Paper Pen and Rock Note trotted towards the grand gates of Canterlot Palace. The two ponies, certainly not the usual type to hang around royal events, were following a procession of nicely dressed high society horses.
"I told you you should have dressed up more" Note grumbled, nudging Pen in the rib.
"Dressing up is insanity, the majority of ponies don't even wear clothes, I'm in the minority for owning a sweatshirt, everypony here in a suit is just faking it!" Pen assured.
A stallion in a fancy suit and wearing a finely brushed handlebar mustache scoffed at Pen, quickly trotting past the pair.
"See!" Pen turned to his friend, a hoof raised in the general direction of the stallion, "what an absolute tool!"
Note brought his hoof to his own face, rubbing it in embarrassment.
"You realize Celestia is going to be here, right?" Note asked his friend, "and you're gonna be the only one who looks like… that" Note pointed a hoof at his friend.
Pen was wearing his usual grey and black striped scarf, but in place of his usual thick grey hoodie, he wore a thin black dress shirt.
"You look like you're attending a funeral!" Note joked.
"Celestia has bigger things to worry about than what I'm wearing, besides, what do I owe her?"
"She raises the sun!" Note exclaimed.
"The sun's too bright…" Pen huffed, "at least I don't look like someponie's grandpa!" Pen teased.
Note had opted to wear a white dress shirt and black bowtie beneath a brown leather jacket.
"I look classy, Pen, not old!"
The crowd filed into the palace, making their way into a grand theater overlooking a large wooden stage, golden accents adorned its base and massive red velvet curtains cloaked what lie upon it. Pen and Note had arrived to support Note's Special Somepony, Canvas Brush, whos portrait of Celestia was being revealed by the solar monarch herself before a play in the palaces theater. An audience of at least seven thousand ponies would see her masterpiece that night.
Pen and Note took their seats in a far back row, one with a great view of the stage and everypony between it and them.
"Sorry I had to get nosebleeds, good seats were taken" Note apologized.
"No issue, duderino!" Pen reassured.
Grueling minutes passed as they waited.
"So, do we have to stay for the whole play afterwards?" Note asked Pen.
"I mean, we bought tickets for it, but nothing's stopping us from just getting up and going" Pen answered.
"Would that be considered rude, though?"
"Kinda, but have you ever had to read 'Poneo y Juliet? It's dreadful, absolutely dreadful" Pen explained.
Finally, a large pearl white figure with long, ever flowing pastel hair moved onto the front of the stage, addressing the massive audience.
"Welcome, everypony, we're so happy to see such a crowd here today!" Celestia began, her voice so genuine and perfectly friendly it even struck a connection with Pen, "Before we present 'Poneo and Juliet', however, I'd like to unveil a very special portrait done by an artist from Manehattan known as Canvas Brush-"
"Woo, yeah!" Note yelled, standing up from his seat.
An awkward quiet moment arose and quickly died a well deserved merciful death. Note sat down and Celestia continued.
"Canvas Brush created a portrait of myself, and, well, I truly think that only it may speak for itself!" Celestia ended, the curtains began recede.
"I thought there would be more fanfare…" Note whispered to Pen, Pen was trying to hold laughter so hard that he couldn't reply.
The curtains fully exposed a massive and towering canvas fully painted with a beautiful rendition of Equestria's ruler. A perfectly smooth and defined left side of Celestia's face Adorned the left side of the canvas, the rest a continuous and perfect pastel mane that seemed to flow majestic as the real thing.
"By Celestia…" Pen muttered in shock at the pictures pure brilliance. He never dared underestimate Canvas Brush, but this was far beyond what he knew her, or any artist to be capable of.
Note was at a loss for words, pure beauty overwhelming his senses made all the more sweeter with the fact that it was Canvas Brush, his Special Somepony, responsible for such a visage. Even Celestia couldn't help but view her own portrait with disbelief at its beauty.
The portrait, after the crowd had finish admiring it, was carted away to be hung later, curtains valed the stage while props were set into place for the coming play
"And now, without further delay" Celestia addressed, "please enjoy the Saddle Arabian Theatre Troupes rendition of 'Poneo and Juliet'!" The crowd stayed quiet as the now prop decorated stage was revealed.
"I'll be back, gotta hit the bathroom" Pen whispered to his friend, getting up from his seat.
"No need to announce it" Note joked.
