I’m gonna go on a bit of a journey here.
I think if I had to pick a member of The Mane Six to represent the “spirit” of FiM, it would be Rarity. This is for a couple of reasons, but the one I want to focus on is Fashion. Suited for Success was a gamechanger. Not only did it show what a great character Rarity is, it took fashion, a thing guys aged 18-25 wouldn’t consider interesting or important, and it legitimized it.
Then there’s Rarity’s counterpart in G5: Pipp. There’s two points I want to make. Those of us who got into the show when we were 18-25 are now 31-38 year old boomers who might be dismissive of a character centered around modern technology and social media. But I think, in a similar vein to how Rarity legitimized fashion, Pipp legitimizes the social media aspect. Pipp isn’t just some airheaded social media addict, and she’s not a master manipulator either. Her relationship to social media is written with a surprising amount of nuance.
Which brings me to my second point. There’s a really cool parallel between Pipp and Sunny. Sunny has her alicorn powers and Pipp has her role as an influencer; both of them are icons who wield powers that they’re never fully in control of.