“Everything comes and goes  
Marked by lovers and styles of clothes  
Things that you held high  
And told yourself were true  
Lost or changing as the days come down to you  
Down to you  
Constant stranger  
You’re a kind person  
You’re a cold person too  
It’s down to you”
 
-Joni Mitchell//Down to you  
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovbNRv…  

 
I can imagine AJ singing this song to Little Lady the night before she heads off to Canterlot.  
I’ve been a bit hesitant about portraying Lil Lady’s more negative qualities and I don’t know why.
 
Before Canterlot, Lady was very prissy and pretentious. The young girl was a master manipulator and while not an outright bully, she was definitely unkind and gossipy. AJ is a great mother and her patience grows year-by-year. However, she can’t force her children to change. Instead, she instilled them with life lessons and left the rest up to them. I can imagine her constant mantra being “It’s down to you”
 
AJ tries for years to be close to Little Lady but eventually has to step back and let her do her own growing. The catalyst for this change is when Little Lady actively sabotaged her sister Sweet Bailey’s speech which caused her to be overlooked by Canterlot’s Goldchapel Medical School. Little Lady knew her little sister would be coming to Canterlot with her [though Lady was going the for an apprenticeship with Dandy Gradeur] and she wanted to be seen as the only family member to make it in Canterlot. This single act cost Sweet Bailey dearly and even more than that was incredibly cruel.
 
The plan backfired somewhat as the Mane Six figured out who sabotaged the performance.  
It put AJ in a terrible position and she had to do something. In the end, she didn’t disown Lady but she made it clear that she was incredibly disappointed in her. And for a kid who wants to be seen as the best in most circumstances, this killed Lady.
 
The two didn’t talk again for over a decade, though AJ did reach out.  
Mom and daughter relationships are tough at the best of times. But AJ and Lady’s relationship has always been difficult.  
More on that another time.