The train raced down one last mountain and once it reached the bottom, Dual finally opened his eyes. He then looked forward with a squint, noticing that there was something wrong with the tracks up ahead. “WHAT’S THAT?!!??”
Conductor Shining Armor squinted and gasped when he saw what was up ahead. "THE ICE HAS FROZEN OVER THE TRACKS!!!"
Virtus gasped too, having stopped laughing. "WHAT?!?!" The train getting closer to the frozen-over tracks.
"HANG ON!!!!"
The train screeched as it went onto the frozen lake and off the tracks. Dual, Virtus, and Shining screamed as the train was slithering like a snake on the frozen lake, the cars swerving left and right with loud screeches.
Cloudchaser was behind Flitter and had her arms wrapped around her sister's front, pushing her ribs in with her arms since she was choking on a cotter pin. One final push caused Flitter to finally spit out the pin but it launched out of the cab window and it punctured the ice, the ice begins to crack.
"ARE WE GONNA BE OK??!!" asked Dual, his mane still moving like crazy as he looked at Shining.
"WE'LL BE FINE, AS LONG AS WE HAVE THE SAFETY BAR!!!"
The train then headed straight for an iceberg and hit it head-on really hard, the ice broke the safety bar and tilted the train to the right. Virtus was on the right and she slipped over the edge.
Shining slid and grabbed onto her right arm quickly to keep her from falling off the train as she was screaming bloody murder with fear while dangling a bit. Dual grabbed onto the white stallion's blazer and grabbed a handrail, keeping Virtus and the white stallion from falling.
The handrail was too icy for Dual to hang onto, so his hand was slowly slipping away, but before he could fully let go, someone else grabbed his wrist, keeping them from falling off from a fast-moving train. The colt looked behind him with a squint, due to Shining still having his glasses, but he managed to make out who the creature was: it was Ultima.
The red dragon put his index finger up to his mouth. "Shhhh..."
Dual looked forward and with Ultima's help, he pulled as hard as he could, making the train stand upright along with getting Virtus back onto the platform, Shining Armor holding her close to him. The colt looked at Ultima again and smiled a bit, the dragon winking at him and disappearing into the wind before Virtus or Shining could see him.
"Young man, you got quite a strong grip there!!!" The white unicorn stallion said as Dual looked at him.
"We lost the pin!!" Flitter said. "What do we do?!"
Cloudchaser looked around and gasped, reaching behind her mane and unclipping her hairpin from it. Her hair dropped down past her shoulders and she looked at the pin, looking back at her twin sister. "Keep shoveling the fireplace!! I got this!"
Flitter nodded and went back to shoveling coal as Cloudchaser put the throttle lever back into place and slipped her hairpin into the hole where the cotter pin once was. She then grabbed the throttle lever and pulled it with all of her might towards her with a grunt, the lever successfully working.
The train screeched very loudly and the whole train turned around, rolling backward. The engine tilted a bit which caused Conductor Shining to grab both Dual and Virtus to keep them from slipping off. The train then finally slowly skidded to a stop on the ice lake.
The train tilted to the right, making the 3 of them lose their balance a bit as they neared the right edge, Shining telling the two kids. "Move to the left! Move to the left!" The train tilted to the left and it slammed down into the ice, Dual and Virtus nearly falling off as Shining Armor kept holding them. The engine finally stood upright and the train hissed, making all three of them sigh in complete and utter relief.
Dual and Virtus tied their robe belts back around them as Shining placed Dual's glasses back on his face along with fixing his hat and blazer. "That's more like it..."
The 12-year-olds finally finished closing their robes as Dual breathed heavily. "W-What just happened?!"
"Yeah...why did we lose control when we went down those mountains and went onto this lake!?" Virtus asked, terrified just as much as the colt was.
Conductor Shining shook his head. "I don't know...Come on." He led them to the top of the engine, letting them go up the ladder first before climbing up himself and standing up. He leads them over to the cab hatch and he opened it up, looking down at Cloudchaser and Flitter who were breathing heavily. "What in the Name of The Lord were you two doing?! You could've gotten us all killed!!"
The sisters looked up, Cloudchaser spoke. "We're sorry, Mr. Armor...The throttle pin was loose, but don't worry we managed to get it fixed..."
They then heard a loud cracking sound which made them all look around for the source. Dual found it first, seeing a huge crack stretch across the ice, his pupils turned into pinpricks as he pointed out. "LOOK!!!" Shining and Virtus looked to where he was pointing at and they both gasped the cracks coming towards them opened up and water splashed loudly, Shining Armor looking back in the cab.
