//------------------------------//
// The First Part 
// Story: All Creatures Great And Small (Can't Foalsit) 
// by SuperPinkBrony12 
//------------------------------//

While it was nice to get to spend the holiday of Hearth's Warming together, Sandbar and his friends did still have to finish cleaning up the mess Gallus had caused with his prank. With the six of them pitching in it wasn't too difficult (Gallus told them how goo powder worked, so now they had a better idea of what they were dealing with). But it still took longer than the six creatures would've liked. At last, however, they were finished and the rest of the holiday break was theirs to spend.

Or that would have been the case, had Headmare Twilight not poked her head into the room just as soon as the cleaning was done. Her eyes soon fell upon Sandbar as she called out to him. "Sandbar?"

Thinking that he must've unintentionally done something wrong, Sandbar gulped a bit as he trotted up to the alicorn. "Yes, Headmare Twilight? Am I in trouble?"

Twilight smiled as she shook her head. "Oh no, of course not. You're a model student, Sandbar."

"Then, why did you call for me?" Sandbar questioned.

Twilight explained as the smile on her face faded. "Your parents came by just a minute ago. They said they needed to talk to you right away. And it sounded urgent."

"What?! But we just got done cleaning!" Silverstream pouted as she unintentionally knocked over an empty bucket. "That's so unfair!"

"Ah, relax, everycreature. I'm sure they were just wondering why I haven't come home yet," Sandbar replied without concern. "Just hang out for a bit, I'll be right back. Promise."

Yona stomped a hoof down in protest. "Yona not want Sandbar to go. Yona want to spend holiday with all her friends, Sandbar included!"

"Aw come on, guys, I'm not gonna be gone forever," Sandbar waved a hoof in reply. "We'll still have the entire rest of the break to spend together after I get done talking to my parents." And he trotted away to do just that.

Gallus let out an unhappy sigh as he watched Sandbar leave. "Well, at least he has a family to go home to. Grandpa Gruff never really cared whether I came home or not. If Gilda and Gabby weren't breathing down his neck all the time he probably would've just left me to fend for myself. Says it builds character."

"Oh, you poor thing," Silverstream chirped. "You know, Gallus, you could've just told us you had no family and didn't want to be alone for the holidays. You didn't have to set up this elaborate prank just so we'd all stay together. We'd have been happy to let you borrow one of our families."

Gallus shook his head. "It would never work, I already feel like a stranger just living here. There's so many things about ponies I don't understand. Like this holiday, for example. We in Griffonstone don't really do holidays, the Blue Moon Festival's the closest we've got."

"Yes, you told us already," Ocellus commented as she hovered close. "But we changelings didn't have holidays until Headmare Twilight introduced us to them."

"And we dragons never really had holidays, but you don't hear us complaining about it," Smolder retorted as she puffed out her chest, only for her friends to look at her with glares. "I mean, quit being such a gloomy Gus, Gallus. What matters is we're all together now, and we get to spend the holiday break with you like you wanted. Isn't that what counts?"

The griffon reluctantly sighed. "Sure, I guess. And I'd be lying if I said Ponyville wasn't starting to grow on me. If it has this school and ponies like Sandbar, it can't be all bad I suppose. Don't... uh... don't tell Sandbar I said that. He'll get the wrong idea."

"Ah, there's no need. I totally understand. We ponies can be a lot to take in at first." The familiar voice of Sandbar declared as he came trotting back into the room.

Yona was the first to rush over! "Sandbar came back!"

"Yona, I was only gone for a couple of minutes," Sandbar responded. "You don't have to be like this every time I go away."

"But Yona just really happy to see friend!" Yona happily declared. "Now all friends get to celebrate holiday together! This will be best Hearth's Warming ever!"

But Sandbar seemed to have a pronounced frown upon his face as the earth pony colt replied. "Well actually, I have to get home right away. Mom and Dad are going out of town to look after a sick relative, and they need me to foalsit my baby sister," Then he got an idea. "Actually, why don't you guys come with me? You know, for back-up?"

All of the colt's friends blinked in surprise! No, they hadn't misheard. Sandbar did indeed want them to help him watch over his little sister. A sister that until a few hours ago they had not been aware of.

Smolder was the first to speak up in response to the proposal. "Why would we help you with something like that? We don't know anything about babies."

"I have, we all take turns grub sitting back at the hive!" Ocellus declared as she proudly buzzed her wings.

Smolder snorted as a puff of smoke escaped her nostrils. "I meant baby ponies. All I know is that they cry all the time, slobber on things, and sometimes they smell."

