It was a couple weeks before the Grand Galloping Gala, and Primrose was set on finding the perfect dresses for herself and her daughters. She’d decided to start with her youngest, Appletini, taking her to the mall for a special shopping trip for just the two of them.

“Now, ma fille, the Gala is a very important occasion,” Primrose explained. “We must look our best for the Queens, no? This store sells exquisite dresses!”

Appletini followed her mother down the aisles, growing increasingly bored with all the dresses they passed. None of them caught her interest in the slightest. But she did pass a suit in the colts’ section that she quite liked…

Primrose held one up. “Isn’t this pretty?”

“I dunno,” Appletini shrugged halfheartedly. “Can we look at the boys’ clothes?”

“To shop for your father? Oui oui, after we find something for you!”

“Not for Papa, for me!” Appletini tugged on her mother’s foreleg. “I saw a suit I really liked over there, can we buy it?”

“Oh, but you’re a filly! It’s only proper you wear a dress to the Gala.”

“But I don’ like girly stuff! I hate dresses and even my name is too girly. C’mon, can we please look at that suit?”

Primrose hesitated, taken aback by her filly’s aversion to femininity. “We’ll see, ma chérie.”