[Alright Applejack, you can do this. Let's just keep it factual for now and maybe you can avoid anything that might panic the filly...]

That's...kind of a strange rule about this town... For some reason it considers us ponies as 'pets.' You'll even run into people who don't seem to hear us and treat us like dogs or cats. Pretty much all us ponies here got stuck with that tag and it makes it a little hard to get into shops sometimes because they usually run by hue-mins that thing we're dogs...

[Applejack is watching Sweetie Belle as she explains this, hoping she's taking it well.]