Vast Unicorn.
The Junk Hyenas Diner: Unicorns are among Growl's deadly fauna as they use psychic illusions to put a person's guard down so they can stab them to death.
Modest Medusa: One human was trapped in Yeld, and eventually, due to the influence of the Prince, he slowly started losing his humanity and was slowly transforming into a monster, which was a unicorn with a chainsaw for horn. His former Hydra lover, Gorgon, had to transform him into a horse, and the Prince dubbed him the Knight of Chains, giving him his trademark chainsaw horn and permanently bounding him to Yeld in his servitude.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: One panel shows a dead man with a hole in his forehead, with the heavy implication being that he met a unicorn who didn't take too kindly to him. [1].
"As last words go "Unicorns are real" is one of the better ones."
Starlight and Brimstone: Starlight at first looks like everything you expect from a unicorn, being saintly, beautiful, and a protector of nature. When a date with Brimstone starts going south, however, she shows her less dignified side by considering if she should just invite Brimstone back to her apartment for a one-night stand and then never talk to her again.

Web Videos

Cafae Latte: Unicorns are known to eat virgins. This is ultimately used to help defeat the unicorn incursion, as Nicole being both a virgin and a witch is especially delicious to unicorns and can be used as the ideal bait.
Smosh Games: Invoked as a motif. David "Lasercorn" Moss got his nickname from a tattoo on the shoulder blade of a unicorn shooting a laser from a rocket launcher on its back. Since then, Lasercorn has been heavily associated with the mythical beast, from naming his Minecraft village "Lasercornia" and inadvertently sharing the beast's dangerous reputation by being over-aggressive and violent.
Storied: In the video about unicorns, the host talks about the long history of unicorns and how they were originally ferocious carnivores.

Web Original

Roll To Dodge: Savral: Unicorns are a prominently featured race. While they have a typical unicorn appearance, they are anything but good or pure. Unicorns in Savral are infamous for trolling the players and mocking them at almost every opportunity. In their equestrian form, they’re capable of Teleport Spam, Mind Control, phasing through walls, and detaching their heads from the rest of their bodies. When they fuse themselves to various objects, they gain Lovecraftian Superpowers such as sprouting Combat Tentacles and launching fetuses at people, making them borderline Eldritch Abominations. All of these abilities make them nearly impossible to kill, much to the ire of the players.

