change applejack for OP and it will be a perfect

AJ being stuck in her old ways leads to everyone having a miserable time? Par for the course.

I was pretty confused about what the moral of this episode was supposed to be, but @cheezedoodle ’s explanation seems to make the most sense to me.

I take it as a sign of just how great Season 8 is so far that people are having to resort to jumping through such lolworthy hoops just to find something to bitch about.
 
Aside from OP tryin’ to start it when he’s already full up on it, it seemed pretty obvious to me that the setup was that nobody really takes Applejack’s motherhenning seriously and Dash just wasn’t in on the joke. The way the Golden Horde was acting, it was clear that Big Mac “chaperones” by leaving them “sleeping” in their hotel room and skiving off to do whatever, probably so he can come back later when they’re actually sleeping and be able to tell AJ the honest untruth that they were sleeping when he left and sleeping when he returned.
 
@Spiritus Arcane  
More like the moral of the story is that AJ is a giant killjoy when it comes to her family  
That’s been well-established throughout the series, so yeah.

@jazzaman
 
If she were a terrible person, she would have refused taking over Dash’s teaching duties so that she could ride a damn roller coaster. If she were a terrible person, she wouldn’t have cared so much about her family’s well-being.

Basically. AJ is really a truly terrible person. Thankgod their flat out replacing her in G5

@CastielMalfoyHolmes  
While the fandom is often guilty of analyzing the show too deeply (though the whole reason this community even exists is because older viewers took the show seriously), understanding Applejack’s motivations here isn’t exactly one of those instances. The specific things she told RD had an effect on the entire episode.

Or its a flawed ass tv show and that all the theories and conclusions that everyone is coming up with are pointless while the writers sit back and laugh at us because we fight over an anitmated pastel pony show made for little girls. The arguements in this fandom over every detail in every frame is equal to english teachers reading too much into every line because ‘it really represents how the author felt about blah blah blah…’

Rainbow’s the element of loyalty. She trusted AJ more than her own senses and ultimately it bit her in the ass. She just needs to learn to trust her own instincts when they are telling her what she’s doing is wrong.

@zidders
 
I don’t think she’s ageist. Keep in mind, Granny Smith has had a history of hip problems among other things.

@zidders  
Fair enough.

@Background Pony #D135  
Or all three.

I’m 99% sure that Big Mac, when he first went to this trip, also tried to follow the list but later learned his lesson, that Applejack is overprotective. During all the following trips he just ignored the list and it became a secret between him and the grannies.

@zidders  
Or a troll

Applejack isn’t a liar. Just ageist and ignorant.

@cloudkicker108  
It’s clear from everything Granny’s done in the series up to this point that she’s more than capable of taking care of herself. Just because someone is elderly doesn’t mean they need 24/7 care or have to avoid doing things like roller coasters. Goldie lives by herself in the woods-clearly she doesn’t need looking after. The whole point of this episode is that Applejack is being overprotective and both she and RD were being pretty ageist. As far AJ lying I don’t think she was lying just being ignorant and ageist.

@root  
It doesn’t take a psychic to conclude that letting an elderly individual do crazy things could result in injury or worse. While Applejack’s guidelines are a bit overprotective, it’s certainly not unreasonable. I mean, if I were in charge of looking after a group of elderly folks, I’d probably play things safe and follow some of those same guidelines. There’s a reason we usually avoid letting elderly people wander on their own, you know.
 
AJ not telling RD she doesn’t actually knows what happens with the golden gals in Las Pegasus is a natural reaction. Why would you instruct someone to follow a specific set of rules then inform them right after that you have no means of enforcing them? That’s entirely self-defeating.
 
Now, Applejack openly lying to Dash certainly isn’t outside the realm of possibility, but that conclusion requires making more assumptions than concluding that she is merely uninformed. If we go by Occam’s Razor (and just not overthink things in general), the latter would be a more plausible answer.

I thought the lesson here is old people aren’t quiet, dull with anergy and boring as the modern ageist society thinks them to be

What if the moral of the episode was “don’t obey silly rules/rulers”?

RD: “I wanna ride the coaster!”
 
AJ: “Oh well if you take Granny and her friends to Pegasus you can! I mean, you’ll be so busy hovering over them 24/7 and making sure they do nothing EXCITING in a CASINO, but I’m sure you’ll find SOME time.”
 
The moral is AJ is a dick.

AJ lied about nothing. Between her general desire to be overprotective and a possible subtle desire to troll Rainbow Dash for giving her extra teaching duties, her actions in this episode make total sense.
 
However, I do think that this episode was a missed opportunity for AJ to learn a lesson about being so overbearing. It’s easy to understand why she does it. Obviously, having lost her parents, she wants to keep her remaining family around for as long as possible. But this is quite clearly routine behavior for her, and we’ve seen it before in episodes like Somepony to Watch Over Me and Leap of Faith.

I believe it’s actually less of a “lying cunt” and more of “being overprotective towards the family members”, just like she did in “Somepony to watch over me”. Judging by the grannies’ reaction when Dash said them about Applejack’s list, it’s not the first time the latter is trying something like that…

People failing at basic comprehension try to criticize episode ,just lel.

@root  
Applejack ruined the family reunion with her rules, trying to plan things for her relatives in ways that don’t match their interests. So I’m convinced she just thinks she knows the grannies, but once again, it’s Big Mac doing all the hard work, all the thinking, making all the sacrifices. I don’t even think AJ should have given RD the job in the first place, she knows Dash overreacts to anything getting in her way. She should have just traded her favour for RD filling in for her some other time. She’s just a poor judge of character.