Oleander

**Oleander** is a unicorn and the self-proclaimed champion of The Woodlands. She serves as one of the main characters of the game and is part of the original roster, with her gameplay filling the role of an all-rounder.

She wields a book of dark magic called the Unicornomicon that holds a dark, sapient entity named FHTNG (also known as Fred).

## Appearance

Oleander resembles a classical unicorn: she has a long spiral horn, bushy fetlocks, cloven hooves like those of a goat, and a leonine tail. Prior to corruption from reading the Unicornomicon, she was white with light blue highlights on her mane.

After the corruption, her coat turned light grey, and her mane became black with bright pink highlights. She gained purple hooves and eyeliner, as well as darker grey eyeshadow. She wields the Unicornomicon at all times. Unchanged from the corruption, her horn and the inner sides of her ears are light lavender, and her eyes are blue.

As additional accessory, Oleander has purple glasses.

## Personality

Oleander can be best described as a troubled teen: she's long been known as the Order of the Horn's resident rebel. She's snarky, arrogant, and won't hesitate to directly insult her opponent, but shows a softer side for puppies and doughnuts. Oleander also cannot stand her peers' closed-minded philosophy of Light Magic prevailing over everything. She believes that Dark Magic can be used for good and is determined to prove it. Oleander cares for nothing but saving Foenum from the impending threat of the predators.

## Story

### Book of Lore

13 turns of seasons before the incursion of predators, when Oleander was younger, she found the Unicornomicon, although it's not known how long she's had it for. One day, after reading a portion of it, her coat turned dark. When Oleander arrived at the Sacred Grove, she was scolded for it, as it proved she had been studying the forbidden Dark Magic. After being told to go back to her room, Oleander wanted to burn the book, but FHTNG stopped her and said she'd be the one to save the world. Oleander, interested piqued, was convinced by Fred to keep studying the Unicornomicon and forging a pact with him.

### Story Mode

#### Chapter 1

**Part IV: Temple Of Gloom**

Arizona is in the process of researching the giant monolith when Oleander shows up. She serves as the end boss of Part IV with three phases, the third of which isn't necessary to beat to progress through the story and finish the chapter. If, however, the player defeats her, Fred will come up to Arizona and send her into a void dimension, eventually knocking her out of the way. Both of the events will lead to the same ending: Oleander copies the writing on the monolith while Fred loots Arizona's bag, after which both leave the temple.

If player has Tinfoil cap item, Fred will mention it smells like hibiscus and will tease Oleander by asking if she wants to keep it, mentioning the "same perfume as that doe you like". If the player has found one of the Longma Balls throughout the chapter, Oleander will take it. If the player doesn't have a Longma Ball in their possession, she will say she needs to return home to consult some references at the Order's library, to which Fred will respond that she's probably not allowed back for whatever's happened there.

**Phase 1:** Oleander has her standard move set and acts similarly to how the AI controls her (depending on the difficultly). She has her default health (5100 HP), which must be fully drained to proceed to the second phase.

**Phase 2:** Oleander still has her normal move set except now her magic bar is constantly full at three bars. She will frequently teleport when the player is far enough away. She can use an upward diagonal magic spark if the player jumps at her. On top of that, she has the ability to perform a slow but shielded, high-damage exploding attack at a closer range, which won't let the player hit Oleander. It's best to keep distance at all times to wait for the teleport and punish it. Her health is back and increased, and must once more be fully drained to proceed to the third phase.

**Phase 3:** Oleander will start flying around the player, shooting projectiles in the player's direction. The best strategy is either hitting her out of the air immediately after she gets airborne, or, if she's flying up high, use air lasso to grab and pull her down. If the player fails to hit Oleander out of the air earlier, she moves to the background where she cannot be reached. She will shoot deadlier shadow sparks which are harder to avoid and do a lot of damage both on hit and chip on block. Once she finishes shooting shadow sparks, Fred will come out of the ground, and Oleander will throw out chapter traps in the player's direction and start to build up power for the exploding attack which instakills the player. While she's powering up, Fred's arm will come from the side of the screen to try and punch the player, so it's important to get onto his arm with a well-timed jump or super jump. Once on Fred's arm, it's possible to use the air lasso and grab Oleander out of the air, but it should be done quickly, since Fred's arm doesn't last for long. Then the pattern repeats.

