//------------------------------//
// It's like a Roller Coaster...A Very Dangerous One! [Edited] 
// Story: The Polar Express: Dual Blade's Journey to the North Pole 
// by TwinSwords79 
//------------------------------//

When Dual jumped, he actually landed in the coal tender, he slid down the coal like a slide and once he reached the bottom he was buried in coal. He slowly got up trying to keep his balance as he dusted off coal dust from himself. He walked into the train cab and was surprised who was sitting in the driver's seat.

"Virtus?!" Dual said, The wolf pup looked back and smiled when she saw the pegasus. "I thought you got thrown off! Y-You're driving the train?!"

"The engineer put me in charge...I've been driving the train for a while, isn't it great?" 

"B-But...how do you know how to drive a train?"

"It's easy Dual, come here I'll show you." Dual Blade walked over next to Virtus as she started to point at some of the train's mechanics in front of them. "This big lever here...that's the throttle, that little one there is the brake, and those are the pressure gauges." She then pointed at a rope that was hanging. "And that rope is the whistle."

Dual looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "The whistle?"

Virtus nodded, giggling a little. "Want to try it?"

The colt wasted no time as he pulled the rope down with a smile, the train whistle blew loudly. "I wanted to do that my whole life!" He blew the whistle again but when he pulled it again, they heard something hissing.

Dual and Virtus looked and saw the pressure of the pipes was too much when the young colt pulled the whistle, steam beginning to seep out of the pipes.

"Uh-oh!" exclaimed Virtus, getting down from her seat and quickly starting to turn the two wheels under the pressure gauges.

"I-Is that suppose to happen?" asked Dual, scared that he broke something.

"No," Virtus replied, continuing to turn the wheels individually to try and stop the steam, but it wasn't working. The cab was quickly getting engulfed.

"Do something!" exclaimed Dual, fanning away the steam.

"I am!" Virtus slightly snapped. "This is what they told me to do!"

"Are you sure??" 

The wolf stopped when she heard Dual say that, now she was second-guessing herself. She couldn't handle the pressure anymore so she stopped altogether and covered her eyes. The pegasus saw this and ran over to Virtus, grabbing her and pulling her away from the train controls, the two kids couldn't stop the steam from the pipes so they were left helplessly getting engulfed by the white smoke.

But after a few seconds they noticed that the smoke was starting to subside, both kids looked forward and saw two female pegasi twisting both of the pressure wheels Virtus was twisting before, but they were doing it at the same time instead of individually. After the steam was fully gone and the pressure was back to normal, both pegasi turned around and looked at the kids.

"What were you two doing to our train?" They both asked a bit peeved.

Virtus pointed to the gauges. "I was just turning those things like you told me to."

Both pegasi looked at each other and realized they forgot to specify how she had to turn the pressure wheels.

They looked at them and chuckled. "Together."

"Huh?" Virtus raised an eyebrow.

"Together," Both pegasi repeated. "You had to turn them together!"

"Together?" Virtus repeated.

"That's right!" One of the pegasi grabbed a shovel and the kids moved out of the way so she could shovel some coal into the fireplace.

Virtus was still confused about how she could've accomplished that. "But...how could I? I was here alone."

It was now the engineer and the firewoman's turn to be confused, pointing at Dual and still speaking at the same time. "What about him? He wasn't here?"

Virtus shook her head, so both pegasi decided to introduce themselves to the colt.

"I'm Cloudchaser." The engineer pegasus told him, holding her hand out. 

Dual shook her hand and then the firewoman pegasus held her hand out too. "I'm Flitter."

The blue pegasus shook her hand two and both female pegasi spoke at the same time again. "We're twins."

"Nice to meet you...and you?" Dual replied with a bit of confusion. 

"So, who brought you up here," The sisters asked. "Was it the conductor?" 

Dual shook his head. "No, Ultima did."

The sisters both looked at the colt with shocked expressions when they heard that name. "ULTIMA?!?!" Cloudchaser and Flitter's legs started to shake a bit out of fear.

Dual explained himself, confused by their reaction. "Yes? Ultima was his name. He was a dragon...and he looked like a Hobo."

Both sisters struggled to get their wording out. "H-H-Ho...Hobo?!"

The colt nodded his head. Cloudchaser and Flitter both looked at each other and stood up, speaking at the same time again. "Gotta go!" They ran passed the kids and a paper cover pulled down behind them, blocking the view of the coal slide. 

The 12-year-olds looked at each other in confusion as they approached the cover, looking behind it and seeing that the sisters were nowhere in sight. 

"Where'd they go?" asked Virtus, walking behind the cover with Dual as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know..."

They then heard a click behind them and the lights went dark, but the paper cover was lit up like a projector screen. They then heard the voices of Cloudchaser and Flitter as they started doing shadow puppets in front of the light, putting on a small show for the kids.



