Rarity

"Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique."

- Rarity

Rarity is one of the seven main protagonists of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Rarity is a unicorn pony with a silvery-white body, blue eyes and a violet mane and tail. She is a fashion designer/seamstress at her own dressmaking shop, the Carousel Boutique. She is very stylish and beautiful, takes great interest in fashion and clothing design, and often tries to make herself the center of attention. She considers herself a lady and often acts sophisticated. She can also be very dramatic, often when a disaster occurs to her. She is one of the main deuteragonists of My Little Pony: The Movie, a supporting character in My Little Pony: Equestria Girls and a minor character in Rainbow Rocks.

She is voiced by Tabitha St. Germain who also voiced Princess Luna. and her singing voice is done by Kazumi Evans who also voiced Adagio Dazzle and Elli.

She is Sweetie Belle's older sister and dreams of becoming a designer for Princess Celestia. She also once hoped to marry Celestia's nephew Prince Blueblood, until she actually met him, where he turned out to be snobbish, rude, and self-centered. Later, she becomes aware of Spike's crush on her but only sees him as a friend. Rarity's magic has been demonstrated to involve both telekinesis and finding nearby jewels buried underground. She represents the element of generosity.

Was too impatient with Sweetie Belle, causing a discussion for being supported just like seen in The Sisterhooves Social and Sleepless in Ponyville. In Rarity takes Manehattan, during the reprise of the song Generosity, Rarity thinks that was abandoned after by her friends, after treat them bad and pardons to them and finally to Sweetie Belle in For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils, after having evil with her young sister in two previous chapters of the series.

Development and design
Lauren Faust was inspired to create Rarity by her childhood toy G1 ponies Glory and Sparkler. Rarity uses Glory's color scheme, Sparkler's cutie mark and appearance, and some mannerisms of G3 Rainbow Dash, like the Trans-Atlantic English accent and a tendency to flip her mane 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. Concurrently with G4, a G1 version of G3 Rarity has been introduced in IDW Publishing's Transformers vs. G.I. Joe Issue #13. Rarity's tail is inspired by the hairstyle of the character Margaret Wade from the comic strip Dennis the Menace.

Spike's crush on Rarity was not planned out from the beginning. When Lauren Faust was writing Rarity's introduction scene in the pilot, she wanted the audience to understand that she's very beautiful even though she is visually very similar to the other ponies, except the style of her mane and her eyes and eyelashes. To let the audience understand that she is beautiful, Faust made Spike become smitten with her, which developed into his crush on Rarity.

Rarity's eye design is less frequently used than most other designs: Lotus Blossom and Aloe share the same eye design as Rarity, including color, shape and design of upper and lower eyelashes. During running sequences, Lemon Hearts has the same eye shape as Rarity as well. In The Best Night Ever, Rarity puts fake eyelashes on before going to the Grand Galloping Gala. She is seen wearing fake eyelashes again in MMMystery on the Friendship Express while being interrogated by Twilight Sparkle.

Rarity's dressmaking shop, the Carousel Boutique, is designed after a toy of the My Little Pony line sold by Hasbro. In Lauren Faust's "pitch bible" for the show, the boutique was named the Carousel Couture, and it specialized in carousel-inspired designs. Rarity was originally the "Element of Inspiration", but this was considered "too tough for kids to wrap their heads around."Faust stated that Audrey Hepburn was her biggest influence on Rarity.

Love of beauty
When Rarity meets Twilight Sparkle for the first time, she is busy decorating Ponyville's pavilion for the Summer Sun Celebration. As soon as Rarity turns to look at Twilight, she expresses concern for Twilight's messy mane and practically forces on her the first of many makeovers while the besotted Spike looks on. Rarity cares for her own beauty as well. She tries to show up Trixie in Boast Busters by making herself a dress from Trixie's curtain, but Trixie retaliates by ruining Rarity's mane, making her burst into tears and run away. Rarity is also 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 to avoid it messing up her mane. This causes some conflict with her friend Applejack, who is, by contrast, not at all bothered about getting muddy or wet. Her fashion consciousness 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 as part of their "weekly get-together", and she puts on eyelash extensions as part of her gala preparations in The Best Night Ever. In MMMystery on the Friendship Express, she wears false eyelashes, and in the latter part of the episode, she wears her hair in such a way to prevent this becoming known to her friends, having lost one of them while trying to make her escape from Pinkie.

