{"id":472,"date":"2025-06-06T06:05:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T06:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/?p=472"},"modified":"2025-06-06T06:05:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T06:05:44","slug":"lesbian-ponies-with-ambiguous-representation-rarijack-and-appledash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/?p=472","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0Lesbian Ponies with Ambiguous Representation: Rarijack and Appledash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
NOTICE<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

I want to start off by saying that there is a canon lesbian relationship in My Little Pony Friendship is Magic<\/em>. Background ponies, Lyra and BonBon (LyraBon). They propose to each other. They get married. It\u2019s cute.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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LyraBon on the Piano in Rainbow Rocks movie<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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LyraBon double proposal (s.9, ep.23)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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LyraBon marriage in newspaper<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Contentious Lesbian Ponies <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

This post is about the more contested lesbian ships in My Little Pony (MLP)<\/em>. That being Rarijack (Rarity and Applejack) and Appledash (Applejack and Rainbow Dash). These ships aren\u2019t just contested because they share a member, Applejack, which does spark some healthy debate within MLP<\/em> fan spaces. The biggest reason they are still talked about to this day is because these ships were very ambiguously yet directly acknowledged within the franchise.\u00a0
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Applejack & Rarity in Equestria Girls<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Rainbow Dash & Applejack in Friendship is Magic<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though these characters are shipped across the entire MLP<\/em> franchise. The Appledash ship is more commonly associated with the classic Friendship is Magic television show (the one where they\u2019re horses) and the Rarijack ship is associated with the Equestria Girls movies series (the one where they\u2019re humans).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fun Fact!<\/summary>\n

All of the images are either a part of the classic MLP Friendship is Magic<\/em> or MLP Equestria Girls<\/em> franchises. So yes all canon. All happened.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Rarijack (Rarity & Applejack)<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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Rarijack reconciling <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the Equestria Girls franchise there are multiple places where fans impose queer readings of interactions between Rarity and Applejack<\/a>. This is very common within fandom spaces, especially ones with a large queer audience. Because of the history of Hays Codes\u2013a set of self-censorship guidelines imposed by Hollywood that often targeted explicit depictions of queerness\u2013queer audiences are more prepared to read coded messages within their media in order to find the representation they are looking for. By this point in the greater MLP<\/em> franchise the creators weren\u2019t strangers to the fan shipping culture. And their response to the Rarijack ship was. . . Raggamuffin<\/a>. . . and Dirk Thistleweed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Top Left: Rarity, Top Right: Raggamuffin, Bottom Left: Dirk Thistleweed, Bottom Right: Applejack<\/em>, https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/mylittlepony\/comments\/ny9kdz\/youre_trying_to_tell_me_this_wasnt_intentional\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Immediate reaction: 1) This was most definitely on purpose. 2) If they knew people were shipping Rarity and Applejack why create new characters that look like each other to pair together? 3) Why not just pair the girls together?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understand that queer coding is sometimes a present and necessary part of how shows are able to include queer representation without receiving backlash from higher ups or unaccepting audiences. This hinting is sometimes the only tool available to creators when writing towards a mass (not specifically queer) audience. But that\u2019s part of what confuses me about this approach. Everyone queer or not can see that Dirk is meant to be a stand-in for Rarity and Raggamuffin is meant to be a stand-in for Applejack, so it\u2019s not properly \u201ccoded\u201d. At the same time this queer ship is heavily popular within the queer parts of this fandom, so when catering to the people who enjoy this ship why would they opt for this kind of \u201ccoding\u201d rather than explicitly depicting it. It feels very deliberate, like offering audiences a heteronormative alternative that simultaneously rejects queer readings of text, but acknowledges that there are queer readings of this relationship. It\u2019s like that thing that hegemony does where it incorporates the subversion of itself within itself in order to gain more credibility and re-assert itself as correct and normal (Berlant & Warner, \u201cSex in Public\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appledash<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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Friendly Rivalry in Fall Weather Friends<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ending scene for Fall Weather Friends<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n
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Appledash fist bump Season 9, Episode 6<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Appledash in the classic MLP <\/em>television series is a little less problematic, but they have a lot less on-screen chemistry than Rarity and Applejack in Equestria Girls. In the series finale, The Last Problem <\/em>(Season 9, Episode 26), when all of the mane six<\/em> meet back up again, Applejack and Rainbow Dash<\/a> enter princess Twilight\u2019s throne room together, talking about doing chores like an old married couple. This for a lot of people was confirmation of the Appledash ship in classic MLP<\/em>, but in all honesty outside of Fall Weather Friends <\/em>(Season 1, Episode 13) Applejack and Rainbow Dash don\u2019t really have a lot of episodes or even moments together. This depiction is closer to a more traditionally coded queer relationship, being ambiguous about the relationship, yet keeping the characters close. Even then the Appledash ship failed at communicating that sense of closeness throughout the previous 9 seasons, so this implied relationship, though welcomed, doesn’t feel earned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Question<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Is any of this representation? Especially if fans were gonna ship the ponies\/girls anyway. What purpose does it serve to not fully engage with the audience? The creators are aware of the ships and seem to want to acknowledge them to give something to the fans, but these gestures feel empty and hollow (Warner, \u201cIn the Time of Plastic Representation\u201d). Like despite trying to engage with queer readings of the characters, they don\u2019t want to have explicitly queer characters. I do think that coding is a useful tool in art and not all queer relationships must be explicitly stated (Clark, \u201cMore Than Sex\u2026\u201d). Still I question what is the purpose of this specific kind of representation, that is disingenuous and heteronormative in essence? Would it have been better for the creators to leave the shipping content to the fans?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonus: Can you guess which ship is my favorite? Rarijack? Appledash? or a secret third option?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTICE I want to start off by saying that there is a canon lesbian relationship in My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. Background ponies, Lyra and BonBon (LyraBon). They propose to each other. They get married. It\u2019s cute.\u00a0 Contentious Lesbian Ponies This post is about the more contested lesbian ships in My Little Pony (MLP). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41,43,39,38,45,44,42],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-appledash","tag-heteronormativity","tag-lesbian-ponies","tag-my-little-pony","tag-queer-coding","tag-queer-representation","tag-shipping-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}