@Iron Storm  
 
I would also NOT challenge her to a sword fight if she has such effortless finesse with her magic, related note.

Rarity is the pragmatist and has shown the ability to pick up multiple small and/light items. Shes also a seamstress with needles. Shes a primarily ranged fighter and she is going for the eyes and the soft bits.

@Background Pony #80FA
 
Good take.
 
Pinkie has unironically used her hax cartoony abilities to her advantage, like covering ground instantly (teleporting offscreen/“shortcuts”), using her mane to drill through the ground, write with, unnatural awareness, and she’s strong, in addition to having Hammerspace at her disposal (pulling things out of nowhere). Noteworthy that she was on the front lines in some regard in the two alternate timelines that involved members of the Mane Six being in conflict, whether it be as a soldier or a resistance member.

My opinion: Applejack and Rainbow would have the highest physical stats, which are very close to each other (though AJ has higher strength; Rainbow has higher agility), but not much in terms of support. Fluttershy has terrible physical stats, though something like decent Agility, and decent-to-good Magic because her primary role would be support and healing. Rarity has decent physical and magic stats, she’s a good jack-of-all-trades. Pinkie is like Rarity, but better. Twilight has higher physical stats than Rarity and Pinkie, but lower than AJ and Rainbow, but she has the highest Magic stat of all of them.

@Beau Skunky  
So support and healing then?
 
@AC97  
That sounds nice. I was thinking Twilight would be the most well rounded except for magic in which she has the highest among the Mane Six.
 
I would like to know what some of Rarity’s special physical attacks would be then.
 
By D&D standards that would be helpful. Too bad I usually play JRPGs.

@Red-Supernova
 
Maybe she’d be the class that can do multiple things pretty well: great dexterity, good magic, good strength, a jack of all trades, in other words.
 
She’s not as strong as Rainbow Dash or Applejack (definitely slower than the former, the latter is pretty fast too), and she doesn’t have the sheer magical strength/variety Twilight does, but she can fill the roles of both a physical fighter or a magical fighter rather well.
 
She also has what would probably be an excellent Speech stat (she can be manipulative), meaning she might not need to fight to begin with, can be good at solving mysteries due to her analytical mind.

@Red-Supernova  
Probably some kinda helper, seeing as that might fit with her generous motif, but have some attack power, as well.

@Beau Skunky  
As someone who likes putting video game logic and terms into what I watch, what classes would Rarity specialize in? I didn’t think she would have the best attack-based magic as she would have more healing and support abilities. But with some cool attacks that involve using diamond shards.

@Beau Skunky
 
And as I showed earlier with the gif they’d already heavily implied all the way back in the S6 finale that she was ready to fire off magical blasts at Chrysalis, if you’re not counting the comics.
 

 
…and in hindsight this wallpaper panoramic edit was actually a better demonstration than the gif. Drat, wish I found it earlier.
 
As great as beating a great number of changelings to a pulp with her bare hooves or nailing Applejack with a kick is, Rarity would probably be aware that it’s good to have options in a fight.
 
(as for why she didn’t specifically try blasting in say, Campfire Tales, performing spells does require concentration, and being swarmed by bugs wouldn’t really give a lot of breathing room in that regard, TK probably being a bit easier to focus on)
 
@Background Pony #C5B3
 
They’re too stubborn to filter out things because they’re masochistic enough to seek out things that piss them off… all the time.

@HIEfan36  
Do you ever not complain about Season 9?

@HIEfan36  
So that means she can’t use magic, despite being a unicorn? Maybe she just doesn’t rely on it as much, but can use it if she wishes.  
(Also, it’s just a cartoon.)
 
Also, I wasn’t aware this was a fighting/RPG video game where all the characters have to be “classified” to only one ability.

@Beau Skunky  
I’m pretty sure they were trying to paint Rarity as a brawler, not a combat mage.

@Johnny B. Mediocre  

 
Exactly, plus saying that would be ironic, because in the series first episode, (well, the second-part/episode technically) Rarity is seen dodging a Manticore’s attack, and then kicking it in the face. So honestly, she’s always been able to fight sense the beginning, and was always able have “hidden depths” to her character, besides making “pretty pretty dresses.”
 
