Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for June 26, 2016

It could possibly have started millions of years ago, and that last part only happened recently.

It is a pretty old legend, Phoebe. My father told me about Daisy Shimmering Face, and his father before that.

Speaking of Legends, how old does a legendary tale have to be before it is a legend proper? 10 years doesn’t seem long enough, maybe at least 100?

Unicorns really feel good about themselves to have legends about themselves. Us humans usually use animals like tigers, or sometimes even dragons, to feel ourselves great.

Really old, like back when people Tweeted from laptops

According to my tutors at the School of Scottish Studies, a myth is a story which has some kind of teaching purpose, which tells you about life or reinforces your sense of tribal or religious identity. It doesn’t actually have to be fictional – stories of Londoners’ “Blitz spirit” during WW2 are both mostly true and a big part of the mythology by which London describes itself. A legend is just a story, usually a mostly-fictional one. They’re not mutually exclusive – a legend can also be a teaching myth – but a legend can just be “A man called Fred Blogs was killed by a cow under that tree in 1873” whereas a myth has to have some kind of significance. Oh and “urban legends” can be as recent as a year or so old – they only have to be old enough for the story to have spread widely and become widely believed and talked about.

Dial back the modern trappings and vocabulary and you do have a charming story.

I believe he term “BFFS” first appeared in “The Iliad”.

Unicorn mythology is so entertaining.

“well, the Sun blocked her on Myspace so it was pretty long ago”

For that I have no idea Phoebe.

Beautiful art and lovely tale, buuut, I think Marigold made up that last part.

Dana, you should submit this to the Old Farmer’s Almanac!

Daisy Shimmering Face sounds like something from the same unicorn name generator as Marigold Celestial Nostrils (changed to Heavenly to avoid confusion). What name did Dana enter that resulted in that?

One does wonder whether unicorns have worked out that the Morning Star and the Evening Star are the same thing.

In Tolkien’s universe, the Moon (he) is in love with the Sun (she), and that’s why he keeps getting lost in the sky.

If you bring a balloon so you can hang out in the upper atmosphere, above the sulfuric acid clouds, it’s actually relatively pleasant. It’s cold up there and there isn’t much oxygen, and you’d probably eventually get skin cancer because there’s no ozone layer, but at the right height you’ll find Earth-normal pressure and nothing corrosive in the atmosphere.

And the sun Unfollowed Daisy on Twitter :-)

Daisy looks suspiciously like how pre-ascension Celestia is depicted in fan art.

That unicorn looks strangely like Mari’s sister… :/