Silverstream only giggled. "It can't be any worse than when Terramar was a hatchling. You would not believe how hard it was to keep him under control! But he was just so adorable, all babies are adorable!"

"And you'll have me. I've foalsat my sister many times before, sometimes when my parents aren't around to help," Sandbar boasted with a bright smile. "Come on, guys. It'll be fun, I promise! And this way we can all be together."

Gallus groaned and put a claw to his face. "Great, now if we say no we're going to feel guilty. You're way too good at that sort of thing, Sandbar."

The little earth pony just grinned. "No idea what you're talking about, dude. You guys don't have to come along. But it'd mean a lot to me if you did," Then he happened to glance up at a nearby clock, and he gasped! "Oh my gosh! Is it that late already?! I'd better get home now, it's not good to leave a baby all alone!" Without waiting for a reply he dashed out of the room and soon he had left the school grounds!

The other creatures soon made up their minds about their friend's most unusual proposal. Despite the reservations some of them might have had, they really did want to stay together with Sandbar. The six of them had become inseparable as of late.





Despite his initial dash out of the school, Sandbar wasn't travelling at that fast a rate of speed. So his friends catching up to him while he was en-route to his house wasn't a surprise to him. "I knew you guys would come!" He happily proclaimed. "I can't wait for you to all meet my little sister, she is absolutely adorable!"

"Does she have a name?" Ocellus questioned. "Most changelings don't get a name when they first hatch, or at least that's how we used to do it." Had one been paying close attention they might have seen the changeling shudder ever so briefly.

Sandbar didn't notice as he answered. "Her name's Coral, it's a really pretty name if you ask me."

"Meh, it's alright, pony names are really weird," Smolder remarked as the six drew near to a modest house tucked into an otherwise isolated part of Ponyville. "So, how do we get inside? Spare key? Trap door? Secret compartment?"

"Ooh! I hope it's a trap door! Maybe one with a slide! That would be fun!" Silverstream chirped.

Sandbar only giggled as he trotted up to the door. "None of the above. Mom and Dad always leave the door unlocked."

"You're lucky, no griffon in Griffonstone would be caught dead leaving their door open all the time. It's a guaranteed way to get robbed." Gallus quipped, though secretly he was a bit envious of such lack of hostility among ponies (from what he could gather anyway).

The door opened as soon as Sandbar had pressed a hoof to the knob and turned it. The earth pony led his friends inside and promptly shed the hat, boots, scarf and earmuffs he had worn on his way home. He flicked on the lights a few seconds later. "Well guys, welcome to my house," He greeted in as a cheerful tone as he could manage. "Kind of wanted your first visit here to be more grand though. Oh well, can't have everything," He promptly informed the others. "I'll go get Coral, the rest of you just wait here and have a look around."

The interior of the house consisted mostly of carpeted floors, several rooms, a small couch, and a fireplace with logs and pictures on frames that hung above it.

Smolder immediately flew over to the fireplace, which drew the attention of the others. "What Smolder doing?" Yona asked.

"Starting a fire in the fireplace, this place is so cold!" Smolder protested with a shiver.

Yona only giggled. "Yona not care, cold not bother yak."

"Well, not all of us have wool coats to keep us, or can transform into something that does. I'm not gonna freeze my scales off! Besides, I know what I'm doing. I'm not gonna burn the house down." The stubborn young dragon declared, before she inhaled deeply, and breathed a scorching flame out onto the logs. Soon the fire was crackling away and radiating warmth throughout the house.

An unexpected and audibly coo drew everyone's attention away from the fireplace a moment later. Sandbar had returned, and standing beside him was a filly with a pale, almost olive green coat. She sported sea green eyes and had a wavy mane and tail that had the same light green colors seen in Sandbar's, but with some very light pink parts on the left side. Most unusual of all though, was what the little one had around her rump. It looked kind of like a diaper, but there was an absence of tapes or pins and the whole thing was a lovely shade of pink as opposed to a plain white. None of the other creatures knew what it was though.

"Guys, I'd like you all to meet my baby sister, Coral," Sandbar smiled as he proudly showed her off. "Go on, Coral, say hi."

"Hi." Coral replied on cue and waved her hoof in an adorable fashion.

Silverstream was the first one to respond! She immediately flew up to Coral and happily squealed! "Oh my gosh! Sandbar wasn't kidding! You are just so adorable, Coral! I'm Silverstream, by the way, nice to meet you."

