Rarity

Rarity is a unicorn pony who resides in Ponyville. She is one of the main characters of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. She is the older sister of Sweetie Belle and has a pet cat named Opalescence. Rarity works as both a fashion designer and seamstress in her Carousel Boutique. She represents the element of generosity.

Development
Rarity's design evolved from that of Sparkler and Glory, ponies from the original line of My Little Pony characters. She looks like the unicorn Majesty, who came with the first-generation castle set, except her hair is purple instead of blue. Rarity uses Glory's color scheme and Sparkler's cutie mark and appearance, with the personality of third-generation Rainbow Dash, as they both speak with a dignified mid-Atlantic dialect, and have tendencies to flip their manes and say "darling". She shares her name with a G3 pony who was voiced by Cathy Weseluck, who currently voices Spike in the new series.

Personality
When Rarity meets Twilight Sparkle for the first time, she is busy decorating Ponyville's pavillion for the Summer Sun Celebration. Twilight comments on the beautiful decoration, but as soon as Rarity lays eyes on her, she expresses concern for Twilight's messy hair and practically forces her to get a makeover. When Rarity hears that Twilight is from Canterlot, she goes on about "the glamor, the sophistication" of the city and adds she "always dreamed of living there".

Rarity cares for her own beauty as well. She attempts to show up Trixie in Boast Busters by making herself a dress from Trixie's curtain, but Trixie retaliates by ruining Rarity's hair, making her burst into tears and run away. Rarity is particular about her cleanliness: she panics while trying to avoid getting muddy in Look Before You Sleep, and tries to keep herself from getting soaked in the rain. This causes some conflict with her friend Applejack, who is not bothered about getting muddy or wet. Her fashion-conscientiousness extends even to times of peril: in Dragonshy, she wears a scarf on the way to the dragon's lair, wondering if she should carry a tiara to match. She indulges in a full spa treatment with Fluttershy in Green Isn't Your Color, and as part of her gala preparations in The Best Night Ever, it is revealed that she wears eyelash extensions.

Rarity's work ethic and dedication to her customers is depicted in Suited For Success. She initially sews dresses of her own design for her friends, but when they're not satisfied with the result, she sews them brand new dresses under their direction. She stresses herself into making a new set the way they want it, going as far as following all their instructions instead of her own instincts. She is unhappy with the results, even though her friends are the opposite. When these dresses are devastatingly criticized by "the bigwig fashion hotshot" Hoity Toity, she locks herself in her room, lamenting her ruined career. Luckily she gets to have another fashion show for Hoity Toity, this time with her original dresses, which greatly impress Hoity Toity. Her work is so important to her that during the parasprite crisis in Ponyville in Swarm of the Century, she yells in panic "everypony for herself" and rushes to her boutique once she realizes the parasprites might get there and eat her work.

Rarity is perhaps the most well-spoken of the main six ponies; her vocabulary tends to be more formal, and she is prone to use complex words and more sophisticated, refined phrasing than the others. She speaks with a cultivated mid-Atlantic dialect, and shares some mannerisms with similarly accented Hollywood actresses, such as Grace Kelly.

However, Rarity sometimes gets carried away with her attention to detail. In Look Before You Sleep, she has difficulty tearing herself away from fixing a messy bookcase, despite the much bigger problem of a tree that crashed into Twilight's bedroom. In Winter Wrap Up, she becomes so preoccupied with fixing Twilight's messy bird's nest that she spends nearly the entire day on it, when she was supposed to be making hundreds of other nests.

While she cares about her appearance quite a bit, being averse to stepping in mud or risking getting herself messy, Rarity is not above getting her hooves dirty when it comes to helping her friends or the prospect of gathering gems. As shown in Friendship is Magic, part 2, she is willing to sacrifice her beauty to help out someone in need (when Rarity slices off her own tail to calm down the river serpent) and has been out on rugged pursuits such as in Dragonshy and Over a Barrel. She shows herself to be quite tough and resourceful in dealing with the Diamond Dogs in A Dog and Pony Show. Even though the others are worried she would panic over how dirty the underground was, Rarity is taking control of the situation quite well.

In The Return of Harmony Part 1, she was hypnotised by Discord into believing a large boulder was a giant diamond. At first she resists the temptation but soon she becomes corrupted, obsessively hoarding her "diamond" and refusing to let anyone near it. As The Return of Harmony Part 2 went on, the corruption worsened, and not only did she name her boulder "Tom" but also hoarded anything else she thought was valuable, such as the jewelery of the Elements of Harmony themselves, though this did not affect her. After the corruption was undone, she threw the boulder away and told her friends never to speak of it again.

Skills
As a unicorn, Rarity can use magic. She puts on an impressive light display for Hoity Toity in Suited for Success, and uses telekinesis to hold multiple items at once and use tools with the precision needed to make her dresses. She has also shown some creativity with this aspect of her power by eliminating a large section of tree by reducing it to cute little topiaries in Look Before You Sleep.