I think the reason we rarely see Rarity use her magic laser blasts, is because they haven’t had much opportunity/reason to, and because the show is usually trying to push a “non-violent” message. (Even fight scenes like the “Twilight VS Tirek” moment in the S4 finale usually didn’t end the conflict. “It seems we’re at an impass.” Plus, Hasbro mandated Twi’ couldn’t even punch Tirek.)

@Johnny B. Mediocre
 
Oh, and most importantly, I remembered something (wish I remembered sooner):
 

 
Right before Celestia blocks the view by landing, you can see that Rarity has her horn lit up, implying she has an offensive spell charged up for Chrysalis if she tried attacking, considering you can’t see her holding up any objects.
 
…and that was back in S6.
 
There are some aspects of S9 I don’t really defend, but “Rarity can use horn lasers” really isn’t out of the blue, per that implication.
 
And really, it’s true, we don’t know the average unicorn’s abilities in depth. Some random unicorn tried to shoot Tirek back in S4, but it didn’t amount to anything and his magic got drained along with everypony’s. (Noteworthy just happened to be a unicorn that time, that background pony)

@AC97  
exactly, Sweetie Belle’s come a long way from the days when she burnt breakfast, clearly there’s something going on there - so the fact that our man finds it hard to believe that any unicorn not under Twilight’s tutelage has any knowledge of defense spells or magic blasts seems kinda silly
 
as I said, I’m sure they can use those spells, they just haven’t had much of any reason to do so
 
_{then again it’s exactly the sort of assumption I’d expect from him}

@Johnny B. Mediocre
 
I’ll point something out, regarding Rarity’s magic.
 
Remember this scene in Suited For Success?
 
That was entirely Rarity’s magic, those special effects, so she was plainly a cut above the average unicorn even back in S1, as far as anything we saw.
 
Also, I’ll point out with just how far her sister was getting with magic for such a young age in S7 and S8 (and the aged up TP in S9), coupled with how she seems to live with her a good chunk of the time even as far back as S4, she could’ve easily roped Rarity into improving her magic to at least some extent, bond with each other that way.
 
Like, for the first linked thing, she could’ve been a bit inspired to get some shielding capabilities going, after she internally noted that Sweetie Belle had a weak shield going, and that she needed to refine her offense as well.

 
That’s my pony.

@AC97  

 
probably because IIRC she didn’t have much of a reason to, and I think as far as she was concerned, Twilight was the firepower of the group - if Rarity got into an altercation she’d just classily beat the shit out of them, as much as I’d have loved to see her zap Blueblood
 
I think once she started to realize what her place in the world was - which imo was around Season 3 or 4 - is when she started to get a little more creative, and I think that applies to all of the cast due to the impact Twilight had on their lives that they were able to relatively mature themselves and come out of their shells
 
of course the ardent purists will argue that this diminishes their characters because “NO THEY’RE NOT THE SAME RARITY SHOULDN’T KICK BUTT SHE MAKES PRETTY PRETTY DRESSES AND THAT’S IT” which is ridiculous because what good is having a character if you’re not gonna develop them?

@Johnny B. Mediocre
 

 

 
(the latter hasn’t been uploaded to Derpibooru as of yet)
 
Also she magically blasted Changelings in the first comics arc with Chrysalis’ revenge attempt. I’m not entirely sure why she didn’t flex those offensive abilities before S9 in the waking world, unless she didn’t properly develop that skill as of then.
 
And of course, to begin with, she threw a big chunk of concrete in this specific instance.

It’s not that she is shooting beams but she is repelling objects. Force but no penetrating power. Like pushing so nothing away with your palm rather than punching.

Then I notice the other ponies…

@HIEfan36  
shock and horror, a unicorn knows how to use basic defense magic, say it isn’t so
 

 
and also earlier in Season 5 albeit in a dream but at least we know she can do it
 

@Background Pony #63B7  
Yeah, but I don’t remember her ever shooting beams in the finale, nor can I find evidence of that here like he’s complaining about.

@Background Pony #63B7  
Which premiere?

@HIEfan36  
She did it in the premiere.