The Long And Short Of It

“Alright, one of these has got to have the manestyle for you,” Pike confidently declared as she opened one of the magazines she’d collected from the pile and started scanning the pages.

Cut N. Paste was sitting beside her, and feeling a lot less sure. After leaving the apothecary, Pike had brought Cut to the library, saying that she'd want to go to their next stop with ‘an example of what she wanted her mane to look like.’ That’s what brought the two of them to this table near the back of the library with a dozen mane styling books and magazines scattered atop it.

Pike had immediately picked one up and began leafing through it, only occasionally stopping to hold up whatever page she was on to compare it with Cut’s head. “Hmmm, no that one’s too flashy.”

Begrudgingly, Cut sighed and picked up a magazine for herself. She really didn’t see what the big deal was; it was just her mane, after all. By her own estimations, only about a fourth of it was sticking out of her bun. And that was perfectly acceptable for a pony like her.

‘Not like changing it will matter, nopony wants to look at me anyway…’

‘Wait, this is exactly what Pike was talking about! You’ll never feel more confident if you let yourself think like that! You’re going to find a nice manestyle for yourself, and not because it’ll get you approval from other ponies, but because taking care of yourself is important!’

Taking the internalized epiphany to heart, Cut dug into the magazine in earnest.

‘No, no, too flashy, no, perms aren’t really my style…’

A great deal of time passed like this, combing through publication after publication, searching for the perfect look. There were a few moments where Cut and Pike thought they’d found something good, but each time, something pushed Cut to keep searching.

She was into her tenth magazine when something caught her eye.

“It’s... perfect!”

On the page before her was the bun she'd been half-heartedly attempting to emulate for years, done perfectly.

Intrigued, Pike hopped out of her chair. “What did you find?”

Cut eagerly showed her the picture, and Pike chuckled as she saw it, realizing that it was just the neat version of what she already had. “You know, that is perfect for you.”

Smiling, Cut tucked the magazine into one of her saddlebags. “Where’s our next stop?”

Pike’s eyes became distant, as she looked off into a thousand-yard stare. “Somewhere neither of us will like.”

“You’re right, I don’t like this,” Cut said, grimacing.

And really, Nocturnal Pike did not blame her. After all, the two of them were standing outside of a salon.

‘Clean Coat’s All-Encompassing Salon!’ the sign boasted, ‘For all your whimsical needs!’

Cut shuffled nervously. “Are you sure this is going to help me become more marely?”

Normally, Pike’s answer to that would’ve been ‘absolutely not,’ but today it was a necessary evil. Cut’s mane, tail, coat, hooves... dang near everything about her needed a professional’s touch. A lot of that could usually be done at a barber’s, but they didn’t do hooves. That’s where places like this came in, and if they were already here for hooves, they might as well get the complete package.

“On this rare occasion, yes.”

Cut solemnly hung her head. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

As Pike stood at the entrance, she found herself reconsidering her own words. Sure, going to a whimsy salon was definitely unmarely. However, just earlier she was telling Cut not to rely on the opinions of others for validation. It made her wonder, which is more marely? Avoiding a whimsy salon because it's for colts, or going to a whimsy salon because you don’t care what others think?

Well, Pike at least knew what her mom would say here, and it was definitely the former. So, she supposed that was the answer she’d go with.

Cut had started glancing around nervously. “Come on, let’s go in! I don’t want anypony who knows me to see me out here!”

‘That is a good point!’

Pike nodded, and the two made for the building’s front door without wasting another minute. Since she reached the door first, Pike pulled it open.

And immediately, she wanted to start gagging.

“Cough, cough, oh Luna!”

Cut, only a few steps behind her, wasn’t hit by the smell for a few more moments. “Pike, what’s—” She immediately started gagging. “Gah, Celestia protect me! What is that smell?”

Pike narrowed her eyes. “Whimsey products.”

And not even good ones, by the smell of them! They just smelled like chemicals!

‘Eeeeeug!’

“Can I help the two of you?” came the unamused voice of a stallion within the salon.

‘Oh right, we’re standing in the entrance to a store, where ponies work.’

“Haha, hello!” Pike awkwardly said as she stepped into the lobby. “Yes actually, you can!”

Grabbing Cut and pulling her up to the front desk, she showed the receptionist exactly what the stylists would be working with. “My herdmate here needs the full treatment. Hooves, coat, everything.”

The stallion gave her a quick once over. “I see, I see—”

But he stopped dead when he got to her hooves.

“BY LUNA’S MILLENIA OLD FOUNDERED HOOF!”

At the sound of his shout, a gaggle of galloping stallions promptly emerged from the woodwork, collectively surrounding Cut and hoisting her off the ground. With a group effort, they started dragging her into the salon. As they did, a chorus of their voices rang out.

“Have you ever used a hoof clipper before?”

“I think she just bites them.”

“We need the diamond file! Somepony get me the diamond file!”

“So many split ends!”

As Cut was slowly dragged further away from Pike, she shot her one last horrified look. “PIKE HELP!” she cried.

Which snapped Pike out of the state of shock she was in.

‘I’ve got to follow them!’

After all, Cut just got dragged into a socially awkward mare’s worst nightmare: being forced to interact with multiple stallions!

‘Mare, I should bring the recruits here. This place would make for excellent hostile environment training!’

Following Cut into the depths of this establishment was acquainting Nocturnal Pike with all sorts of scents that she could've lived a long, happy life without ever smelling.

“Oh hey! A mare! Quick, tell me how this smells!” cried the stylist in the stall she was currently passing. Without even waiting for Pike’s consent, he blasted something in her face.

‘Bleh! Oh, Luna, that is foul!’

Pike could only answer him with a gag as she passed him by.

“Ah, less beaver anus oil, then.”

