Arizona

**"***Arizona was the only one among cattlekind with courage enough to answer the Council’s call in search of Foenum’s Champion, knowing full well what dangers she faced. Thrust into the wider outside world, Arizona tries to make sense of it all (or decides not to care) while she charges headfirst into the fray.***"**
— **Arizona's character entry on Mane6 site**

**Arizona** is a calf, chosen as the Prairie's champion. She serves as one of the main characters of the game and is part of the original roster, providing a grounded type of rushdown gameplay.

## Appearance

Arizona is a small cow with a brown-cream coat, emerald green eyes, grey-ish horns and cloven hooves. She has darker brown gradients on her tail and hair. The snout and inner side of the ears are peach pink. She wears a burgundy bandanna around her neck, and has a lasso in her possession.

## Personality

Arizona, even being such a young cow as herself, has a big heart: she loves her homeland, and believes that everyone else in Foenum also deserves a free life. She's courageous, ready to help anyone in need and stand her ground to save the whole world. Although Arizona's enthusiasm and being too honest can lead her into trouble. She's not a cow of words but rather action: without thinking, she's ready to dive head-full into the events. Arizona also tends to show more of her cocky side, throwing some snarky comments towards her opponents.

## Story

### Book of Lore

When the call for the champion went out, the Cattlekind organised a ballot, where in the morning of the next day a name would be picked from. It was announced that Arizona was the selected winner, only for Texas to reject the results out of fear for her safety. It was only after Arizona beat him in combat that Texas would have allowed her to leave.

### Story Mode

#### Chapter 1

Arizona serves as the primary protagonist and player character throughout Chapter 1.

Arizona is heard of The Council's call and decides to talk about it with Texas. As he tells the story of how predators were banished from Foenum, Arizona decides to volunteer herself as the Prairie's champion. Worried for her safety, Texas refuses to let her be chosen, but Arizona states that she isn't too young to protect her home. With Minnesota's blessing and heading, Arizona starts her journey to Reine City. On her way through the Canyon Pass, Arizona meets Madison, who seems to have been stuck because of the collapsed bridge to Reine City. After a chat Madison convinces Arizona to stay for a night and wait until the bridge is reparied. However Arizona is too excited to sleep, and notices a scouting wolf in the night running into the abandoned salt mines. She follows it and ends up fighting the critters while she progresses through the mines. Once Arizona reaches the end, she encounters a big snake, who serves as a boss fight of the chapter's first sequence.

Arriving to Reine City's gates, Arizona talks with one of the cows who offers help to get into the city if Arizona brings her some food from the local tavern. After trading food and offering gate's guardians milk for letting her inside, Arizona enters the city. She briefly encounters Pom, busy catching up on her puppies who were chasing down bunch of Winter Sprites. Arizona gets to museum and finds the relic which could potentially give more clue about the Prophet's Key. It's when Velvet arrives into the room and asks what's Arizona's business in Reine City. The calf claims herself to be Prairie's champion, to which Velvet responds by challenging her for a fight. After beating Velvet up, Arizona heads to the ship which is said to be sailing to the High Plains after being given a ticket to cruise.

Upon arriving to the High Plains, Arizona makes her way into the harsh area through the mountains and hawks. After reaching the top, she collapses from all the climbing and fighting, and gains consciousness at the Alpake Camp. The members, as well as Adobo, try to dissuade her from proceeding further. Despite this, Arizona is determined to continue, and Adobo gives the directions to Temple of the Ancestors, where Arizona could find more information about the Key. After passing through Foggy Mountaintops and being chased by Paprika, Arizona engages with her in a fight at the end of the area. She then proceeds to reach the entrance to the Temple.

Arizona searches the temple while making her way through the obstacles and predators. Once she reaches the giant monolith and tries to read it, Oleander shows up, who then challenges Arizona for a fight when the calf claims she's the champion. After the fight - whether player wins it or not - Arizona gets knocked out, Oleander proceeds to copy the encrypt of the monolith, while Fred loots Arizona's bag, after which both leave the temple. When Arizona recovers, she finds herself unavailable to read monolith's encrypt. Frustrated, she leaves the temple, refusing to give up on her quest.

## Abilities & Fighting Style

Arizona is a rushdown fighter whose move set is focused on strong but short-ranged attacks. She compensates for her lack of range by using her lasso, as well as being one of the few characters whose forward dash turns in to a run. Arizona can also do a short hop by quickly tapping the analog stick up. Arizona has two special attacks: Stomp, in which she smashes her hooves into the ground to generate an earthquake, and Headbuck, when she violently charges into her opponent. Both of these attacks can be changed into combos.

Arizona's Magic Meter is 3 Stocks and initially empty, but can fill up by successfully landing her lasso. The lasso is a command grab move which can be used in 3 different directions (air, mid, and low) and connects at the end of the rope. Arizona can spend Magic, to use EX versions of her special move. The EX Stomp covers the whole screen and is unblockable. The EX of Headbuck has armor, is quicker and has increased damage output, along with sticking the opponent to the wall if used near the corner. She also can use a new Magic dash and a counterattack.

Arizona's Level 1 super move, Trample, is a fast and powerful headbutt that can hit from across the entire screen. The damage output depends on how close she is to the opponent. It can also be used as a counterattack. Arizona's level 2 super move, Rebound, turns Trample into a two-hit move. The second hit launches the opponent, leaving them open for follow-up attacks.

Arizona is good for starting players, as her playstyle is simplistic, intuitive, and forgiving for even those who resort to button-mashing. She has an easy yet powerful basic combo: Start with the usual light-medium-heavy into stomp, headbuck, lasso, rinse and repeat.

## Trivia

* Arizona is based off of the *Fighting is Magic* character Applejack from *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*.
	+ Both characters share majority of their movesets functionally- and design-wise: normal attacks, stomp and headbuck specials, magic system, full screen lvl1 super and a followup lvl2 super.
		- Being one of the more polished characters from the previous project, Applejack's enitre kit has been transferred to Arizona, minus inputs changes to certain moves.
		- Arizona was given an additional command for running.
	+ Aside from being so called "cowgirls" and having southern-enspired accents, both Arizona and Applejack are physically strong, share love for their homes and value family above else.
	+ Unlike her pony predecessor, Arizona is younger than Applejack, both physically and mentally. On top of that, Arizona's parents are alive, whereas Applejack's are confirmed to have passed away.
* One of Arizona's suggested names was Dakota. This was rejected for being too mundane, but did influence her final name.
* Arizona and Velvet were the first characters publicly introduced.
* At just a year old, Arizona is tied with Shanty as the youngest character in the cast.
	+ Converting into human years, Arizona is what could be considered earlier adolescene (around 13-14 years old).
* It's implied Arizona has siblings, being referred as the youngest of Minnesota's children. Her "My mama don't raise no fools" line is also direct implication to this.
* Arizona is illetirate, as she's not able to read Fœnician runes, and can only describe what she's seeing on signs. This is due to Cattlekind's lean towards tradition of telling stories orally, instead of relying on books and other types of written sources to pass down Fœnum's history.
* One of the pixel cosmetics available from the beginning is "Wisconsin's Hat", which says "Belongs to Arizona's uncle".

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