Hullo Fellow Rarity Fans!

There is one feature I have noticed in FiM fiction: often in stories with romance and/or sex, Rarity is cast as the character who knows about these things. Either other characters go to her for advice, or she is the most knowledgable in general when it comes to dating or sex techniques or whatever else.

My question is why? There is nothing much in-canon that would suggest she is more sexually active than her friends. She does have a couple of distant crushes (Blueblood and Trenderhoof), but her lovelife is no more active than any of the other ones. I’m not judging here, I’m just curious.

Any thoughts?

Prolly because people want to ship her more than the others, I think.

7351158
Mainly because Pinkie and Fluttershy are perceived as innocent, Applejack is seen more as the traditional "sex after marriage" type, Twilight has had her nose in studying for most of her life so she's more seen as naive as fuck which leaves Rarity who constantly spews about romance more than likely having read a ton of romance novels which more than likely includes a lot of descriptions about sexual situations. So it's not that she's more experienced in the literal sense it's more that she's experienced having possibly more knowledge than the other five. And there's also the fact that she's not above using feminine wiles/excessive flirting to get her way as seen in the episode where she flirts with the geeky stallion to get Fluttershy her asparagus.

7351187
Ah yes.

The time asparagus launched a thousand ships.

7351158
I really have no idea.

A lot of people can't imagine someone would get dressed up for any reason other than male gratification. Also Rarity is a business owner, so it's not that surprising that she's easy to read as more mature than the others, and with maturity, ostensibly, comes experience.

7351288

A lot of people can't imagine someone would get dressed up for any reason other than male gratification

I guess a lot of people do think that. It’s a load of bullcrap, dressing up is a joy in and of itself and people do it for themselves, but the thought does persist unfortunately.

From Lauren Faust: Spike's crush on Rarity was not planned out from the beginning. When I was writing Rarity's introduction scene in the pilot, I 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, I made Spike become smitten with her, which developed into his crush on Rarity.

Lauren Faust said the biggest influence for Rarity was Audrey Hepburn, and much of her dialog was influenced by Scarlet O’Hare from Gone with the Wind.

Only two episodes had Rarity pursue another pony with the thought of making the stallion a life partner. The Ticket Master and The Best Night Ever for Prince Blueblood. In the Simple Ways episode Rarity’s pursuit of Tenderhoof was what he could bring her. While infatuated with him, she didn’t say anything about marriage.

Several episodes have Rarity using her feminine charms. The Best Night Ever with Caramel and Lucky Clover, Putting Your Hoof Down with Gizmo, Castle Sweet Castle with Spike, and Rarity Investigates with Package Deal. Sassy Saddles is quoted to say, “Rarity can sweet talk a filly out of candy.”

No where in the show (Y7 by the way) is Rarity depicted as ‘experienced’. This is Hasbro’s description: The beautiful and artistic Rarity has an eye for fashion that keeps her very busy at her dress shop: The Carousel Boutique. But she'll always find time to help her friends. She's quick to offer fashion advice and won't hesitate to follow a by generously giving of her talents. Rarity longs for the exciting life of high-society and would love to live in Canterlot. However, time and again, she's found her favorite place, is to be with her friends!

Of the main six, Rarity is the only one that has thought of marriage. Many fan fiction authors want a ‘mature’ Rarity for their fiction. Often it is written she reads romance, yet in the show she doesn’t do that. That she is experienced since she uses her charms. I like to think she is inexperienced until she does land that stallion for marriage. Rarity is beautiful, charming, generous, and has an eye for detail. It is a Y7 show. Fan fiction is to take a character from In Character to Out of Character in some logical progression.

7351158 I'm not sure I would consider her "experienced" though I do like to think that she has some romantic knowledge. Perhaps some advice to share with a few clueless stallions.

7351795
This answer hits all the big points: Rarity is depicted as the most attractive, the most romantically interested in stallions, the most empowered by her own femininity, etc.

