The next day, trading was complete, barrels were filled with water, and food stocks were high. They were ready to go. "I would have done the same thing," proclaimed Garou as he walked alongside Celestia. "That's messed up, keeping medicine away from people."

Luna inclined her head. "Had you asked, we would have shared the burden. Far be it from me to consign somepony to death for sake of expediency on my part."

"Am I the only practical pony here?" groused Trixie with a frown, walking along with her wagon. "You could have at least tried to haggle before giving away so many coins."

Celestia suddenly flashed a nervous little smile. "I suppose I can't argue that. It's a bit late to try now."

Rockhoof lifted his shoulders. "I'm alright with my share coming from the smaller pool. We can all chip in towards it, like a team." The others voiced their agreement, leaving Trixie as the odd pony out.

"Ugh! It's just like I told you." She thrust a hoof at Celestia as she walked on the other three. "You gave away all our coins, not just some selfless sacrifice of your own. That was rude and unkind to the rest of us. Trixie demands apologies!"

Celestia reached out a wing to rest on Trixie's head. "Forgive me. I owe you something."

"Well, so long as you admit it." She let out a slow sigh. "Fine, take my share too then, we'll all have smaller portions to make up for this." Though she grumbled, the matter was closed and the topic set down.

They scattered then, moving to keep better views on different parts of the caravan as it wove across the desert. Spirits were high among the merchants, their trip already proving profitable and they hadn't even finished yet.

Everything was turning out well, until the sand shook beneath their many hooves and even a few paws. Trixie quirked an ear and stepped free of her harness. "I don't like the sound of that."

As if her speaking had summoned it, the dune just to the left of her exploded as the form of a great tatzlwyrm erupted with tentacle tongues flailing angrily, a roar on its many-toothed mouth. It was not a time that Trixie enjoyed being correct. It dove for her and she lashed out her hind hooves, kicking the wagon back just far enough to not be smashed as it crashed down on her, gulping her up and burrowing right back into the sand, leaving nothing in its wake but disturbed dunes.

Rockhoof and Garou were on the scene in an instant of rapid running. "Where is she?" barked Garou almost literally, ears turning rapidly. "I see her wagon, but no magic pony."

"She was eaten," stammered out one of the other wagon pullers. "Just... like that, gone!"

Rockhoof plunged his shovel into the sand. "Then we'll dig after her! I won't let her go like that." Without further thought or hesitation, he began digging rapidly into the sand, making a new dune just beside the forming hole as he began to sink inch after inch, trying to reach the worm and Trixie.

Celestia arrived next, peering into the deepening hole. "Good friend, I don't think you can catch up with the worm like that."

"It won't be for lack of effort," he grunted, working without pause to try and reach their lost friend.

It was cramped, a little pointy, stank like the inside of somecreature's mouth, which made sense enough, and she was in it, which was the part she most objected to. On the bright side, it had not gotten directly to the part where she was ground into Trixie-chunks for easy digestion.

She still had a chance. She just needed to be clever enough to... Oh yes! Her horn glowed as she focused on her wagon, and the stinky confines of the worm's mouth was abandoned, her form thrown between Here and There, cast out in a wild teleport.

Trixie couldn't see much, but she could feel the comforting presence of her wagon and reached for it, trying to get closer. As suddenly as it began, she spilled out, smoke wafting from her as she hit the floor of her wagon with a soft oof of a noise.

Rockhoof's head peeked up from the lip of his hole. "Was that--"

"It is," gladly reported Celestia, trotting over towards the arrived magician. "We had feared the worse."

Garou loped over, tail wagging. "Now that's a magic trick!"

"Exactly as I had planned," claimed Trixie, though her voice wavered, still recovering from her inexpert transportation. "The worm's still out there!" she suddenly thought to blurt out. "It didn't chew on Trixie, but it could smash wagons without even trying."

Luna landed with a last flap of her wings. "Then it falls on us to prevent that from happening."

Rockhoof climbed free of his hole. "How do we do that? The blasted thing moves so quickly. It's up and down before we have much of a chance to face it." He held his shovel in his teeth, looking around for something to apply it to.

Celestia's eyes lit up. "With that." She pointed at his shovel. "Good friend, if you would quickly erect a trench alongside the caravan's routes, so the worm cannot emerge too close without hitting it."

"On it!" he roared, transferring the shovel to his forelegs and running along the side of the caravan. As slowly as he had dug the hole, the trench was created as if by magic, his shovel repelling dirt away and a trench forming as he galloped down one side of the caravan and up the other side, creating a huge break in the sand that stood firm despite the walls being made of loose little particles.

Trixie half-fell from her wagon, trying to get herself back in the harness, but suddenly she was lifted from the ground, her scruff in Garou's jaws. He dropped her right back into her wagon. "I have this." He stepped into the harness and started pulling it and her along.