His statement really tested her stomach, but she forced herself onward for Cut’s sake. Rounding the corner that she saw Cut get dragged around only a moment prior, Pike felt a keen sense of relief at the sight before her. She could see the stall they’d plopped Cut down in, and that meant she was in the home stretch! It even looked like the preceding stalls were empty, thank buck. Adopting a more relaxed trot, Pike made her way towards Cut.

Which dropped her right into the crosshairs of a stallion she hadn’t seen. “Mind telling me what you think of this?”

The statement instantly activated Pike’s flight response. Unfortunately though, leaping into the air just lined up the stallion’s shot.

With a quick pchit, the cloud of gas nailed her right in the snoot, allowing its scent to flood her nostrils. And it was... IT WAS...!

...pretty good, actually.

Coming back down, Pike turned towards the stallion. “That wasn’t half bad. What’s in it?”

He smiled like the castle blacksmith did when somepony complimented the gear she made. “You like it? It's my secret blend of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate.”

‘That’s... quite the combination.’

She couldn’t argue with the results, though. In fact, Anon would probably smell pretty good with some of that. Looking back towards Cut, Pike could see they’d only just started preparing to rinse her off. That left her with a few moments before they’d start asking questions.

“How much for some?” Pike asked the stallion.

He thought for just a brief moment. “You’re my first taker actually! So let’s call it, twenty bits!”

‘For that TINY bottle of COLOGNE?’

Anon would laugh her out of the room if she spent that much on cologne, even if he ended up liking the smell of it. Chuckling at the audacity of the stallion, Pike turned away from him to resume her trip toward Cut. “I’ll pass.”

As she did though, he desperately called out, “Wait wait wait! Fifteen!”

Pike cast a sideways glance back at him.

“Come on, it’ll last your stallion over a year! Sure, the bottle looks small, but you’re only supposed to use one squirt at a time!”

‘Hmmm, fifteen? It did smell pretty good.’

“Make it thirteen.”

He let out a sigh and slumped his shoulders, but he also held out the bottle to her. “Fine, thirteen.”

‘Yes!’

Snatching it with a wing, Pike left a bundle of bits in his outstretched hoof.

‘Score!’

“Thanks!”

Pike was about to question him about it a bit more when she overheard an alarming exchange coming from the station Cut was at.

“Can we interest you in a mane dying while you’re here, Miss?” asked one of the stallions surrounding her.

“W-well, uh, actually I uh, w-well...”

‘Oh Luna, I better get over there before they dye her mane purple or something.’

Galloping away from the stallion, Pike closed the short distance fairly fast, thankfully. “That will not be necessary,” she cut in.

The collected stallions all “aww”ed in unison.

‘Filly am I glad Pike caught up with me.’

Cut N. Paste did not have the nerve to say no to any of those stallions—most of which had since left, leaving her with a ‘senior stylist’ named Acrylic Polish. A stallion whom a very vulgar part of her brain wanted to call a DILF.

“So, you have an idea of what you want the final product to look like, honey?” he asked while gesturing to her mane.

“W-well, it’s uh, it’s in—”

“I’ll get it,” Pike chimed in as she walked over to Cut’s saddlebags.

Acrylic chuckled. “What are you, her interpreter?”

Pike bristled a bit. “Hey, give her a break. She’s had it rough.”

He put up a forehoof in a placating gesture. “I meant no disrespect, honey, I was just wonderin.’”

Pike wordlessly hoofed the stallion the magazine, already open to the page with the desired style on it.

“So I’m giving her the full treatment?”

Pike was about to answer for her, but Cut cut her off. “Yes, p-please sir.”

Acrylic just smiled as he grabbed a showerhead off the wall. “Wonderful! Stand over the drain, please.”

Watching Acrylic get to work on Cut was impressive. As an earth pony, he only had his hooves to work with, but he deftly switched between shower head, shampoo, brush, comb, scissors, and everything in between.

And to give credit where credit was due, Cut at least did a very good job of disguising how shaggy her coat had become. She definitely needed a trim.

Cut had also clearly been swept away; all she could muster up was the occasional nervous “Aaaah!” as the stallion went to town on her.

“If you don’t mind me askin’,” Acrylic began as he turned to address Pike, “did you get your hooves done here, honey?”

Pike shook her head. “Nah, our coltfriend did them.” Taking a look down at her hooves, she could see they’d admittedly become quite worn since Anon gave her that pedicure. “Surprised you could tell they’d been done at all.”

He hummed as he lopped half an inch off Cut’s mane. “I know my hooves, honey.” He suddenly leaned in to look Cut in the eye. “Just like I know you’ve been biting them, missy.”

Cut just ‘eeped’ and took advantage of the fact her mane was loose enough to hide her eyes behind. “O-only when I’m nervous!”

Acrylic then took advantage of that to lop another half inch off her bangs. “Well, then honey, you’re probably the most nervous mare I’ve ever met!”

He turned back to Pike. “Anyway, tell your colt he didn’t do half bad. For an amateur.”

The mental image of Anon reacting to that made Pike laugh out loud. “Ha! I’ll be sure to let him know.”

Honestly, speaking of Anon, watching Acrylic go to town on Cut made Pike think back to her very own spa day...

‘Hmmmm.’

While the memory shot a spike of unmarely shame through her, it really was divine.

‘Oooh! I should see if they sell those kits here! That way Cut can experience what those magic ‘hands’ can do once they’ve got a brush in them. Maybe I’ll even get Anon to join me in the tub this time…’

Pike was pulled from her fantasy when Acrylic spoke up. “Honey, have you ever even used a hoof trimmer before?”

“N-not since I was a filly,” was Cut’s shame filled reply.

The stallion breathed a heavy sigh. “Hoooo filly, have I got my work cut out for me.”