"GET US THE BLAZES OUT OF HERE!!!!!"
Cloudchaser looked and pulled the Johnson Bar towards her, which caused the train to spin its wheels and slide a bit on the ice but it did manage to reverse, the ice getting a bit too close to them. The white stallion looked back in. "Turn this sled around!!"
Cloud twisted the brake lever clockwise and pushed the Johnson lever forward a bit. The train's wheels halted and stopped, but the train screeched very violently on the ice as Dual and Virtus held on to the cab roof and Shining was waving his arms a bit, slightly losing his balance. Cloudchaser turned the brake counter-clockwise and pushed the Johnson lever all the way forward.
The train's wheels started spinning again, the locomotive swinging itself around and moving forward on the ice. Dual and Virtus' hair went back to moving like crazy in the wind, The wolf pointed forward and shouted. "Look over there!!!"
Shining looked at what she was pointing at and he gasped at what he saw. "Tracks!!! Dead ahead!!!" There were train tracks right in the middle of an ice crevice a few distances away.
The train started to skid a bit too much to the left so the white stallion yelled. "RIGHT!!" Cloudchaser pulled the Johnson lever towards her, turned the lever under the brake counter-clockwise, and pulled the throttle towards her. The wheels screeched and skidded to the right, but it went a bit far. "LEFT!!!" Cloudchaser pushed The Johnson lever forward, turned the other brake lever clockwise, and pushed the throttle lever forward, the large wheels screeched again and the train skidded to the left.
"RIGHT!!!" Shining yelled again. The mare pulled the Johnson lever towards her, turned the lever under the brake counter-clockwise, and pulled the throttle towards her again, The train skidding to the right again.
"HANG A LOUIE!!" The train skidded to the left. "TOSS A RITCHIE!!!" The train skidded to the right.
The wind picked up and it went under Dual's right black slipper, making it fly off of his foot. "My slipper!!" He grabbed it but noticed that it was the slipper he hid a ticket under and saw it flying around.
"You're gonna lose your ticket!!" Virtus yelled.
"It's not my ticket, it's yours!!"
"It's MY ticket?!?!"
"Yes!!" Both kids reached their hands out to try and grab Virtus' ticket before it flew away.
"Girls we're almost there! Keep up with me! LEFT!!!" Conductor Shining screamed, Cloudchaser made the train skid to the left and followed the white unicorn's orders. "RIGHT!!!! LEFT!!!! RIGHT!!!! LEFT!!!!" As Shining Armor kept shouting directions, Dual and Virtus were struggling to get the ticket. They reached for it before the wind managed to blow it too far and they both grabbed it at the same time.
But once they looked behind them, the cracking ice caught up to the train and broke under the cars as both kids screamed. "OH NO!!!" Shining looked back as the water under the ice was splashing on the train and was dragging it underwater.
"BRACE YOURSELVES!!!!!!" Shining, Dual, and Virtus grabbed something on top of the engine. But as soon as the ice cracked under the entire train, the wheels hit the tracks perfectly with large sparks and screeches. The train successfully made it to the other side, riding the tracks at a smooth speed.
Conductor Shining got up and smiled, fixing his blazer and hat as he nodded. "That's more like it..." He then jumped down the cab hatch as Virtus hugged Dual Blade very tightly. "Ooh Thank you Dual! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I can't believe you found my ticket for me...that's so sweet."
Dual wrapped his arms around her, returning the hug. "It's no problem at all, Virtus.
"Did I hear someone say they found a ticket?" The kids looked back and saw it was Shining Armor sticking his body through the cab hatch. The 12-year-old kids both nodded and Conductor Shining smiled. "Well in that case-" He took out his puncher from his blazer pocket and showed it to the kids. "Tickets, please." Virtus and Dual smiled as the wolf finally handed her ticket to Shining.
The Conductor began to punch Virtus' ticket for her and during the punches, gold dots flew onto his face due to the wind, which caused him to spit them out in response. Once he finishes punching her ticket he blows on it to make sure the stray punch dots are gone and he hands it back to Virtus. "Thank you." He goes back into the cab as Virtus looks at her ticket with Dual.
"L-E..." Virtus read. Dual noticing something.
"Hey, Trixie got that on her ticket too..." Virtus looked back at Dual and smiled as she puts her ticket away in her robe pocket. She then gave the colt a peck on the cheek and lightly put her head on his shoulder.
Dual blushed in response as he wrapped his left arm around her and his head rested onto hers softly, both of their hair continuing to flow peacefully in the wind.