The entire caravan began to move a little faster, everypony involved eager to be beyond the worm's territory, wherever that began or ended. The ground shook with movement and everyone looked around for where it was coming from. There. It emerged in an explosion of sand just beyond the trench, its eyes set on Trixie's wagon as if to finish old scores. It dove without hesitation for it, or perhaps the pony laying inside of it.

The delay caused by the trench was just enough, Garou surging to two legs, becoming the massive war form he could take as he spread his hands that had been paws a moment before. A great shield appeared between them, forming in the shape of Captain's shield as he had just gotten down the day before. "Eat this!" he roared, hurling it into the worm's open and toothsome face.

The worm's gaping orifice was suddenly filled with a force shield and its motion became uncertain, confusion robbing it of purpose and its tentacles flailing, at least the two that weren't pinned inside its mouth by the shield. It's roar was strange, muffled by the shield it couldn't bite down on properly.

Celestia arrived on the seat, zapping it with painful bolts of sunny magic. "Back, away with you!"

The worm lashed out its head towards Celestia, a free tentacle snapping at her, grabbing at a hoof and yanking her closer. She collided with the shield with a low thud, but couldn't be drawn into its toothy mouth past it.

"Sister!" Luna was flying towards them with powerful flaps, things floating up towards her, grabbed semi-randomly along the way. "You'll regret that. Why does everything think it's alright to hurt my sister?!"

"I need my sleep!" suddenly bellowed a sour showmare. Trixie was pointing at the muffedly roaring worm. "Why don't you make yourself more useful and get Trixie a teacup!" Her horn flared brightly, magic striking the worm in the center of its sinuous mass. It writhed with clear discomfort, but did not become a great teacup, to Trixie's mild annoyance.

It did, however, cough up quite a collection of them and they crashed into the shield that blocked its mouth, creating a porcelain shatter zone that it couldn't cough out. She had transmuted some part of its insides into precious China. The worm twisted around, suddenly very uninterested in continuing the battle.

Luna waved her assortment of poles, daggers, and other small objects she had plucked on the way. "You better get out of here!" she shouted at the thing as the worm dove into the sands and retreated away from the ponies that could fight back far better than it had intended. With a soft huff, she descended, returning the various things she had borrowed a moment before. "We are safe now."

The caravan master nodded softly, looking in the direction the worm had gone. "Good... job. Rockhoof was it?" When he looked towards her, she smiled nervously. "If you don't mind, keep those trenches up. A valuable extra half second may be what we need."

Garou let his shield fade as he fell back to all fours, shrinking down to his usual wolf size. "Good job, Trix. Just don't use that spell on me, that looked painful."

"Exactly as Trixie had planned," she boasted falsely. She had expected a great single teacup to replace the worm, but that had worked too. "Nice shield. It's a rare delight for Trixie to have a fan that can properly support her, especially since Starlight got super busy with that infernal school of hers." She rolled her eyes even as they started to move, pulled along by Garou. "Have you considered becoming my assistant? We can travel the world, bedazzle all manner of creatures with our magic."

"I'll consider it." He smiled as only a dog could, ambling along with the wagon attached. "For now, we're already on a team, and we have a job."

"True true... I wonder if the creatures of Klugetown will enjoy a little prestidigitation to lighten up their days." She settled on the floor of her wagon, lying on her belly.

Luna looped around to get to Celestia, all her weapons returned. "Sister, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she gently assured, gesturing over herself with a wing. "It was more surprising than actually painful. It has a firm grip with its tentacles, even around the shield. We scared it away, so mission accomplished today." She offered a hoof.

Luna met it with one of her own in a loud clop of a noise. "That we did. We all lent a hoof, though I barely arrived in time to shout at it. I should like to think that helped, but I can offer no assurance."

Celestia touched her nose to Luna's. "You were ready to fight for me, I saw that. You were just fine. We can't be everywhere at once."

"That we can't," agreed Rockhoof, joining them. "I'll be keeping the trenches going for now, as the caravan master asked of me." He nodded to the sisters and moved off to continue his digging.

Luna watched him go, an ear inclined. "Why is it he can dig trenches so well, but when he has to dig a hole straight down, he's so much slower."

"Perhaps we have another vision problem, just as you were coaching our canine friend yesterday." Celestia lifted her shoulders in a little shrug. "He was born to power digging ditches and trenches. That comes naturally to him. Maybe he's just not thinking of a hole as a ditch, so it's slower."

Luna frowned at his retreating form. "If ever you spot such folly in me, dear sister, you are to take me aside and give me a thorough scolding until I am cured of that madness. I hereby give you preemptive permission to engage in Lulu."

"Aw, but I already had permission by right of being your older sister to call you Lulu whenever I pleased." Even as Luna blushed, Celestia kissed her cheek with a fond smile.

Author's Note

Dang sand worms, trying to casually eat us and/or our wagons. Rude!

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