Rarity

Rarity is a unicorn living in Ponyville. She works as a fashion designer and is one of the main characters of the series. She holds the element of Generosity.

Personality
Rarity has a passion for design and considers herself an artist, with other ponies' looks as her medium. Her dream is to design for Princess Celestia one day. She has a tendency to give her friends spontaneous makeovers and clothing tips if their appearance does not meet her impeccable standards (Twilight is a frequent victim of this.) However, this does not mean that she is shallow or superficial; she truly cares about each one of her clients and tries her best to create designs which will bring out the inner beauty of her friends.

That's not to say that she doesn't deal with her outer beauty as well. In Boast Busters, her attempt to show up Trixie was spoiled when the blue unicorn ruined her hair, causing her to run away. In Look Before You Sleep, she panics while trying to avoid getting muddy or have her mane soaked in the rain. This caused some conflict with her friend Applejack, who isn't bothered about getting muddy or wet. In Dragonshy, she wore a scarf on their way to the dragon's lair, wondering if she carried a tiara to match.

Rarity takes great pride in her work and will do whatever it takes to make sure a dress is perfect for the customer. In Suited For Success, she takes it a step further when her friends did not seem satisfied in the first set of party dresses she made for them. She stressed herself into making a new set as perfect as they wanted it, going as far as following all their instructions instead of her own instincts. She was unhappy with the results, even though her friends were the opposite. Because of the love of her career, she can be emotionally distraught when it is threatened in some shape or form. When her "perfect" gowns were devastatingly rebuked by a visiting fashion critic and her being laughed at, she locked herself in her room, lamenting the fear of her career being ruined. In another example, in Swarm of the Century, she forgot the Parasprite crisis around Ponyville when she realized some of the hungry swarm were in her shop eating all of her clothes, causing her to panic and rush over.

Rarity is perhaps the most well-spoken of the main six ponies; her vocabulary tends to be on the more elegant side, and she is prone to use bigger 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--for example, referring to others as "Darling."

Rarity appears to suffer from a medium-to-strong case of OCD. While this does not always impair her work or her relationships with others, her tremendous attention to detail can sometimes go too far, resulting in her refusing to budge until she has completed a task perfectly. In Look Before You Sleep, she had difficulty tearing herself away from fixing a messy bookcase despite the presence of a much bigger problem (a tree that crashed into Twilight's home), and in Winter Wrap Up, she became so preoccupied with fixing Twilight's messy bird's nest that she spent nearly the entire day on it, when she was supposed to be making hundreds of nests. Her more compulsive side can sometimes annoy her friends, but she always puts those she cares about before her need to keep things in order. Rarity may be nit-picky, but she has her priorities straight.

In A Dog and Pony show Rarity was captured by Dimond Dogs and all of her friends kept having dreams about what might be happening to her.

Skills
As a unicorn, Rarity can use magic. She has not demonstrated the same level of skill as Twilight, but is adept enough to use telekenesis on multiple items at once and put on impressive light displays.

Rarity can also use her magic to expose underground gems, which is a major plot point in the episode, A Dog and Pony Show.

History
Rarity was responsible for the decor during the Summer Sun celebration. When she saw what Rainbow Dash accidently had done to Twilight's hair she was compelled to give Twilight a makeover. She also developed a fascination with Twilight when she heard she was from Canterlot. Twilight fled the Carousel Boutique (Rarity's shop) in fear at the thought of Rarity dying her coat a new color.

In episode 2, during the search for the Elements of Harmony, they encountered a sea-serpent. When they discovered the sea-serpent was just crying over the loss of half of his moustache, Rarity selflessly cut of her own tail and used it to replace the sea-serpent's lost moustache. This action earned her the element of Generosity (and as a bonus, the element restored her tail.)

It was revealed in Stare Master that Rarity is Sweetie Belle's older sister.

Appearances

 * See also: Appearances

Rarity appears in all episodes so far except episodes twelve and fifteen.

Trivia

 * Rarity's design evolved from that of Sparkler and Glory, ponies from the original (or G1) line of My Little Pony characters. When Hasbro lost the rights to nearly all the original ponies names, Faust combined Glory's color scheme and Sparkler's personality and appearance with the name of a G3 pony, creating Friendship is Magic's Rarity.
 * Rarity's fashion obsession may be because of Hasbro's request for a fashion element in the show. The creators resolved to fulfill this request in a positive way, making Rarity an artistic and talented fashion designer rather than an airheaded shopaholic.
 * Rarity says "Darling" eight times in episodes 1-19