Pom

**Pom** is a timid lamb who was unwillingly chosen as the champion of the Meadow. She serves as one of the main characters of the game and is part of the original roster, providing summoning type of puppeting gameplay.

Pom has sheep dogs by her side who guide and protect her: four puppies, momma and papa dogs.

## Appearance

Pom is a slender ewe lamb with whitish wool tinted with pink. Her face and hooves are a muted, pale magenta, with expressive turquoise eyes and a nervous expression. She wears a golden bell on a purple collar.

## Personality

Being still a youngling put into a serious situation, Pom is more often seen to be scared and nervous, and would rather not put up a fight against others. She has low self-esteem, thinking she's not strong and courageous enough to face off her foes. However, in comparison to her folks, who she despises for being so cowardly and herd-minded, Pom is shown to have opinions of her own. She doesn't hesitate to celebrate her small victories, and cheer the puppies who help her along the way.

## Story

### Book of Lore

*Main Article: Book of Lore*
Just right after Sheeple were done electing whether dogs should eat clover instead of alfalfa for four hours, Woogums, Pom's older brother, brought news to Baaah about return of the Predators. Another election was held to determine whether Sheeple should help Foenum to fight off the enemies. When nobody voted in favor, Pom was the one to speak up, which led to her being elected as champion of the Meadow immediately after.

### Story Mode

#### Chapter 1: Part II

Arizona briefly encounters Pom in Reine City, who's attempting to catch her puppies as they are chasing some winter sprites. She is not formally introduced, and only is referred to as "Sheep."

## Abilities & Fighting Style

Pom is a puppeteer whose move set is focused on summoning and controlling various Sheep Dogs. Her shortcomings are numerous: her speed and attacks are slow, and with one exception, her primary attacks are weak. Pom's heavy attack is one of the strongest basic attacks in the game, and has a lone range when used in the air or while blocking. However, the heavy attack can be easily neutralized and punished. In addition, Pom has two special attacks: Sheep Herding, a dash attack, and Bark!, which destroys projectiles and stuns Pom's opponent. That said Pom's greatest strength is her Sheep Dogs.

Pom's Magic Meter is 3 stocks and initially full; spending Magic summons up to three dogs. One Magic stock spent can summon either a mobile or stationary Digging Pup, who attack by kicking dirt at the opponent. Two Magic stocks summons a Growly or Pilot Pup, who both have two attacks, and spending all three Magic stocks summons Big Mama, who has three attacks. Mastering Pom relies on summoning the right combination of Sheep Dogs and controlling them in conjunction with Pom herself.

Pom's Level 1 Super, Stampede!, lives up to its name, as a horde of puppies charge across the screen followed by Big Papa, dealing heavy damage. Her Level 2 Super summons Big Papa; like Big Mama, he has three attacks.

### Sheep Dogs in Detail

Pom's magic system and specials (excluding her charge moves) work in tandem to create her summoned puppets, called Sheep Dogs. There are 6 types of Dogs, each of with are summoned with a special or super move. The rules of Dog manipulation are as follows:

* Pom starts a round with all three of her magic stocks. She depletes her stock by summoning Dogs and only regains stocks after the Dogs she has summoned are dismissed.
* Dogs are summoned with their corresponding attack buttons and controlled with the magic button. The resources needed to summon a specific Dog will vary. The amount of magic stocks required for summoning a Dog corresponds to the strength of said Dog. In the case of Big Papa, magic stocks are not required for summoning him; he is Pom's Level 2 Super.
* Dogs with A strength require one magic stock and are summoned with the A button. Dogs with B strength require two magic stocks and are summoned with the B button. Dogs with C strength require three magic stocks and are summoned with the C button. Dogs with Super strength require a bar of Super meter to be left after inputting Stampede!
* Dogs can be dismissed manually with a specific input or dismissed automatically after using attacks/losing HP. The amount of attacks/HP that will trigger automatic dismissal depends on the strength of the Dog. The input for manual dismissal also changes depending on the strength of the Dog.
* Dogs with A strength have one type of attack, one HP, and dismiss themselves after using one attack.
* Dogs with B strength have two types of attacks, two HP, and dismiss themselves after using two attacks.
* Dogs with C strength have three types of attacks, three HP, and dismiss themselves after using three attacks.
* Dogs with Super strength have three types of attacks, four HP, and dismiss themselves after using four attacks.
* Dismissal of all Dogs with A strength is done with 22A. Dismissal of all Dogs with B strength is done with 22B. Dismissal of all Dogs with C strength is done with 22C. Dismissal of all Dogs onscreen, regardless of strength, is done with 22D.
* After inputting a Dog summoning special, if Pom is not interrupted during the animation, the summoned Dog will appear slightly in front of where Pom was standing when she inputted the special. The only exceptions are Dogs that follow players; these will move into their following position.
* Dog can be rallied, or brought to this default position, by rapidly inputting D twice. Their position can be adjusted more precisely by holding D and then moving in any direction.
* After being summoned, the Dog will be on standby. A Dog is on standby when it has been summoned, but no magic moves have been inputted.
* Dogs have no hurtbox when on standby. They gain hurtboxes during their attack animations.
* Pilot Pup and Big Papa will follow the opponent while on standby. Digging Follower, or just Follow Pup, will follow Pom while on standby.
* When an magic attack is inputted, the Dogs will go out of standby and enter their attack animations. When attacking, their frame data, hitboxes, and hurtboxes are independent of Pom. Pom does not use an animation when commanding her Dogs' attacks; thus, there is no startup or recovery for it.
* Dogs cannot attack while Pom is in blockstun or hitstun. However, they can be moved, although the movement is slower than usual.

## Trivia

* Pom is based off the *Fighting is Magic* character Fluttershy from *My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic*.
	+ Both characters share majority of their movesets functionally- and design-wise: normal attacks, summon specials, and a lvl1 super command.
		- Pom was given a floating command, to replace Fluttershy's flight.
		- Pom gained command for barking.
	+ Besides being the timid archetype, both Pom and Fluttershy can often be found in a group of their animals they take care of.
	+ Unlike Fluttershy, Pom doesn't always have direct control over her pets, in fact even Pom herself implies the dogs don't always listen to her. Pom's only company are Sheep Dogs, and she cannot directly communicate with them, in comparison to Fluttershy, whose company are animals of various species who she can talk to and understand with no issue. To add more to this, Pom is not so shy but more scared, as caused by the circumstances she's found herself in, however she's not afraid to come up to strangers and speak to them if the situation requires so.
* Pom is the third youngest champion in the cast. In terms of both maturity and age, she's older than Shanty and Arizona.
	+ Converting into human years, Pom is what could be considered late adolescence (around 16-17 years old).
* In early concept art, Pom used to not have the collar with a bell.
* The pup seen besides Pom at all times is said to be the youngest in the pack. While the other pups can take some damage during the battle, Pom will rage and attack the offender who dared to land a hit on the younger pup, as seen in her Level 3 Super command.
* Pom's accent was supposed to be originally inspired by Kiwi - a New Zealand accent. It's in reference to sheep farming industry being significant in New Zelanad. At the end, it was chosen to keep the accent inspired by Scottish, since it was hard for the voice actress to replicate Kiwi accent.
* Out of the entire cast, Pom finds Arizona to be the least intimidating, as suggested by one of her fight intro quotes.

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