Heavy is the head that bears the crown. Light is the heart that shares its burdens.

Historian’s Note: The Tarnished Crown occurs three weeks before the events in the Season 4 Finale, Twilight’s Kingdom.

Cast: Rarity & Twilight Sparkle
Introducing: Amber Spark

Cover Art: Little-Tweenframes (SciSetDaily)
Rarity Header & Section Breaks Design: Novel Idea
Rarity Cutie Mark: Black-Gryph0n (Yes, that BlackGryp0n)

Beta Reader & Editor Credits
Ebon Quill - Audio Director & Quest Designer on The Manehattan Project
Little Tinker - Master of Systems at Poniverse & Scripting Engineer on The Manehattan Project
Beltorn - Commenter-at-Large on FimFiction
Cursori: Reader of Many a Pony Word
Monochromatic - Patron Saint of RariTwi

Word Count: 11,000 Words
Version: 2.6

A recent visit to Canterlot has Twilight Sparkle excited about helping her friend Rarity to achieve some fashion fame in the Equestiran capital. In a chance meeting, she has made the acquaintance of a very important fashion designer who would like to see some of Rarity's work.

Twilight returns to Canterlot with Rarity to introduce her to this fashion great, but while they are there, events lead to both ponies questioning different aspects of their lives. What will they do next? Will things have to change when they get back to Ponyville? Can their friendship help them through these tough challenges?

Rarity has always believed that there exists a prince for every princess. And she's not wrong about that. She's just not right for quite the exact reasons she thinks she is.

After a full day in Canterlot, Twilight and Rarity decide to explore the palace garden's legendary hedge maze. Their attempts to unravel the mysteries of the labyrinth yield some interesting and unexpected results.

This story is a sequel to Trixie's Great and Powerful Revenge

When one of Twilight's spells goes a bit awry, she finds that an affected Rarity might be a little more than she bargained for.

(Originally posted on EqD in April 2011. I originally meant to keep this as a one-shot, but wrote the second part after there was demand for it. I do like how the second part came out though, so no regrets!)

(Also, if you like this story, be sure to check out Tragic Magic! It's a continuation of this one!)

After Twilight and Rarity spend the night together, they get ready and go to meet their friends for breakfast.

Tonight was Twilight's third date with Rarity, her best friend and hopefully soon-to-be-marefriend. Though nothing had happened yet, and she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that something might happen, she was determined to make their third date even better than their last.

Third time’s the charm, right?

Twilight falls for a mare that nopony expects, Rarity. The question was, how was she going to tell her, and what if '...She rejected me, or worse, even laughed at me for thinking something that seems near impossible to happen when thought about!?!?....'