Though her care of her own appearance makes her unwilling to get too rough, Rarity has shown some quite impressive close combat ability. Appropriately, she seems to concentrate on not getting hit, dodging the manticore and the Diamond Dogs’ attacks with her customary grace. In Return of Harmony, Part 2 she is seen using a fighting style similar to human martial arts.

Rarity can also use her magic to expose underground gems, which is a major plot point in the episode A Dog and Pony Show. This spell is copied by Twilight in the same episode. Unlike Twilight or other unicorns, Rarity's gem-finding ability appears to be instinctive: her story in The Cutie Mark Chronicles show this ability activating by itself without her knowingly casting a spell.

History
During The Cutie Mark Chronicles, Rarity retells her story of her life as a filly to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The flashback starts on an outdoor theatre near a schoolhouse, where some fillies were practicing for a school play, dressed as various foods. The teacher complimented Rarity on her costume design, but the perfectionist Rarity insisted that the dresses didn't meet her expectations and tried to create new ones to no avail. Almost immediately, a light ignites in her horn, and it shoves Rarity leftward until it stumbles into a very large, geode-like boulder. Rarity, having thought her horn would help her find "[her] destiny", is deeply unsatisfied. Then, Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom occurs, causing the boulder to split in two, revealing the boulder to be filled with gemstones. Rarity decides to add these to the existing costumes to snazz them up, earning both the admiration of the crowd and her cutie mark.

Rarity is responsible for the decor during the Summer Sun Celebration. When she sees what Rainbow Dash accidentally did to Twilight's hair she is compelled to give Twilight a makeover. She also develops a fascination with Twilight when she hears she is from Canterlot. Twilight flees the Carousel Boutique (Rarity's shop) in fear of the thought of Rarity dying her coat a new color.

In episode 2, during the search for the Elements of Harmony, they encounter a sea-serpent. When they discover the sea-serpent is just crying over the loss of half of his mustache, Rarity selflessly cuts off her own tail and uses it to replace the sea-serpent's lost mustache. This action earns her the element of generosity (and, as a bonus, the element restores her tail).

Rarity daydreams in episode three about meeting Princess Celestia's dashing nephew at the Grand Galloping Gala. Upon attending the Gala, she finally meets the object of her affections who reveals his name to be Prince Blueblood. However, to her dismay, he turns out to be snobbish, self-centered, and rude.

Sweetie Belle is introduced as Rarity's little sister in Stare Master.

Hasbro.com description
''Rarity could possibly be the most beautiful pony you've ever seen. As she prances down the street, her coat gleaming pure white and her royal purple curls bouncing, everypony's head is turning--- and boy does she love it! A talented fashion-designer, her biggest dream is to one day design for Princess Celestia. At first glance she may seem like a typical debutant, vain and entitled, but it's simply not so! Generous to a fault, she's believes so badly that the world should be beautiful she's all too eager to simply give away the designs she's worked so hardly on and to offer anypony a custom Rarity makeover. And should you make it through one; you'll learn that Rarity's greatest beauty is her heart.''

Hubworld description
''With her gleaming white coat and royal purple curls, Rarity is the most beautiful unicorn in Ponyville. And she knows it. After all, heads turn when she prances down the street. A talented fashion designer, Rarity loves to give the other ponies makeovers, and her dream is to design for Princess Celestia''

Teacher for a Day description
''Finding another unicorn pony as beautiful as she would would be a rarity for sure! This talented fanshionista almost always turns heads - and she loves every minute of it!''

''She dreams of one day designing a beautiful dress for Princess Celestia! Until then, she continues to prance around Ponyville like the belle of the ball.''

''This pretty pony is just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside - and as generous and caring as she is talented! She loves to help her friends look and feel the best!''

Relationships
Twilight Sparkle – Though Twilight doesn't seem that interested in fashion, she and Rarity get along well. Twilight has been the subject of multiple makeovers and liked the results. The two, being unicorns, both have magical ability, and it has been shown that Rarity and Twilight occasionally teach each other their various spells; at some point, Rarity teaches Twilight how to track jewels with her horn, as demonstrated in A Dog and Pony Show.

Pinkie Pie – Pinkie Pie and Rarity are close friends, and Rarity is never as surprised or critical of Pinkie Pie's oddness as the others (although her fashion sense occasionally drives Rarity to distraction). In Dragonshy they are seen getting along very well, playing games like tic-tac-toe and trading quips throughout the episode.

Fluttershy – Rarity and Fluttershy meet at the spa once a week, as depicted in Green Isn't Your Color. Rarity even claims Fluttershy to be her best friend. Rarity expresses admiration of Fluttershy's grace and poise in the episode, and implores Fluttershy to model her clothing, though she is aware that Fluttershy doesn't enjoy putting herself in front of people and only asks her when Photo Finish comes to photograph her work. This results in Rarity losing the spotlight to Fluttershy, a situation they both dislike. Fluttershy also extends her tender love for animals to Rarity's cat Opalescence when the latter is unable to tend to her properly in Stare Master. In Suited For Success, when Rarity and Fluttershy come to a small disagreement over the design of Fluttershy's dress and she pushes Fluttershy into telling her what's wrong with it, she is quick and thorough to point out all of the flaws with her dress. Because of this, Fluttershy's higher knowledge of sewing is a potentially invaluable asset in Rarity's clothing business which proves handy in the group's effort to complete Rarity's dress.

