Despite everything they still got an early start in the morning. There were just some things you couldn't take out of a country girl; Applejack and Applebloom were up at the crack of dawn, chirpy as birds and ready to go. Babs Seed on the other hand was a stumbling, grousy zombie, like a proper city girl. (At least until she wheedled some coffee-with-milk out of the sympathetic staff.) They had a quick breakfast, and then Applejack had an even quicker staff meeting prepping her for events at the Expo.

Then, the royally appointed hoofmaids fell upon them, and over Applejack's protestations dragged them back to her quarters where approximately half the contents of a Canterlot salon awaited them. They were sweet, they were polite, and they were utterly impossible to negotiate with as they set to with combs, brushes, shampoos, makeup, perfumes, and a disturbing number of other accoutrements of the beautician's trade that Applejack couldn't name. "This isn't some mere farmer's market, your Highness," the leader of her assailants said as she tweezed Applejack's eyebrows. "This is a much more refined and upscale venue. You have to look your best, not... rough-and-tumble and scruffy."

"OWCH! I am rough an' tumble. An' if you don't lay off with them tweezers you'll find out just how much!" Applejack scowled and slapped the nasty pinching thing away from her face.

"Oh do leave be with the eyebrow plucking, Powder Puff," a pony on her other side said. "We don't want to overdo it after all." She stepped back and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Yes.. we don't want her to look like a painted china doll. We have to work carefully here. With the right hairstyle and makeup, we'll give her the visage of as honest down home country filly."

Applejack cocked an aching eyebrow at her, amused in spite of herself. "So what yer sayin' is you gotta put a fake face over top o' my real face, to make me look like what I already am?" she said. The hoofmaids actually had the grace to look a little embarrassed at the ridiculousness of this. Working for the Alicorn of Honesty, they realized, might occasionally involve a few jabs in sensitive spots.

"Oh c'mon, Applejack," Applebloom said from across the room where another hoofmaid was adding delicate touches of makeup to her eyelids. "Don't give 'em a hard time. Don't you like gettin' all pretty once in a while? Like Granny Smith always says, 'go ahead and slap on a coat of paint if the ol' barn needs it."

The maids broke up in a fit of giggles. "Cain't say I care for bein' compared to an old barn," Applejack quipped.

"Cousin Jackie, they're not trying to cover up who you are," Babs said. "They're trying to bring it out."

"I know, I know," Applejack chuckled. "I'm just yankin' their tails a little. Go on, ladies; I know I need to look at least a little gussied up for this shindig." Mollified, the mares returned to grooming her mane.

A maid was currently giving Bab's short bob a quick trim. "Perhaps a pixie cut," she murmured, "so it gives a little swoop here, instead of falling down in your eye?" Babs nodded and then sat perfectly still, watching what the mare with the scissors did with keen interest. A few deft snips, a tweak with a curling iron and a touch of mane spray and the filly's mane framed her face in a perfect pixie bob...without hanging down in her eyes.

Babs admired the effect in a hand mirror. "I like it," she said, pleased. "How'd you do it?"

"It would take a while to explain," the hoofmaid said with a smile. "But why don't you watch while I give Lady Applebloom a trim and touchup?" Babs nodded eagerly.

Things weren't going as well with Applejack. "Perhaps that Manehattan style you wore the first day...?" one hoofmaid suggested doubtfully.

"No no," the other said. "That's far too fancy for this. The grand launching was one thing, but this Expo isn't... quite up to that."

"For once I'm inclined," Applejack said. "Upper crust business types or not, what I've heard so far tells me these folks are used to having a little bit of grease on their sleeve. I need somethin' nice lookin'... but practical, too." Her hairdressers rubbed their chins, pondering.

"I got an idea!" Babs piped up. She left off watching Applebloom's styling and trotted over to squint with peculiar focus at Applejack's brushed and unbound mane. "Oh yeah, easy peasy." She ran over to the wardrobe and fetched a clothes hanger and returned, twisting a length of it into a loop.

"A filly at school showed me this trick," Babs said. She reached for Applejack's mane- only to be blocked by the hoof of the mares tending her.

"Come now, dear, we really can't have you-"

"Oh g'wan, let her," Applejack said mildly. "I don't think she'll do anything y'all can't fix in a moment." That opinion didn't seem to be quite universal; especially when Babs picked a pair of trimming scissors out of the hair tonic.

"I'm just trimming the split ends," Babs said scornfully at the hoofmaidens' sharply indrawn breaths.

"Stay calm," Applejack ordered. "Our family's been trimmin' each other's manes ever since we learned to pinch a penny. If worse comes to worst I got me a hair-growing spell." And failing that, a hat, she thought to herself a bit less calmly.

"Really? Neat," Babs said as the scissors snipped. "Where'd ya get it?"

"Princess Twilight made us all a gift," Applejack said. "She wrote a little book: '101 handy household cantrips.' Had hair-trimmin' and hair-growin' spells. I'm pretty sure Twi uses 'em on her own mane."

Babs rolled her eyes. "That explains a lot," she muttered as she ran a brush through Applejack's mane. "Don't get me wrong, Cousin Jackie, Twilight's nice- but dat there is a mare who definitely needs an up-do." Tongue sticking out, she gathered Applejack's mane in her hooves and slid it through the wire loop... then, as the hoofmaids watched in fascination, turned it about and slid the loop back through Applejack's mane. She did that loop the loop step a couple of times more. "An' over and under, and over and... done," she said, pulling the loop free and letting the rolled hair fall back against Applejack's neck.

"Ooo, how clever!"

"And so quick, too!" another enthused."A perfect double chignon..."

A mirror was lifted up so Applejack could see Bab's handiwork. "There, a fancy french hair bun," Babs said, dropping the scissors, comb and wire loop into the barbicide. "It's a look that says 'oh look, I'm so fancy' and ' I'm very smart and put my hair up around all this machinery. ' "

"Well ain't that clever," Applejack said, turning her head to admire the style. Her mane rested on the base of her neck in a perfect braided double-bun.

"And you have a hairnet of gold filigree that will look absolutely perfect with it, your Highness..."

"Where did you come up with this?" one of the hoofmaids asked, tapping the loop.

"My friend Topsy Tail," Babs said. "She uses it to braid her hair into pigtails. But I figured out you could do all sorts of things with it... buns, and waterfall braids, and yeeWOWowowWOO!" The Manehattan filly suddenly began jumping about, waggling her rear end like she'd been bee stung. "Who zapped me with a towel?" She began turning in a circle, looking back at her hip.

Nopony answered. They were too busy pointing at the shiny pair of scissors embossed on her flank and shrieking with glee.

Then their schedule really got derailed.