Winter Wrap Up was upon us. Given Twilight had been put in charge of organization, there was a distinct lack of panicked chaos as everyone scurried around in a frenzied haste to try and get things done on time.

Now, one might assume as a non-pony who doesn’t have pony magic, I would be not all that helpful in Winter Wrap Up. And you’d be right for the most part. While I could skate on the lake well enough and do arts and crafts for the wildlife, I couldn’t participate in any of the heavy lifting, like moving the snow clouds into storage or reenergizing the land.

That’s not to say I didn’t have my own role to fill. As I had filled the slot of local handyman, I was going around doing basic things like reapplying paint, fixing leaky roofs, cleaning out gutters, that sort of stuff. I had been studying up for this all winter. It was sweaty work, but it was honest work.

As I was working I’d occasionally see Rainbow busting a few of the excess clouds or Fluttershy leading this or that animal around. Overall it was a peaceful day.

If you had told me back when I was majoring in computer sciences that I’d end up as a handyman, I wouldn’t have believed you. But then, I was also under the assumption that Displaced was just a genre of isekai, so shows what I knew back then. Although I can’t exactly say I’m upset with how things turned out.

“Hey Ranma, you almost done up there?” I heard Applejack call out to me.

“Just about!” I called back as I put down the last of the replacement shingles, ready to be put into place on the roof I was on, “What do you need?”

“The Flower Triplets asked me to find you, they want you to repaint their garden fence!” She told me. I blinked.

“They told me not an hour ago that they didn’t need that fence painted!” I said.

“You know how those three are, wishy-washier than an eel in a bathtub,” AJ shook her head.

“I’ll take care of it,” I told her. AJ nodded and took off for wherever she was needed next.

I finished up with the roof I was on and headed over to the Flower trio. They were about as decisive as I expected.

“So you three want me to paint this fence cherry blossom pink?” I asked.

“Yes, we’re sure,” The eldest sister Rose said.

“Absolutely,” The middle sister Lily added.

“100%” Daisy, the youngest, chimed in. I wrote it down in my handy dandy notepad. Something that had persisted from my old life was my ability to completely forget something someone told me five seconds ago. I was and still am a complete space cadet at times. It was Luna who got me the notebook, as she used to be the exact same way back in the throes of her ancient depression.

With their order in hand, I turned to leave…

“Actually…” The trio said together. I sighed heavily.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Maybe a rose red would be better?” Rose said

“It would be quite striking,” Daisy said.

“It might be too striking?” Lily said. The sisters then fell once more into a debate about what color would be best for their fence. I silently crossed out cherry blossom pink on my notepad.

-

Eventually I got the three to stick to a color and went out to buy it and got to work painting the fence. I could almost feel the trio staring at me as I did so. I could almost hear their second thoughts in my head. But I had told them firmly I had other things to do today and wasn’t going to play ‘spin the color wheel’ with them for hours.

Once I was done with that, I returned to the route I had originally planned for today. I heard there was some excitement with Starlight being a little overeager to participate in the Winter Wrap Up, but I didn’t catch it, so I was left with a normal day of fixing and painting, which on one hand, I’m sad I missed out, but on the other, a normal day before I began the next step of my training was probably for the best. I needed a clear head if I was going got conquer my inner demons, after all.

July has just been utterly exhausting for me. Family fights and the AC going out in the middle of a heatwave and no one being able to fix it for two weeks are the main culprits.

However, I've also been taking Japanese classes and while I like that I'm picking up a new skill, it's a little bit draining on my mental energy. Trying to remember the difference between soko, doko, and sore and remembering to put san after every name are just a few of the things that commonly trip me up. Ultimately I want to become a translator, so here's hoping.