Rainbow Dash – Rainbow Dash tends to be much more rambunctious and sharp-tongued than the ever-polite and stately Rarity, but despite this, Rarity seems to not mind Rainbow's wild nature, and Rainbow is generally respectful in return. Rainbow does not share the same attention to detail and fashion Rarity does, but does show admiration for Rarity's talent at dressmaking. In Sonic Rainboom, after Rainbow Dash expresses disappointment that the others would not be able to go to Cloudsdale to cheer her on in the Best Young Fliers Competition, Rarity insists that they all find some way to get there and support her, and has Twilight test a spell on her that will allow her to fly in Cloudsdale. Rarity gains a lovely pair of wings thanks to this spell, but steals the spotlight when she shows them off to everyone and even enters the competition herself, sending Rainbow Dash into a nervous breakdown. However, when Rarity falls from the sky after burning her wings, Rainbow Dash flies to save her and Rarity apologizes to Rainbow Dash, referring to her as the greatest flier in Cloudsdale.

Applejack – Applejack and Rarity are the only relationship in the main cast in which both parties show dislike for each other. Despite this, however, they have shown concern for each other, and the episode Look Before You Sleep results in them forming a considerably better relationship. In more recent episodes, they show a somewhat better tolerance towards each other's differences. In Over a Barrel, Rarity is baffled at Applejack's caring for a tree she named "Bloomberg" that she is taking to Appleloosa for planting, and complains over not receiving the private coach Applejack did. However, Applejack takes this in stride and takes no offense at Rarity's complaints. Rarity later provides Applejack with much appreciated support in their attempts to protect Appleloosa from a buffalo stampede. Rarity compliments Applejack's manners while the two are at the Grand Galloping Gala in The Best Night Ever, having spent the night with Prince Blueblood, whose manners were even more crude than Applejack's sometimes are.

Spike – While it is uncertain if Rarity has noticed Spike's crush on her (though as Twilight noted, she would have to be pretty unobservant not to), she seems quite willing to let him help her out with her work, and has shown concern for his welfare. In A Dog and Pony Show, she rewards Spike with the best gem of all to feast on when he helps in her gem hunts, much to the latter's pleasure.

Sweetie Belle – Though Rarity views her little sister with affection, Sweetie Belle's clumsiness does drive her to slight annoyance sometimes, especially since it's paired with a painful willingness to "help", as shown in Stare Master. Sweetie has also shown a tendency to "borrow" important supplies from Rarity on occasion, using her most expensive fabrics to make poorly stitched costumes for her friends.

Prince Blueblood – Once the subject of her affections, during The Ticket Master, Rarity's image of Prince Blueblood is Rarity's dream pony; she fawns over the Prince's supposed handsomeness and royal manner and fantasizes him taking her hoof in marriage at the Grand Galloping Gala. Rarity eventually meets the Prince in person in The Best Night Ever, but their relationship proves anything but romantic. Although handsome and initially charming, Blueblood shows himself to be conceited, rude, and narrow-minded, often taking advantage of Rarity's affections for him and rarely ever displaying common courtesy to her through the night of the Gala. Rarity tries to be patient with the Prince's manner, but his selfish ways soon get to her and, when Blueblood uses her as a shield from an incoming cake (courtesy of Applejack and Pinkie Pie), Rarity angrily declares him to be nothing more than a "royal pain" and splatters frosting all over him, no longer thinking of him as remotely desirable. It's worth noting, though, that the two do share a fear of getting themselves dirty, a fear Rarity takes quick advantage of while reaching the boiling point of their date.

Appearances

 * See also character appearances

Rarity appears in all episodes so far except episodes Call of the Cutie and Feeling Pinkie Keen. In Fall Weather Friends, Rarity only appears briefly without any speaking roles.

Gallery

 * Rarity image gallery
 * Fan Labor of Rarity
 * Speculation of Rarity

Trivia

 * Rarity says "Darling" eight times in episodes 1-19.
 * Rarity shares a few similarities with that of Princess Luna, as they not only have primary colors within the blue-violet range, but are also voiced by the same voice actress, Tabitha St. Germain.
 * Rarity is one of the few from the main ponies, along with Twilight and Fluttershy, that have a less frequently-used eye shape. The two spa ponies from Green Isn't Your Color have the exact same eyes as Rarity's from the eye color and eye shape down to even the exact style and number of upper and lower eyelashes. A very uncommon background unicorn pony in Applebuck Season at about 2:14 in has the same eye shape as Rarity as well.
 * As a filly, Rarity's snout was the same distinct shape as Twist's.
 * It is revealed in The Best Night Ever that Rarity's eyelashes are actually fake.

Rarity