I'd only add that there's also the fact that Rarity fits the feminist ideal of "the New Woman" - She's an intelligent, well-read, self-sufficient, classy businesswoman (or business-mare?), who is interested in males but not defined by a subservient relationship to them. This along with her cosmopolitan flair leads audiences to assume that since she is a liberated woman in every other sense, there's not really a reason Rarity wouldn't have an active sex life outside of marriage.

7352629
And the reasons you listed is why Rarity is my favorite pony!

7351158
I didn't see an answer that stuck me as correct yet.

7351795 's answer covers canon pretty damn well. Kudos for that.

The issue everyone is missing is that people write stories with a goal in mind. They pick and choose things from canon to support that goal. Specifically to fit their story together, not to build "the most accurate headcanon possible."

To be clear on what I'm objecting to: canon depicts Rarity a certain way. Again, well described by Zervon Tora. You're free to develope a headcanon from there. Nothing in canon clearly indicates that Rarity has had many lovers. But nothing in canon says she's a naive virgin either. It would be headcanon territory to offer up an opinion either way.

Several people write a shipfic. Pair up A with B. One or both go seek advice from Rarity. That's a common thing, as OP points out. Because you can take the hints given us by canon and depict a Rarity that fits those and is experienced. It's easy to make that believable.

7351187 came to this basic idea too. Imagine a pony main character of your romance fluffy shipfic. Lyra and Bon Bon, in Lyra's POV. Assume she's friends with all six of the M6. Have her, in your imagination, consider each of her six friends. Would she think she'd get good advice from that friend? If she thinks yes, how well do you see that working out?

Twilight: went to school with her. Ended up living in the same town. Twilight is pretty smart. But she was antisocial. Their friendship was distant for awhile. Would Lyra think Twilight would give good advice for her about dating Bon Bon? Maybe! I imagine most would think no. But you could be creative and perhaps bring up that Twilight was also foslsat by the princess of love. She likely witnessed her brother and Cadance dating. She might also have had to deal with Moondancer's crush on her. Or her own crush on Celestia.

Fluttershy is that quiet introvert/hermit that lives in the edge of town. Even more antisocial than Twilight. But maybe she's had scores and scores of visitors to her cottage. She takes care of lonely stallions as well as all the animals. Maybe she's so shy/anxious because she's used to being the victim of domestic abuse. What kind of advice might she give?

Pinkie Pie is the only one of the six to end up married and a mother by the end of the series. She's also socially connected to everyone. Honestly I'm not sure why she's not more popular as a advice source. Other than the difficulty of writing Pinkie well. Early in the series/fandom, dismissing her as frivolous was the default. Still, I think Lyra might value her insight. Especially as an earth pony involved in making sweets!

Applejack exists.

Rainbow Dash could be promiscuous or chaste. She's had childhood friendships with Fluttershy and Gilda. She has fans gather around her effortlessly and could easily have groupies. There's plenty of room for her to be experienced, and like with the others, Lyra's view of her friend would influence how valuable she anticipates it will be.

Which leads us back to Rarity. Like Pinkie, Rarity is keyed into the social trends of her community. She may have personal experience. She's probably read more romance rags than the other five combined. She's easier to write than Pinkie. She's probably had lengthy conversations with Bon Bon (who needs clothing from time to time for disguises!).

The thing is that people are writing about the story they're writing about. LyraBon as our example. That story has needs. It needs a start and end. It needs a conflict. Having the main character seek out help (advice) for her problems is a pretty common story need. "Which pony do I stick into my story to fit this role?" can have many answers.

You can come up with fun story ideas from each of them serving as fonts of relationship wisdom. But Rarity kinda feels like the easiest one to slot into that role for many writers. It's easy to draw a connection between Rarity and nearly any pony. To give your main character a reason to talk to Rarity. For Rarity to be familiar with the love interest. And for Rarity to eagerly help. As well as be taken seriously (unlike Pinkie).

Rarity comes across as the path of least resistance for that role in the story. So filling out a headcanon that she's experienced, therefore good at giving advice, fits the needs of a lot of stories.

That's how you get to that popularity. Not based on being the best fit to canon, but based on an absence of contradiction from canon and a general ease of use.

7354251

Applejack exists.

7351158
Because she flirts a lot so they think of her as a slut.