But Coral didn't reply, she had covered her ears with her hooves. Sandbar was quick to scoop her up. "Silverstream, too loud. You're gonna scare her," He scolded and then locked eyes with his sister. "It's okay, Coral. Silverstream's a bit loud but you'll get used to her. She just loves to make new friends."

Coral reluctantly uncovered her ears and then turned to face Silverstream. She had never seen anything like her before, a creature that looked partially like a bird and partially like a pony. And neither had Coral had ever truly seen the likes of Gallus, Ocellus, or even Yona. She sort of recognized Smolder: she was like those creatures from the stories her parents always read to her (except Smolder was much shorter and nowhere near as ferocious). "You Sandbar friends?" She asked the other creatures.

"Uh... yeah," Smolder responded, finding herself unsure of what to say around a little one. "I guess he's told you about us?"

"He tell me that you guys fun, but you not from Equestria," Coral commented. "But he like you all. And he really like Yona."

Yona innocently and happily replied with a stomp. "Yona really like Sandbar too! Yona really like all her friends! And Yona love to make new friends!" She quickly got an idea. "Where Yona come from, friends and family play in snow. Yaks play in snow all the time. Coral want to play in snow with Yona?"

"Yeah! Yeah!" Coral cheered, bouncing up and down in Sandbar's hooves in excitement.

Yona immediately trotted over and took Coral from Sandbar without even asking. "Great! Yona take Coral outside now! Maybe Yona and Coral build snow fort together?" She began to take the little filly towards the front door, ready to head out.

Sandbar quickly dashed over! "Yona, wait! You can't take Coral outside like that!"

"But yaks no wait, yaks play in snow with nothing on!" Yona protested. "Yak fur keep them warm." And she stomped away before Sandbar could say anything in protest.

The colt rushed after his stubborn yak friend, watching his baby sister bounce up and down on Yona's back! "Yona! Coral doesn't have yak fur!" He shouted!

Yona just replied. "But ponies still have fur, fur keep you warm. Yaks no need silly hats or scarves, why ponies need them if they have fur too?" And she set Coral down near a snowbank. "Now, Coral want Yona to show how yaks build perfect snow fort? If Coral do good job Yona show Coral how to smash it!"

Coral clapped her hooves! That sounded a lot like whenever she would play with her blocks and stack them into towers. The funnest part was always knocking them over with her hooves when they got too big.

Sandbar's dash grew increasingly frantic, especially since he himself had been in too much of a rush to put on his scarf or his hat. And because he was running so fast he forgot to pay attention to his surroundings. A mistake he realized far too late when his hooves made contact with a patch of ice. Immediately they gave away, and the helpless colt began sliding across the path. Instead of a snowbank, however, he ran smack into a tree!





Coral and Yona were stricken with horror and let out gasps! The sound of the impact also drew the other creatures, and all saw Sandbar lying beneath the tree!

"Big brother!" Coral screamed in horror as tears began to well up in her eyes.

"Yona, what did you do?!" Ocellus accused. "Sandbar could be seriously hurt because of you!"

"Yona just want to play with Coral, Yona not mean for Sandbar to get hurt." Yona whimpered and shrank.

However, Gallus noticed something as he looked closer at his friend that lay face down under the tree. "Guys, he's waking up! I don't think he hit his head that hard."

Sure enough, Sandbar was able to rise to his hooves. He appeared dazed but otherwise unharmed. "Whoa. Why's everything spinning?" He remarked.

"Sandbar, are you alright?" Ocellus questioned the colt.

"What kind of silly question is that? Of course I'm alright. Now just put the apple in the hay and eat the candle, hmm?" Sandbar responded. And all his friends exchanged glances of worry.

Gallus spoke up to voice their concerns. "We'd better get you to a hospital, Sandbar. Just to be safe."

"Dudes, I'm totally fine. I just need to lie down for a while until everything stops spinning," The colt protested. "I haven't felt this dizzy since I rode Admiral Fairweather's Wild Ride at Pony Island. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me feel dizzy." But the moment he took one step forward, his legs wobbled and he fell to the ground.

Smolder and Silverstream were quick to prop their friend up. "That settles it. You definitely need to go to the hospital, Sandbar," Smolder snorted. "We're not taking no for an answer."

"But what about Coral? You can't just leave her out here, she'll freeze!" Sandbar protested.

Yona simply bent down and lifted Coral up, pulling the little filly close to her chest. "Coral stay safe and warm inside Yona's thick fur. Yaks best at braving cold!"

Coral said nothing, she just nuzzled deep into Yona's fur. It felt like a warm blanket.