Western Animation

The Amazing World of Gumball: Invoked. In "The Outside", the Wattersons turn their home into a makeshift prison to make Uncle Frankie feel more at home after having hearing Frankie say he's used to living in prison. Pretending to be a violent prisoner, Gumball draws various "tattoos" on his back and claims to have gotten a tattoo of two unicorns battling each other to represent how "I'll always defend my homies".
Ducktales 2017: In “The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck”, one of the chambers in the Other Bin contains aggressive unicorns (or “sword horses”, as Webby calls them).
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Imaginary Friend unicorns look like the typical graceful creatures that little girls imagine them to be; but personality-wise, they act and talk like tough guys who will not hesitate to threaten someone with their sharp horns.
"So youse think we's goily, do ya?"
Freaktown: Taylor the Barbaricorn is an anthropomorphic unicorn barbarian who serves as the muscle for Princess Boo-Boo's projects in cutifying Freaktown.
Gravity Falls:
- In Journal 3, The author describes them as frustrating and mentions a time when he spent 30 hours arm-wrestling one.
- In "The Last Mabelcorn", Mabel spends an entire episode trying to prove to a unicorn (named Celestebellebethebelle) that she's pure of heart. In the episode's climax, however, two other unicorns show up and get her to admit that unicorns can't see into people's hearts and that she was pulling a scam to make people leave her alone. After being punched by Mabel, Celestebellebethebelle has no ethical qualms with fighting 3 prepubescent girls and Wendy to keep the hair.
  Celestebellebethebelle: All right, fine! You've learned our secret! We're jerks, okay? We have more hair than we know what to do with, and we keep it to ourselves just to tick humans off! What're you gonna do about it, huh? Huh? What're you gonna do?
The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: In "The Crass Unicorn", the trio of protagonists meets Mary Frances in the enchanted forest after wishing to go to a magical land of happiness. Mary Frances is a bitter unicorn who responds to Billy's attempts at befriending her with kicks and insults. He eventually gets on her better side by teaching her how to swim, thus enabling her to reunite with the other unicorns, who had adapted to an aquatic lifestyle in the past. To everyone's surprise, the unicorns turn out to be bullies, and their abuse is the origin of Mary Frances's sour attitude in the first place. Mary Frances becomes enraged that Billy has caused her to remember all the torment she had subconsciously buried away long ago, kicks him one last time, and departs more embittered than ever.
Jimmy Two-Shoes: Twinkles the Terrible is a pony/unicorn from the planet "Boogie Boogie Boo". Twinkles came to Miseryville, a hellish realm between the end of somewhere and the beginning of nowhere as an egg. When Jimmy finds the egg, he thinks it is a cute and innocent creature, while the monsters in Miseryville are scared of him. Once the egg hatches, Twinkles reveals his desire to take over Miseryville but leaves angrily after being mocked. Twinkles was mocked because nobody took him seriously and only laughed at him due to his adorable appearance and high-pitched voice. As he leaves, Twinkles decides to destroy some planets on his way home.
''Krapopolis: The unicorns are man-eating beasts that kill humans and their animalistic behavior is akin to bees.
My Little Pony: A New Generation: Discussed and Invoked. Unicorns are depicted as monsters who use magic to damage the brains of their victims through racist propaganda.
They told us unicorns were super scary maniacs,
With horns like lasers, and tongues like tazers, and teeth like tacks
They'll take your hooves and then they'll grind them into midnight snacks,
The basic gist of it is unicorns are not okay.
The Owl House: In "Really Small Problems", the unicorns at Tibbles' circus appear to be the least macabre-looking of the Boiling Isles' wildlife; they are quickly shown to be the most violent of the captured animals when they bare fangs and attack the kids head-on.
Regular Show: "The Unicorns Have Got to Go". At first, the unicorns appear as animals attracted to the smell of DudeTime cologne and initially appear harmless. However, the unicorns are quickly revealed to be a gang of obnoxious, hyper-aggressive party animals and violent hooligans. As shown by how they have Benson, bound, gagged, and suspended from a coat hook. The first unicorn tortures Benson by withdrawing some of his gumballs and eating them in front of a horrified Rigby. According to Skips, the only way to get rid of the unicorns is to challenge them to a drag race and Benson gets revenge by rigging the unicorns's oversized dragster to explode.
Rigby: We have a problem.
Skips: Unicorns?
Rigby: How'd you know?
Skips: They peed on my lawn.
Mordecai: So, how do we get rid of them?
Skips: Well, that's really hard. They're like insects, but... (hefts his weights onto the bar and sits up) there's one thing unicorns never say no to. (He motions for Rigby to hand him a towel - Rigby does so and Skips wipes his face with it. We zoom in close to Skips' face) Drag racing.
Robot Chicken: The unicorn is a sexual predator. In "Unicorn Jockey", he coerces several jockeys into performing sexual behaviors, omitting the part that these acts would cause their deaths due to the unicorn's STDs. In "The Rescue", the unicorn is one of the enemies fought by the Chicken so he can rescue his girlfriend from the Mad Scientist. Chicken seemingly kills him by first sodomizing him with his own unicorn horn and throwing him out the window.
Sabrina: The Animated Series: In "The Grandparent Trap", unicorns are stated to be difficult to tame, as shown when a herd is summoned to the Spellman house.
The Simpsons: In Three Dreams Denied, the princess has a fire-breathing flying unicorn as a mount, which the princess uses to maim and kill several people in the second episode of "Cookie Castle".
Star vs. the Forces of Evil:
- Invoked. Star has a unicorn motif as shown by her close friendship with Pony Head, her introductory scene riding a unicorn, the tiny unicorns that power her wand, she wants to be horse-keeper when she's older, uses "unicorns" as her primary spell, and the unicorns she created in the Realm of Magic. Star is a rebellious princess who enjoys fighting and is shown to be impulsive and irrational.
- After Toffee corrupted the magic within Star's wand, a dark millhorse was created. This unicorn began killing the other unicorns and corrupting the realm of magic. Toffee's actions also damaged the wand and corrupted Vincenzo, the second millhorse in Star's wand, which made him appear demented and caused him to develop fangs and green eyes.
- Warnicorns are a breed of equine-like creatures that originate from Mewni. They are said to be aggressive and troublesome as they destroy Mewni. When asked on Reddit what a warnicorn is, Daron Nefcy replied "It's a unicorn that needs the blood of its enemies to survive."

Real Life

The unicorn is the National animal of Scotland. The unicorn was chosen because of its reputation for being ferocious and impossible to capture. This is emphasized by the heraldic symbol for the United Kingdom because the lion and unicorn represent the history of wars between both countries. Both animals were believed to have fought each other in an eternal battle for the title of "king of beasts".
Great Indian rhinos and Javan rhinos are believed to have been the inspiration for early accounts of the unicorn. Rhinos are dangerous animals due to their near-sighted vision and tendency to charge at people. The scientific name of the Indian rhinoceros is Rhinoceros unicornis.
In Ukraine, the LGBTQ+ serving in the military have adopted the unicorn as a personal emblem to identify each other in the military. The choice of a unicorn is a jab at the idea that there are no LGBTQ people in the military, similar to how the unicorn has never been seen because it is a mythological creature. The history of Ukraine shows how they are as unconquerable as the mythical beast.
Unicornfish are a common genus of tropical surgeonfish recognizable by the horn-like protrusion on their forehead. They don't use it to fight anything though. They instead defend themselves using a small blade near their tail!

Examples:

Video Example(s):

Unicorn

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