Rarity is depicted as an elegant, sophisticated, and dramatic anthropomorphicunicorn with a passion for fashion design and beauty. She owns and operates the Carousel Boutique in Ponyville, where she creates clothing and accessories. Rarity represents the Element of Generosity in the Elements of Harmony.[2][3][4] She is characterized by her stylish purple mane, her refined British/trans-Atlantic accent, her meticulous attention to detail, and her occasional melodramatic tendencies. Despite her preoccupation with appearance, she demonstrates her selflessness toward her friends throughout the series.
Rarity is introduced in the series premiere as a sophisticated unicorn with a talent for finding gems and creating fashionable attire. Her backstory is explored in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", which reveals she was struggling to make costumes for a school play, and her horn unexpectedly pulled her toward a large rock. Shortly afterward, she witnessed Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom, which caused the rock to shatter, revealing it to be full of gems. She discovered her talent to find gems to improve her designs, earning her cutie mark of three diamonds.
Throughout the series, Rarity works to establish herself as a renowned fashion designer. In "Suited for Success", she designs dresses for her friends for the Grand Galloping Gala despite her friends' increasingly impossible demands. The episode "Rarity Takes Manehattan" explores her competitive side as she enters a prestigious fashion competition in Manehattan, learning important lessons about maintaining integrity in the fashion industry.
Rarity's relationship with her younger sister Sweetie Belle is developed in episodes like "Sisterhooves Social" and "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils", where they navigate typical sibling conflicts while strengthening their bond. In the episode "Sweet and Elite", Rarity is torn between attending an elite Canterlot garden party and celebrating Twilight's birthday with her friends. As the series progresses, Rarity opens a second boutique in Canterlot called "Canterlot Carousel" in the fifth season, and a third boutique in Manehattan called "Rarity For You" in the sixth season. She also achieves her dream of designing for Canterlot's elite and royalty on several occasions.
Rarity helps Twilight prepare for the Friendship Festival in Canterlot before the city is attacked by the Storm King's forces. During their adventure beyond Equestria, she uses her charm and generosity to help win over potential allies, particularly during their encounter with Capper, a con artist cat whom she befriends by fixing his damaged coat. Rarity's generosity is highlighted when she willingly gives away her collection of gems to persuade Queen Novo to help them save Equestria. During the final confrontation with the Storm King, she uses her unicorn magic to help defeat the villain and restore harmony to Equestria.
Rarity appears as a main character in the spin-off reboot series My Little Pony: Pony Life. Her interest in fashion is downplayed in Pony Life in favor of a greater interest in thespianism.
Rarity's human counterpart is a main character in the Equestria Girls spin-off franchise. She is a student at Canterlot High School and aspiring fashion designer. Beginning in the second film, she is the keytarist of her friends' rock band, the Rainbooms, and gains the ability to create diamond-like force fields as her geode power in the fourth film. In later media, she holds various jobs at fashion stores and in fashion and costume designing.
Unlike Applejack, Rarity—a Unicorn pony—is all about fancy. The main floor of the boutique is about flourish and embellishment. Her whole world is about adornment and bling!
Jim Miller,My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria
Rarity was based on the Generation 1 unicorns Sparkler and Glory, and her name was taken from a Generation 3 unicorn first introduced in 2006.
In developing Rarity's character, creator Lauren Faust sought to balance studio requirements for fashion play with her desire to avoid stereotypical fashionista tropes. Faust deliberately portrayed Rarity as a businesswoman and fashion designer who created and sold her own designs through her shop, Carousel Boutique. According to Faust's social media posts, the original design for the boutique was called "Carousel Couture" and featured a working carousel with the horses serving as clothing mannequins. This proposal was ultimately rejected by executives, one of several creative constraints that eventually contributed to Faust's departure from the series during Season 2.[5]
Faust originally intended for Rarity's Element of Harmony to be inspiration, but the production team changed it to generosity because they felt the former was "too much of a thinker, especially for kids." Faust welcomed this change, noting that it "really helped pull [Rarity] away from the stereotypical, unlikable debutante."[6] Faust cited Audrey Hepburn as her biggest influence for Rarity's character[7] and praised voice actress Tabitha St. Germain's performance, which "added a humor to Rarity that was unexpected and wonderful."[8]
Rarity's speech patterns have been the subject of linguistic analysis. A 2016 study from the University of Vaasa identified that her most notable speech features include her transatlantic accent and occasional use of French words (code-switching), both contributing to her characterization as glamorous and sophisticated. The research analyzed how these linguistic features were preserved in international dubs, finding that while her distinct accent was often lost in translation, her use of French expressions like "pièce de résistance de la haute couture", "soirée", and "magnifique" was generally preserved in Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish versions of the show. The study noted that despite only five instances of code-switching in the first season, these foreign words stood out significantly in her speech pattern and were important in establishing her character's association with fashion, refinement, and education.[9]
According to a study done on the brony fandom, fans of Friendship Is Magic who selected Rarity as their favorite character were more likely to identify as both artists and cosplayers compared to fans of other characters; these fans scored lowest on measures of both general show appreciation and community involvement, though they also reported the highest willingness to openly disclose their interest in the show to others. The research also indicated that fans of Rarity were more likely to report experiencing discrimination related to their fandom participation. Additionally, the study found that this group scored highest on psychological measures of depression, narcissism, and Machiavellianism compared to fans of other characters.[10]
In 2021, researchers from Universitas Trisakti analyzed visual character design in My Little Pony: The Movie and found that Rarity's predominantly white coloration corresponds to qualities such as purity, cleanliness, and freedom. Their study noted that her purple curled mane represents imagination, sophistication, and luxury, reflecting her fashion-oriented personality. The researchers identified her unicorn form and refined design elements as visual signifiers of her role as the Element of Generosity, concluding that these aesthetic choices effectively communicate her role to the target audience without requiring extensive narrative explanation.[11]
Carly Olsen, writing in Screen Rant, ranked Rarity as the sixth most powerful magic user in Friendship Is Magic.[12]
In popular culture
Rarity is a popular character in merchandise and collectibles, with items like the Kotobukiya Bishoujo statue series featuring humanized versions of her character.[13]
↑Snider, Brandon T. (2013). The Elements of Harmony: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The Official Guidebook. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN978-0-316-24754-2.
↑Smeds, Mikaela (2016). "Don't y'all care about nothin' other than prettifyin'?": Idiolects in three dubs of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Master's thesis). Vaasa, Finland: University of Vaasa. pp.69–72.
↑Edwards, Patrick; Chadborn, Daniel P.; Plante, Courtney N.; Reysen, Stephen; Redden, Marsha Howze (September 11, 2019). Meet the Bronies: The Psychology of the Adult My Little Pony Fandom. United States: McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p.64. ISBN9781476663715.
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