//------------------------------// // Choices // Story: Parent Trap // by PhantomBulwark //------------------------------// The next morning, AJ pulled the boys aside for a conversation. Sunset took the hint and quietly moved from group to group explaining last night's talk to the others. “Alright ya’ll,” she sighed, taking in her sons ‘innocent’ smiles. “Just how much of Vignette’s bad luck has to do with you?” Crispin looked appropriately sheepish. Cortland gave her his best imitation of Aunt Dash’s shit eating grin, “Oh… I don’t know… mayyyyybeeee? All of it? …The lizard, the poison ivy, the bugs.” He listed off with his fingers, grin widening. “I… wait, bugs? What bugs? I never saw any-” There was a shrill scream from her tent and Applejack wondered if her life was Faust’s personal soap opera. “I suppose that’s the bugs… Listen boys, I need ya’ll to lay off alright? You’ve made your point, loud and clear. I’ve heard everybody’s opinions; I’ve seen the light so to speak. Don’t rile the girl up any more than she already is okay?” “So you’re not going to marry that pompous, self-aggrandizing, sycophant?” Crispin asked with raised brows. “I only understood about half of those words but uh, no son. I won’t marry her; I won’t lose or hurt the family I got for someone like that… I’ve really seen the truth of it this week. Just… let’s get through the rest of the campin’ trip and then I’ll… I’ll break it to her.” “And Mom?” Cortland asked, squeezing his brother’s arm. They both stared up at her with bright eyes and wide smiles. “I- well, well I um… Boys I, I know you want your Mom and I back together but, I just don’t think Rarity feels that way for me anymore.” They both groaned. “But you still love her don’t you?” Crisp pressed, “You want to be with Mom, that’s why you’re not even broken up about dumping Vignette!” AJ’s heart felt like it was being squeezed. “I will always love your Mom boys, and… if things were different, if she still wanted me… if she didn’t love Manehatten so much, well who knows? But ya’ll live there and Cort and I live here. I offered to leave the farm for her once, and she was right when she told me I would resent her if I left with her. Canterlot’s my home, and your Mom, she ain’t comin’ back to Canterlot, not for me anyways.” The twins had nothing to say to that, but the looks they exchanged said that the conversation was not quite as over as AJ would like it to be. The last day of their trip was quiet. Vignette spent it sulking in her tent and snapping at anyone who spoke or got to close to her. Her refusal to so much as look in Applejack’s direction left the farmer with plenty of free time to spend with her family and friends. Ultimately, this would be the day she remembered best from the trip. And when the morning they were set to leave dawned bright and clear she was in a good mood. They all began shuffling out of their tents with ruffled hair and face splitting yawns. In the haze of the early morning it took her a minute to realize something or rather, someone was missing. And the twins were laughing… and staring out at something floating in the middle of the lake. Motioning to her brother and Sunset they began making their way to the shore, the rest of their party following suit. Out on the water, apparently fast asleep on her expensive blow up mattress, was Vignette. AJ groaned, “Oh she’s gonna be a problem when she wakes up.” Dash snorted, “Serves her right. She got what’s coming to her as far as I’m concerned.” She gave Dash a faux-glare, unable to keep the corner of her lips from quirking up a little. “Regardless,” she turned to the giggling twins, “ya’ll are grounded. Ya been making this whole mess worse and I asked you to leave her alone for the rest of the trip.” “But Ma it wasn’t us,” Cortland immediately protested. “We kept our word, honest.” Crispin nodded emphatically. “Then who dragged her out to the water?” Every head on the shore turned when Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and Sugar Belle all burst into peals of laughter. “Why you sneakin’ snake herders! Ya’ll dragged her out and left her?” “Eeeyyyup!” They chorused. The laughter rippled through the entire group. It was the happiest AJ could remember seeing her family in almost a year, and before she could stop it, she was laughing along. It was distinctly less funny when Vignette awoke. She promptly panicked and fell off her improvised raft. By the time she made it to shore the others had dispersed and only AJ was still waiting for her. She was soaking wet, her pale pink negligée plastered to her skin and stained by the muddy water, and she was seething. “I… have… had… enough!” “Now Vignette, there’s no need for hysterics. It was a little mean spirited but you aren’t hurt and well… they kinda owe you for all the harsh comments and such. At the end of the day it was a harmless prank.” “Harmless!?” She shrieked. “This was those little brats wasn’t it? They’re trying to sabotage me because they know I need their portion of the land! I’ll ship them off to boarding school in Stalliongrad! I’ll adopt the little freaks off to a circus in Las Pegasus!” She got progressively more animated and frazzled with every word. Her hands waved wildly and her left eye was twitching aggressively. “I’ll- I’ll smother them in their beds, the little wayward bastards.” “Now that’s enough!” AJ snapped loudly. The others, who had been steadfastly ignoring Vignette in favor of packing up camp, all looked up. AJ was sometimes loud, but rarely did she ever scream, especially at such a volume. “Those are my sons. And you will not talk about them like that. They weren’t even a part of you ending up on the lake. You’ve been nothing but insufferable since I asked you to marry me, Vignette. I thought it was just nerves but it ain’t is it? That sweet smile you used to give me was an act! This is the real you ain’t it? Nothin’ but hateful words and a pretty face.” Vignette sneered, “Oh please, you didn’t love me. You just needed someone to listen to your sob story about your great lost love. Rarity, Rarity, Rarity! Well guess what AJ.” The nickname rolled off her tongue like poison. “I’m all you’re ever going to get so make your choice. It’s me or them.” “Them.” She froze, “what?” “My family is everything. You clearly don’t wanna be a part of it so, I choose them… I’ll always choose them.” She turned and made her way toward the others, joining her family as they packed their things. “You- you can’t just-” “And by the way,” Sugar Belle smirked, “you’re fired.”