Pen made his way to a bathroom directly outside the theater, taking a stall. Upon exiting the stall, Pen crashed head first into a large blue stallion. Both ponies fell to the floor, the large blue stallion violently smashing his head on its tile surface.
"Oh Celestia- are you alright?!" Pen asked, getting up and looking at the now unresponsive stallion, "Hey, dude, you alive?"
The stallion didn't respond, Pen, of course, jumped to the conclusion that he was dead. Panic immediately set in.
"Oh god!" Pen exclaimed to himself, "how can I ever live with myself, knowing that I ended the life of an innocent po-"
Pen's panic was interrupted when the 'dead' stallion erupted into a burst of green magical glow, revealing himself as none other than Queen Chrysalis.
"Insolent pony, I'll have your head on a stake!" Chrysalis threatened Pen, getting up and moving towards the unicorn.
"By Celestia! I'm too brilliant to die!" Pen whimpered, closing his eyes and guarding his face with his hooves.
The menacing monarch began to slowly and strongly move towards a cowering Pen, only to slip on a stray puddle and violent smash her face into the tile floor.
Pen quit cowering and sped back to the theater, immediately confiding in his friend.
"Note!" Pen whisper yelled to his friend, "you gotta come to the bathroom dude, something happened-"
"You know how to use a plunger, deal with it yourself, I'm invested in this play now" Note discounted Pen.
"What? No it's-"
"Really, dude, I can't follow the plot with you bothering me!" Note again interrupted, annoyed.
"They both die in the end"
"Dude!" Note turned to his friend, irate, "why the hay would you spoil that for me?!"
"Spoil it? It's four hundred years old, just follow me!" Pen requested, speeding back to the bathroom, Note begrudgingly following.
When note entered the bathroom, he found two identical Pens, side by side.
"Not cool!" the Pen on the left pointed a hoof at his doppleganger, "I thought you were dead!"
"Why would I be dead? You're the one who smashed your face on tile!" the Pen on the right retorted.
"What is this?!" Note shouted, his voice a mixture of anger and confusion.
"Chrysalis happened!" The Pen on the right spat, "I accidentally knocked her out and now she's pretending to be me!"
"Alright, I know how to settle this!" Note picked up a heavy marble trash bin, raising it above his head, "Tell me something only the real Pen would know, if it doesn't add up I'll knock that disguise right off of you, Chrysalis!" Note instructed the two Pens.
"When I was a colt I had a crush on Luna!" the Pen on the left immediately spoke.
Note, with all his might and hatred for Chrysalis behind his throw, chucked the heavy bin at the Pen on the left, sending him to the ground.
"Dude, what the buck was that?!" Pen shouted, his hoof to his head in pain.
"I meant something that I would know too, ink for brains!"
"Yeah, we had this whole conversation after your gig at Sugarcube corner, I said I liked Luna as a colt and you told me you used to have a thing for Apple Jack!"
"I had a lot of cider, I can't even remember what I opened with!"
The Pen on the right started laughing uncontrollably, revealing itself as Chrysalis with a green burst of magic.
"Of all those disgusting six" Chrysalis could barely speak through laughter, "you liked the ugliest one?!"
"Oh shut up already!" Pen said, magically levitating a bar of soap and rocketing it at the changeling queens face, causing her to fall and smash her head into the tile floor for a third time.
Note bolted to the door, yelling into the hall for guards. Two guardsponies rushed into the bathroom, seeing Chrysalis knocked out on the floor and Pen bleeding from his forehead.
"What the hay happened here?" a cherry red guardsmare asked in disbelief at the scene as a blueish grey guardsstallion dragged Chrysalis away.
Pen and Note recounted the situation to the guardsmare, Pen omitting the part where Note threw a trash bin at him and Note adding a part where he uppercut the changeling queen.
"Amazing, you two are heroes!" the guardsmare praised, "how can Celestia repay you?"
"Money!" Note immediately replied.
"You guys are playing 'Ponethello' next week, right?" Pen asked, "three front row tickets, if possible"
"Granted, on both accounts!" The mare said, leaving to join her partner.
Note looked to Pen, a confused smirk on his face.
"You asked for tickets? I thought you hated the theater" Note asked.
"I do" Pen answered, "but I promise not to spoil this Shakesmare play!" Pen patted Note on the back.
"Dude, thats sick!" Note said excitedly, "and I'm guessing the other ticket is for Canvas, is it a romance?"
"Something like that..." Pen replied.