The more Oleander's health drains, the more difficult it becomes to reach her: she stops at a higher point in the air to power up, throws out even more chapter traps, and Fred starts casting more arms depending on her height. On the lowest difficulty, Oleander will also perform the exploding attack from the second phase when she is recovering from being knocked down.

## Abilities & Fighting Style

Oleander is a well-rounded fighter with a heavy emphasis toward zoning, and some very basic puppeteering with Fred out. While her move set makes her capable of very strong combos at any range, most of her moves are effective on their own. Oleander has a number of tools that let her keep her distance while maintaining pressure or aggression. Her heavy attacks, in particular, are extremely useful for providing a buffer between her and her opponent if she is trying to space them out. Oleander's unique attack, Smite, is one of the safest jump-ins in the game being +3 on block and creating a large hitbox. If it whiffs, however, it leaves plenty of time for the opponent to punish. Oleander has two special moves that do not cost magic: the projectile Shadow Spark and Away Teleportation.

Oleander's Magic Meter is 3 stocks, which can be replenished either with her Study move, or by successfully grabbing the opponent. One stock can be spent to activate the special move Chapter Trap, which rips out a burning page of the Unicornomicon. Up to three pages can be present, often to deter the opponent from approaching, but they can also be used in a combo. Spending three Magic creates an Epilogue, a larger and more durable Chapter Trap. Oleander's forward Teleportation costs one magic and allows her to teleport in front of or behind her opponent; Magic Teleportation is an offensive variant, causing an invincible explosion directly in front of the opponent, though it leaves Oleander wide open if blocked. Oleander's Teleport notably compensates for her otherwise low mobility. She can also spend Magic for Magic Spark, a faster version of Shadow Spark that costs all of her available Magic, which increases in strength based on the number of stocks spent.

Oleander's Level 1 Super, Shadow Blast, fires a large beam across the screen, dealing heavy damage. Her Level 2 Super, Hi, Fred!, summons FHTNG to the field. FHTNG will follow Oleander around and can perform attacks while Oleander is attacking, hence the light puppeteering mentioned earlier. Of note, if Oleander Teleports when FHTNG is on screen, he will not teleport with her. He will instead travel over to her, needing time to get in range to contribute to a potential combo.

## Trivia

* Oleander is based off of the *Fighting is Magic* character Twilight Sparkle from *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*.
	+ Both characters share a lot of similarities in their move sets, in both function and design: normal attacks, projectiles, chapter trap and teleport specials, similar magic system, and full screen level 1 Super.
		- Twilight's j.C (Heavy midair) had groundbounce ability, whereas Oleander's doesn't. Instead, she was given a j.2C (down heavy midair) with this property.
		- Twilight Sparkle's teleports didn't use Magic system at all, and depending on the button (Light and Medium) player was able to control distance of how far Twilight teleports away from the opponent.
	+ Aside from being "book lovers", both characters share similarities in their races (specifically the unicorn form of Twilight Sparkle from earlier seasons of the show), as well as enthusiasm in learning more about magic.
	+ Unlike Twilight, who's loved and cherished by her friends and the people of her kingdom, Oleander can be seen as an antithesis to her: she's an outcast and a rebel, standing against her people's ignorant beliefs and willing to prove them wrong.
* Her teleporting line "BAMF!" is a reference to Nightcrawler from the *X-Men* comics.
* It's not known if Oleander still has Light Magic abilities, as well as what the abilites could be prior to forging a pact with FHTNG and studying Unicornomicon.
* She's the second oldest character in the cast, after Tianhuo, in raw age. However, in terms of maturity, she's only the third oldest character, after Tianhuo, both Paprika and Velvet.
	+ Just like Tianhuo, she has one of the longest lifespans due to her species.
* Oleander drinks coffee, contrary to her kind drinking tea. She adds a lot of sugar in it.
* Her and Fred share love for doughnuts. Oleander's favorite flavor is strawberry icing with sprinkles, deep fried.
* Oleander loves puppies.
* Glasses are possibly Oleander's favorite accessory.
	+ The only instance of Oleander wearing her glasses can be seen in her Tutorial Mode portraits. The other times she's not wearing them, including when reading or fighting. This suggests that Oleander doesn't have bad eyesight and just likes to wear them, perhaps to appear more intelligent.
	+ She specifically compliments Cashmere's glasses.

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