The rest of the creatures helped Sandbar to his hooves and they all set off for the hospital. They could only hope that their friend's head injury wasn't as serious as it seemed to them (though considering none of them knew pony medicine it was hard to be sure).





Nurse Redheart was certainly no stranger to having patients and those close to them come bursting through the front doors of the hospital, especially when it was this close to Hearth's Warming (the winter holidays always seemed to be a time for increased injuries and accidents). But even she was not expecting to be flooded by five creatures that she only vaguely knew of from Princess Twilight's school.

"Is there a doctor?! We need a doctor, now!" Silverstream screeched at the top of her lungs!

"Guys, I'm totally okay, I told you. It's not like I'm dying." Sandbar retorted even as it was clear that the colt had a rather nasty bump on his forehead that was impossible to overlook.

Yona let out a gasp! "Sandbar becoming delusional! Sandbar need help, now!"

Ocellus just approached Nurse Redheart at the desk and tried not to blush. "Sorry for the commotion. Sandbar hit his head against a tree, and we kind of rushed over because we weren't sure what to do. Do ponies hit their heads a lot? Is that a normal thing?"

Coral, meanwhile, let out a whimper. "Big bro be okay. Somepony make sure he okay."

Nurse Redheart tried her best to keep a straight face. "Well, head injuries are not abnormal. Ponies seem to hit their heads on things more times than I can recall, especially trees," She trotted over to Sandbar. "But I never would've expected a colt like you to get injured in such a fashion. You were always good at staying out of dangerous situations. And you never made a fuss when you had to get your shots."

"Somepony has to be brave for my little sister," Sandbar responded as he shook his head. "Look, this is all a big misunderstanding. My friends just panicked and rushed me over here because they thought I might be hurt."

"You most certainly are, Sandbar," Nurse Redheart frowned. "A head injury is no joking matter. I'd say you're quite fortune that your friends decided not to take chances and brought you here. That bruise looks especially nasty."

The colt was anything but convinced. "So what? One bruise isn't gonna affect anything."

Nurse Redheart simply turned to Sandbar's friends. "How did this happen? What caused the injury?"

"He slipped on a patch of ice and hit a tree, I think. Only Yona was there when it happened," Gallus explained. "He got really freaked out when Yona took his little sister out to play in the snow without a hat or a scarf."

"Ah, I see. Well it's quite fortunate that it doesn't seem like he broke any bones with that impact," Nurse Redheart observed. "Still, that bump is hard to overlook."

"Yeah, he was out cold for at least a minute. But I think he was just doing that to be dramatic or something," Smolder insisted. "He got up just fine but he said he felt dizzy and needed to lie down."

Nurse Redheart's frown only grew. "That's not a good sign. I'm afraid your friend is going to have to stay here to be inspected. At least until a doctor can look at him."

"What?! No, no no! I can't go to the hospital!" The young earth pony suddenly shouted as his eyes widened! "I'm supposed to watch my baby sister for my parents!"

Ocellus spoke up. "We can watch her for you, Sandbar. And we can take turns checking on you here, so you won't have to worry."

"Really?" Sandbar questioned, surprised to see all of his friends nod. "Well, okay I guess. Just please don't take Coral outside in the snow again. I don't need her to get sick on top of all of this."

Smolder puffed her chest. "Not a problem, we can handle her. There's five of us. We can handle a baby pony for a few hours."

But at that very moment, Coral happened to look down at the pink undergarment she was wearing. "Uh-oh," She declared as she appeared to realize something. "I wet!"

"So what?" Gallus innocently inquired. "Ponies get wet all the time."

However, Silverstream spoke up. "Um, I think she means a different kind of wet. Not the kind you get when you're in water."

"What do you mea-oh!" Gallus realized. "W-well, what are we supposed to do about... that?"

Nurse Redheart looked across to Coral. "Sandbar, how old is your sister?" She asked, looking back to the colt now in her care.

"She's three, and she's in potty training. She's already in pull-ups." Sandbar answered, sounding quite proud of that fact.

"I see," Nurse Redheart commented. "Well, lucky for her we have some pull-ups here at the hospital. Mostly for medical purposes. but they should fit her." And no sooner had she so when another nurse came by to take Coral away to get changed.

Sandbar's friends all stood there with puzzled looks on their faces. They had not been expecting things like "pull-ups" and "potty training", more because they had no knowledge of such things and Sandbar hadn't mentioned it to them. But it was clear to them that they would have to learn about them, if they were to care for Coral in light of the unexpected events that had just transpired.