Center of attention
Rarity expresses admiration of Fluttershy's grace and poise during Green Isn't Your Color and implores Fluttershy to model her clothing despite the fact that Fluttershy doesn't enjoy putting herself in front of others and only asks her because Photo Finish is scheduled to come photograph her work. When Rarity loses the spotlight to Fluttershy, she attempts to overcome her envy and remain very supportive of Fluttershy. However, the same could be said of Rainbow Dash and Rarity 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 Flyer competition, Rarity insists that they all find a way to go there and support her, and has Twilight test a spell on her that would allow her to fly in Cloudsdale. Rarity gains a lovely pair of butterfly-like wings thanks to this spell, but she steals the spotlight, showing them off to everyone and even entering the competition herself, sending Rainbow Dash into a nervous breakdown. Rarity eventually falls from the sky after burning her wings from flying too close to the sun, much like Icarus of Greek legend. Rainbow Dash spots Rarity as she falls and flies to save her, performing a sonic rainboom in the process. Rarity later apologizes to Rainbow Dash for her behavior and calls her the greatest flier in Equestria.

Mannerisms
Rarity's mannerisms are similar to those of Scarlett O'Hara, the histrionic anti-heroine of Gone With the Wind. Many of Rarity's lines are rephrased from lines Scarlett says in the 1939 movie. Her vocabulary is formal, and she is prone to use complex words and more sophisticated, refined phrasing than her friends. As a fashionista, she often uses French-based terms in her vernacular. She speaks with a cultivated trans-Atlantic dialect, and shares some mannerisms with similarly accented Hollywood actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn.​[​dubious – discuss‍​]​ 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 producing nests in large numbers.

Rarity shows herself to be 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 takes control of the situation quite well, manipulating the Diamond Dogs into releasing her and even letting her have several carts full of gems. Rarity's prim ways and aversion to disorder and dirt clashes with Applejack's brashness in Look Before You Sleep. They bicker throughout the episode about each other's attitude, but they finally unite in the face of adversity when a tree crashes into Twilight's library. They work together and eventually come to enjoy the company of one another, which becomes more apparent in later episodes. In Over a Barrel, Rarity is baffled at the level of care Applejack bestows on Bloomberg, an apple tree being taken to Appleloosa for planting. Rarity complains that the tree received a private coach; 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 even comes to compliment Applejack's manners when she doesn't charge Rarity for food from her stand at the Grand Galloping Gala in The Best Night Ever.

Generosity
While Rarity cares about her appearance quite a bit, being averse to stepping in mud or risking getting herself messy, she is not above getting her hooves dirty when it comes to helping her friends or creatures in need. She slices off her own tail to calm down the sea serpent in Friendship is Magic, part 2, willing to sacrifice her beauty to help restore the distressed serpent's "fabulosity". This action earns her the element of generosity, and later, when she activates the element, her tail is restored.

The episode Suited For Success heavily revolves around Rarity's generosity, as she is willing to not only make five unique dresses for her friends for the Grand Galloping Gala but additionally re-work and redesign them as her friends desire. The overworking runs Rarity ragged and, despite her friends' designs being horrible fashion-wise, she continues making them in order to satisfy her friends. At the end of the episode, Rarity's friends realize that her original dresses were beautiful and perfectly matched for each of them, and that they should not have taken advantage of Rarity's generosity.

Rarity is hypnotized by Discord into believing a large boulder is actually a giant diamond in The Return of Harmony Part 1. For a short moment she resists the temptation, but soon she becomes brainwashed, obsessively protecting her "diamond" and refusing to let anybody near it, as she becomes possessive and greedy. This continues in The Return of Harmony Part 2, where she refuses to part with the boulder and names it "Tom", while additionally hoarding other items she sees as valuable, such as the jewelry of the Elements of Harmony themselves. After the brainwashing is cured, she throws the boulder away and tells her friends to "never speak of this again" in a hushed but assertive whisper. In Sisterhooves Social, Applejack mentions to Rarity that sisterhood is a give-and-take relationship that requires compromise. To this end, Rarity takes part in the Sisterhooves Social with Sweetie Belle while disguised as Applejack.