"T’was the night before Christmas, 
In the year 33’. 
When a Dragon named Ultima wanted to ride for free. 
He was riding on the roof and then the engine started to ride down a steep icy drop,
that headed for a tunnel, a tunnel called Flat Top! 
The train was made to the tunnel and went faster. 
And then Ultima got nervous cuz up ahead was a disaster!
He didn’t have time to holler!!
He didn’t have time to cry!!
He got-"




The flap then quickly went up, the lights turned on, and the twins revealed themselves to the kids. "SWEPT off this train like that step in Georgia swamp in July!!"

Dual and Virtus were confused but continued to listen as Cloudchaser spoke independently. "His ghost still rides this train. Some people believe, that every year at Hearths Warming...on Hearths Warming Eve...you'd see his spirit."

Virtus thought this was silly. "There's no such thing as ghosts."

The sisters pointed to Dual. "But he saw the hobo up on the roof!"

Dual started to think about the story and what he saw on the rooftop. "He did just disappear...right at Flat Top Tunnel..." He looked over at Virtus.

The wolf started to think now, coming up with her own conclusion. "Well...maybe he's an angel; A guardian angel." She looks over at Dual. "Right?"

Dual shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe."

Everyone in the room then heard a distant popping and glass breaking from outside. Cloudchaser looked out the cab window and saw that the lightbulb at the front just popped. 

"Aw dang it!" She looked at Flitter. "Sis, the light broke."

Flitter sighed. "Really? I just fixed that lightbulb." 

Cloudchaser then looked at the kids again while Flitter grabbed a spare lightbulb. "You two, you need to drive the train while we go have a look, just the way we showed you how."

She guided Virtus back to the engineering chair and Dual stood next to her. The sisters then went to the back of the cab to go to the front of the train to fix the light.

But before they went, Cloudchaser and Flitter popped their heads back in, speaking at once again. "And remember, everything you have to do here, you have to do it together!"

The kids looked at each other and nodded with a smile, speaking at the same time now. "Together!"

As the sisters went to the front, Dual looked at the whistle rope; a bit apprehensive about touching it again after what just happened before.

"Y-You think it's okay now?" he asked.

Virtus looked at the rope too, shrugging her shoulders. "I mean, they did fix it, so...it should be fine."

Dual grabbed the rope again and pulled it down, the loud whistle blowing again. He looked and saw that the gauges didn't increase so he smiled brightly as he pulled the whistle again with no trouble whatsoever.

Virtus giggled again as she watched Dual have fun with the whistle, but then they heard faint yelling from outside, making the kids stick their heads out the cab window. 

They both squinted their eyes from the wind but managed to see that It was Cloudchaser trying to get their attention. "STOP THE TRAIN!!! STOP THE TRAIN!!!"

Dual didn't hear what she was saying but Virtus did. "She wants us to stop the train!"

They went back into the cab and Dual looked around at the levers. "Which one is the brake?"

"She told me this was the brake..." Virtus pointed to a small lever.

Dual looked at a red lever. "What about this red one? it looks like a brake..."

"No, she said this one is the brake!" She pointed back at the small lever.

"Are you sure?"

Virtus paused. "Uh..."

"Are you sure?!"

The female wolf pup looked at the levers and just gave up. She slumped down in the seat and covered her face with her hands. Dual sighed and grabbed the red lever getting ready to pull it...but then he started to think. She was in the cab longer than he was...so she did know where the brake was. 

He saw Virtus move a finger from her eye to look at him, he then looked at the small lever she pointed at before and grabbed that instead, twisting it clockwise with both hands. The train then began to screech violently to a stop, the force knocking Dual to the floor, and Virtus quickly grabbed a handrail as the force of the stop made her jump.

Cloudchaser and Flitter were slipping a bit as they both grabbed handguards on the sides, the train fully coming to a stop. They were face to face with a large herd of caribou on the train tracks.

Flitter looked at them in confusion. "Caribou?"

Conductor Shining Armor was then heard yelling. "There can be no Hearth's Warming without The Polar Express arriving on time! Am I the only one who understands that?!" He came down the coal slide and saw Dual Blade. "YOU!!"

Dual quickly got up, as Shining bent down to his level. "I should've known...Dual Blade are you bound and determined to make sure this train never reaches The North Pole??!!"

Virtus looked out the window then at Shining. "But look!"

The white unicorn walked towards Virtus and looked out the window with her, gasping a bit. "Caribou Crossing?!"

Cloudchaser yelled out. "There are a lot of Caribou out here, Mr. Shining!"

Conductor Shining sighed and looked at the kids. "Come on..."

Conductor Shining Armor, Virtus, and Dual all went in front of the train with Cloudchaser and Flitter. 

