Rockhoof was to the side of Luna and Garou. "I don't mean to be pryin', but what exactly was it you turned into there, when you were all laid up?"

Luna cocked an ear. "I was curious as well, but you don't have to answer that, unless that form has other tricks you could be using to defend yourself that we should be going over."

Garou's cheeks warmed as he glanced away. "Aw damn it, everyone saw that?" Both nodded calmly and he grunted with annoyance. "It's not a power... More of a lack of power. I wasn't even expecting it, since I can go to sleep no problem." He suddenly scratched an itch with a twitching back claw over the underside of his chin. "Guess being knocked out isn't the same as going to sleep."

Rockhoof shrugged softly. "I can 'magine that's true enough. To be knocked for a loop is often without dreams."

"A moment of death," agreed Luna. "But one that can be recovered from. Very well, if that is not a useful thing, I will not pry further. You are a mercenary with us, so I will spare you personal prods, unless you decide you wish to share."

"It was all... naked and smooth," noted Rockhoof, not as stoic about forgetting what he had seen. "A curious weakness, to become so vulnerable when defeated."

Garou suddenly barked as he hopped towards Luna. "Look, we're practicing, right?" Suddenly he was more ready to work with her. "What's next?"

"Very well." She pointed to the ground. "I think I have seen that you are agile enough, and that is good, but danger can come when you are not expecting it and have not the time to leap out of the way. You have the most experience in using that canine form you clearly prefer. So I'm forbidding you from using it. Sit still and the barrage will continue. Use only your other tricks to avoid it."

Garou looked ready to say something, but was interrupted by Rockhoof patting him idly on the back. "Good luck, lad. I'm headin' inta town. Want anythin'?"

Luna tossed head head towards Garou. "A mug of water for when he is done would be good."

"Hey, ask if they have a brush for getting sand out of fur." He hadn't even realized that could be an issue until it became one.

Rockhoof looked back over his sand-coated pelt. "Huh, good idea. Let's find out." He wandered off into the oasis town to see what he could get.

An unannounced beam of silvery energy came racing at Garou and he yelped, ducking under it. Luna waved a hoof with a soft tsking noise. "No dodging."

"Warn me before you start!" His hackles were raised, claws digging into the dirt beneath them.

"Would an enemy be so kind?" A bolt raced towards him, not from Luna, but from the side. "Of this I doubt."

An unseen wall formed, causing the bolt to crash against it, illuminating its invisible form for the instant before the bolt was expended and faded away. Luna nodded, looking more satisfied. "Better." She willed a fresh bolt into being, and another. Each one came from a new angle, testing his defenses. "How strong are the walls you form?"

"Haven't had one fail yet," he grunted out, focused on making and remaking walls to block each bolt as they came at him.

"I see a weakness," half-sang Luna as she fashioned two bolts at the same instant, closing them in on Garou from opposite sides. He blocked one easily, but that left the other to zap his exposed side. "Can you not fashion more than one wall?"

He rubbed at the sore spot. "Just one, but it can be in different shapes."

"Then why do you not protect all of yourself instead of fashioning walls?" challenged Luna. "A bubble, or even a skin, would be better, would it not?" She rolled a hoof in the air. "You made a dome before, to protect us from Celestia's attack, do you not recall?"

"Huh..." Forming a dome had been a frantic moment of true fear that whatever Celestia had been doing would kill them all. "I haven't done that a lot."

"Time to learn." Four bolts appeared in cardinal directions. "Or these lessons will get more painful."

Rockhoof approached a stall with a great manner of personal supplies. Brushes, combs, mirrors, and other grooming supplies were on display. "Mmm..."

The mare that operated the stand was smiling gently, looking over Rockhoof. "You approach, smelling of a long road, pelt strewn with that same road, as if you are bringing it to me as a gift." She extended a hoof to point to a simple little box. "That is the first thing you will desire.

Rockhoof leaned forward to read the writing on the top of the box. "Sand soap?"

"It requires no water. Simply rub it in all over and roll around in the sand. It works wonders and will banish the scent that's clung to you." She brought together her forehooves in a single clop. "But then you will have sand, but we have solutions for that as well. You appear to have coarse fur." She reached with her mouth and snagged a particular brush, large and stiff. "This one will do the job. If you have a trusted friend, let them do it. They can reach more of you, and it is a simple pleasure to have a friend perform the grooming."

"Ah, yeah, that's what I was lookin' for. Do you have a sand brush for a mare?" He held up a hoof to show Trixie's height. "She's much softer than I am, I assure."

"Delicate?" She set down Rockhoof's chosen brush and went for another. "The bristles on this one are more gentle, but not by much. Some stiffness is required if you want to get in there and get the sand out. Perhaps you two could help each other out." She smirked playfully at that. "A fine way to grow closer."

His cheeks lit up at the idea of exchanging brushes with Trixie. "I'm fairly certain she's not lookin' for that from me."

