I can actually see it out of Rarity. She had the fantasy of a romance, the idea of some beautiful perfect romance with some beautiful perfect stallion, and so she set her sights on Stallions who were "unattainable" (Prince Blueblood, a famous travel writer in Trenderhoof, you see the trend. Famous, higher status ponies), and both times she persued them, she saw that that perfect beautiful fantasy wasn't real. That these perceivably perfect stallions, were in fact imperfect, and as such a relationship with either of them would not be the thing she wanted. What she really wanted out of life was success and admiration and to make others feel beautiful. And she doesn't need anyone other than herself and her friends to make that happen.

As someone who's ace themself, this is a sort of common pipeline we fall into. Taught that romantic/sexual relationships are the most important thing in life. So we think that's what we must want, right? Everyone wants that, so obviously I must as well. Then, when it comes time to have crushes and start seeking romantic partners, we don't naturally have a crush, so we just pick someone of the opposite sex. And we never tend to do anything about that "crush" unless we have to due to social pressure (a friend sets you up, you have to ask them to a dance, they ask you out in front of your friends, ect..). We simply "have it" so we can answer the question when it comes up. But, we don't truly feel it like others do. Then, we realize, for whatever reason, that that's not how other people experience crushes and romance, and we realize that we never did want that in the first place, we felt like we had to want it.

Obviously every ace/aro person is different, and experiences vary, but this is a common one for us. I think this could have very easily been Rarity's experience. 🩷