"What do we do now?" Dual asked.

Flitter looked up at the train bell. "Hm..." She opened her wings and flew up to the bell, ringing it loudly. The Caribou made an elk whine sound at it and they got off the track. 

Flitter smiled and dropped back down, as Shining smiled too. "Problem Solved...All ahead...Slooow!" Cloudchaser and Flitter both nodded as they opened their wings and flew back into the cab as Shining Armor stayed at the front of the train with Virtus and Dual. 

Cloudchaser pulled the whistle and Flitter shoveled coal into the firebox. Cloudchaser then pulled the brake back to its original position and pushed the throttle lever forward. The train hissed and started to move slowly, Dual smiled as he watched the caribou pass by and the train began to gain some speed.





Cloudchaser then tried to pull the throttle lever back a bit to decrease some speed but the lever just clicked, not doing anything. The pegasus mare grunted a bit as she kept trying to pull the lever back, not knowing the cotter pin was loose.





Out in front: Dual, Virtus, and Shining Armor were still standing in front of the train, noticing the train gaining a bit too much speed to their liking. 

"We're going a little too fast..." Dual said.

Shining looked at Virtus. "Tell the girls to slow down..."

Virtus climbed a bit on the small steps and yelled at the top of her lungs at the mares inside the cab, her hair and robe moving in the wind. "Slow down!!!! We're going too fast!!!!"





In the cab, Cloud kept pulling the lever to get it to work but to no avail. She kept pulling and pulling but the lever snapped out of its place and she hit the floor with the lever in her hand, the cotter pin jumping all over the place. "Oh no! Flitter the throttle pin came off!!"

Flitter stopped shoveling. "What?"

"The pin!"

"Where is it?!"

"Right there!" Cloud pointed to the floor and the sisters jumped at it, but the pin slipped into a grate. "Oh no!!"





Virtus looked at The Conductor with a worried look. "They can't hear me!" 

Shining looked at her. "They can't?" When Virtus shook her head, he looked forward and saw two signs that the train passed that made him gasp. 


[DANGER!!! 89-DEGREE GRADE DROP!!]

[USE LOW GEAR!!!!] 


Shining shook his head. "This isn't good...quick get under the safety bar!" Virtus and Dual went under the safety bar and grabbed onto it with both hands, the white stallion went behind Dual and Virtus undoing both of their robe belts.

"Is...Is everything alright?!" Dual asked, a bit afraid. "W-What's going on?!" 

Shining Armor draped one end of the robe belts to the left side of the bar and moved over to the right, tying the other ends of them together on the right side as he explained. "Well...Considering the fact...that we've lost communication with the engineer, we are standing totally exposed at the front of the locomotive-" After tying the ropes to the right of them he shifts over to the left to connect the other end of them to the bar too, surrounding the three of them. 

"The train appears to be accelerating uncontrollably and we're rapidly approaching...Glacier Gulch-" After tying the last end of the robe belt to the bar, he moved behind them and took Dual's glasses off of his face, placing them in his blazer pocket and grabbing the safety bar too, his left hand near Dual's hand and his right hand near Virtus' paw. "Which just so happens to be the steepest downhill grade in the entire world with 89-degree drops...I suggest we all hold on-" 

The train then began to go down a steep slope. "TIGHTLY!!!!!!"

The train went downhill very fast and rollercoaster-like. Dual and Virtus' hair swished violently due to the strong wind that was picking up. 

Both Dual and Shining were screaming their lungs out while Virtus was laughing and 'Whoo-ing' loudly like she was having the time of her life. The train went around crazy sharp bends and vertical drops, but thanks to the robe belts around them, it acted as a strong harness to keep them from falling off. 

Dual closed his eyes as the train dropped down one steep mountain after another and then rattled up the next. In fact, it was amazing that the train was still on the tracks even though it was going deathly fast and using that kind of speed on all of the very heavy 89-degree vertical drops.  

“THIS ISN’T REAL, I’M ONLY DREAMIIIIIIINNNG!!!!!!” yelled Dual at the top of his lungs as he kept feeling the harsh drops of Glacier Gulch, refusing to believe this.





Cloudchaser and Flitter were defying gravity in the cab as they kept trying to get the cotter pin for the throttle. It kept slipping through their fingers as the train went downhill again, the pin flew up into the air and Flitter caught it in her teeth. The train went straight again and Flitter got up from the floor holding the pin in her mouth. "I got it!" 

The train went down another steep vertical drop and Flitter and Cloudchaser went into the air and hit the ceiling, Flitter accidentally swallowed the pin and it got stuck in her throat when she hit the ceiling. The train went straight again and the sisters hit the floor again, Flitter tapping Cloudchaser's leg very quickly and pointing to her throat as she started to choke.