"You won't know until you try." She set the brush beside the first and the box. "I have a soft perfume to keep the user fresher for a little longer. It has a subtle but pleasing scent." She gestured to a dangling bottle. "Would you like to smell it?"

He hadn't been sent to find perfume... but... "Uh, sure."

She gathered up the bottle in her hooves and bit down lightly on the bulb, causing it to spritz towards Rockhoof. He could smell it then. He had feared a powerful floral scent, but instead it was a more subtle aroma, of plantlife, but not a flower in particular, like freshly cut grass. "That's nice," he agreed with a little smile. "I'll take them." He spread his hooves to gesture over all four things the mare had helped him find.

He soon paid for his finds and tucked them away, trotting off with a satisfied expression. Who said he couldn't shop?!

It was a funny, and annoying thing. What one did in the middle of a disaster was not always easily replicated. He kept forming curved walls that could block one, or two, sometimes three, of the painful bolts she threw at him, but getting it to be perfectly round was proving harder then he would have liked.

One such painful lesson struck him right on his bandages and he howled with fresh agony, collapsing to the sand as his wall crumbled.

Luna hissed, approaching with a concerned look. "I didn't mean to hit you there. Are you alright?"

"Can we have a little break?" He sat back up, gingerly rubbing a paw over the delicate injury. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, really. This is good practice, but..."

"But you need a break, very well." Luna put a hoof on his stronger shoulder. "I understand. I would want the same were I skewered in such a fashion." There was an unspoken addition of 'which I wouldn't be' that her tone carried.

He picked up on it with a grunt. "Just a minute, then we keep going."

"As you wish." She looked far too satisfied that her ribbing had motivated him to continue. "This is for your own good. Even when our paths seperate, you will be better off being able to defend yourself."

Rockhoof found Trixie and Celestia, still parked where he left them, watching the caravan merchants trade with the town. "I come bearin' gifts," he cheerfully announced as he closed the distance.

Trixie's ears went up towards him. "Did they have something for this infernal sand?"

"Even more than that, lass." He coiled on himself, drawing out Trixie's brush. "First, this is for the sand."

With a glowing horn, she took the brush, just to have it snatched away in Celestia's golden glow. "Hey!"

Celestia ran a metal-clad hoof over the bristles. "Very nice. We can share this. What else did you find?"

"Sand soap." He pulled out the box, still closed. "You lather it on, then give a playful little roll in the sand, cleans you up, but you have to get the sand out."

Trixie tilted her head left and right. "I would not have guessed there was such a thing, but Trixie is interested." Her horn took the box and was not stopped from drawing it into her hooves. "Do you have more? You sound like it."

"I do." He pulled out the second brush, larger then the first. "This one has stiffer bristles. The mare at the stall said it would work better for me."

Celestia raised her ears. "Ah, marvelous. My mane requires stiff bristles if it is to be done correctly. I owe that mare a thanks, and you as well."

"You have more," challenged Trixie. "Did you buy the entire stand?"

"Just one more," he assured, surrendering the second brush to Celestia's magic to float beside the first. He produced the perfurme bottle. "After yer clean, this'll give a subtle scent of freshly cut grass."

Celestia leaned in, sniffing gently. "Very nice. Not my usual scent, but pleasing none the less. You have performed admirably."

"Very good." Trixie nodded softly. "Far better than some of my fans who know so little of what to get a mare. Shall we banish this sand for a time?"

Celestia pointed to the box in Trixie's hooves. "First we must become more familiar with it."

"Ah, yes." She opened the box with her magic and drew the bar free. "I vote we clean you first." She was looking towards Rockhoof. "You're the one that got it, and, if we're being honest, you need it the most."

He roared with laughter. "Oh, fine, blame the stallion for picking up a scent after a long bit of travel."

"I can and I have." She floated the bar over and started with his chest, rubbing it vigorously into his fur. "Besides, keeping your scrapes clean is important, last Trixie knew."

"Excellent point, please proceed." Celestia surrendered her place in the queue, watching Trixie work. "This seems like a workable reward for his hard efforts."

"I wasn't lookin' fer any rewards," he half-muttered, accepting the sudsing he was getting even as his cheeks darkened. It had been quite some time since he had any mare willing to casually clean him. "You know, it used to... be like this all the time. Ah can remember it, comin' home after a long day's work, and getting cleaned."

Trixie raised her brows as one. "That's right, you were a celebrity in your time. You had your own adoring fans that would pamper and labor to keep you happy. This Trixie knows well." She nodded with confident understanding. "It must be horrible, to be a Has Been. I'm not sure if I could stand it."

Celestia put a hoof to Trixie's nose, booping her casually. "He still has it, in spades. Don't be mean."

Author's Note

The last day of Anthrocon, with no missed updates, yay! In this chapter, valuable practice time, and some grooming? Who said grooming was a part of adventure?! Why don't these ponies know Least Wish, er, I mean Prestidigitation.

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