Rarity's generosity is a major plot point of Rarity Takes Manehattan. The unscrupulous fashion designer Suri Polomare uses it against her by asking for some of the unique material Rarity made to "accentuate" her own dresses. Instead, Suri uses the material to copy Rarity's designs. Rarity beats Suri in the end, and pledges not to let the experience sour her on being generous in the future.

Career
Rarity works as a fashion designer at Carousel Boutique. Rarity's work is so important to her that during the parasprite crisis in Ponyville in Swarm of the Century, she yells in panic and rushes to her boutique once she realizes the parasprites might get there and eat her work. 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.

Rarity stresses herself into making a new set of dresses the way her friends want them, going as far as following all their instructions instead of her own instincts. She is unhappy with the results, even though her friends are very satisfied. When these dresses are devastatingly criticized by "the bigwig fashion hotshot" Hoity Toity, she locks herself in her room, lamenting her ruined career; luckily for her, her friends are able to convince Hoity Toity to hold another fashion show, this time with the original dresses.

In the episode A Dog and Pony Show, the pony pop sensation Sapphire Shores visits Rarity's boutique. She claims that she makes "it a point to know all of the up-and-coming designers", and "Clothes Horse magazine simply raved about [Rarity]."

Rarity is quite willing to let Spike help her out with her work, and shows some concern for his welfare. They go gem-hunting together in A Dog and Pony Show, and she rewards him for his assistance with "the finest reward", a gem, which he holds very dear to him simply for being a gift from Rarity. At the end of the episode, once she has several carts full of gems, she lets Spike indulge on a great number of them. He willingly gives himself as a pin-cushion in Green Isn't Your Color and says he "can't feel a thing" thanks to his thick scales. There's a brief shot of Spike wearing a T-shirt with Rarity's head emblazoned on a heart as a gag about the overt nature of Spike's "secret" crush. Rarity wears a pair of reading glasses while sewing. She designs the wedding dress for Princess Cadance and the bridesmaid dresses for herself and her friends in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 and A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2.

In Rarity Takes Manehattan, Rarity places first at a fashion show hosted by Prim Hemline as part of Manehattan's Fashion Week, despite the machinations of fellow designer Suri Polomare. She manages to wow the crowd with a fashion line made only from fabrics in the Mane Six's hotel room, created with her friends' help in less than a day.

In For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils, Rarity regularly designs for Sapphire Shores.

Twilight says in Canterlot Boutique that Rarity designing for Sapphire Shores' Equestria-wide tour led to the opening of Canterlot Carousel. At the end of the episode, Rarity lets her former fashion connoisseur Sassy Saddles manage Canterlot Carousel while she manages Carousel Boutique on the grounds that Sassy Saddles has learned Rarity's entrepreneur ways. Rarity states that her guidelines are only to be applied in Canterlot Carousel.

Powers and Abilities
Unicorn Physiology: Rarity is a unicorn who resides in Ponyville.
 * Magic: Rarity can use magic, and while it may not be up to the standards of Twilight Sparkle, she uses it in connection with making things "fabulous", like gem-finding, dressmaking, and topiary art.
 * Telekinesis: She uses sewing and cutting tools through telekinesis with the precision needed to make her dresses, manipulating multiple items at once.
 * Gardening and Topiary connection: Rarity demonstrates the ability to connect with trees such as reattaching branches and with tree foliage and cast a spell that turns it into topiary. She is later also able to restore a worn out ancient family garden.
 * Illusion Casting: Rarity uses her magic to create an impressive light display as well as forming intricate illusions in her self - generated backdrop.
 * Dowsing: Rarity can also use her magic to expose underground gems.
 * Light Generation: Like Twilight Sparkle, Rarity can use her horn magic to create light.
 * Magical Beam Emission: Rarity can shoot concussive beams from her horn similar to Twilight Sparkle.

Expert Martial Artist: Despite Rarity's delicate nature and formal personality, she has shown an occasional propensity for the martial arts.

Attract: Rarity has a talent for charming and flirting male ponies to help her and her friends.

Generosity Embodiment: Rarity possess the element of generosity.

Ball Form: She can turn herself into a ball and bounce around. Though, this is cartoon physics for humor, rather than an actual power.

Trivia

 * Rarity's accent deliberately sounds like the late Audrey Hepburn.
 * Forever Filly is the only episode in which Rarity appears without any of the other Mane Six.