//------------------------------// // Runaway Car // Story: The Polar Express: Dual Blade's Journey to the North Pole // by TwinSwords79 //------------------------------// The train finally arrives at The North Pole as Conductor Shining smiles brightly from between the passenger cars after taking Virtus and Dual back to their seats. "WE MADE IT!!! WITH 5 MINUTES TO SPARE!! WE MADE IT!!" He looks at his pocket watch as he kept smiling and laughed a bit. He walked back onto the train after putting his watch away. Dual, Virtus and the rest of the kids were looking out the window, the female wolf squinting her eyes. "Shouldn't there be elves? Where are the elves?" The kids agreed as Conductor Shining replied. "There are gathering at the center of the square...that's where Santa will give The First Gift of Hearth's Warming. Trixie looked away from the window at Shining. "Who gets The First Gift of Hearth's Warming?" "He will choose...one of you..." The kids on the train gasped and got really excited, But Dual wasn't really that excited about it. There are a lot of kids on the train, his chances of getting the gift are pretty much nil. "Look! Elves!" A little dragoness shouted. Everyone looked outside and saw millions of little pony elves marching forward to a big giant Hearth's Warming tree. The train slowly slid to a stop and the whistle blew loudly, they were finally at The North Pole. "Alright kids, please watch your steps when getting off and make two lines over there," Shining stated, taking each hand from the younger passengers and guiding them off the train. The ages he helped were 7-9 while 10-12 got off on their own. Virtus and Dual looked around in amazement when they got off the train. Shining kept directing the kids that were lining up. "Shorter in the front, taller in the back. Even day numbered birthdays on the right, odd-numbered on the left. No pushing please, children... let's not dilly dally its 5 minutes to midnight!" Trixie walked up to Shining. "Hey, what gives? It was '5 minutes till midnight' 5 minutes ago!" Conductor Shining looked at her while taking out his pocket watch, he looked at it then pointed at Trixie. "Exactly!" Trixie arched her eyebrow due to the fact that Shining just avoided her statement. Shining walked past her and walked towards Virtus and Dual. "Dual, you're in Line One...Virtus, you're in Line Two." "Excuse me..." Virtus said, Shining looking at her. "Question?" The 12-year-old pup pointed behind her at the male wolf who was still in the last car. "What about him?" Shining looked at the 11-year-old male wolf still in the observation car and he looked back at Virtus again. "If you want to wait on the train till we get home, you're welcome to..." He goes back to the other kids and keeps talking to them. "Now ladies and gentlemen...you don't have to hold hands if you don't want to, but please remain in two neatly straight lines." Virtus groaned a bit and patted Dual's shoulder. "Come on." Dual watched her run to the observation car's side steps then followed her quickly. Trixie watched them run back into the train and she squinted her eyes at them. "Really? Where are those two going this time?" While running to the steps, Dual slipped a bit when he put his foot on the first step, but he picked himself up and stepped on something for leverage but when he put his weight on it, it made a loud clang and made a crackling sound, like a couple of ice falling. He looked around for the noise until he just shrugged and climbed into the observation car. Virtus opened up the brown sliding door and Dual closed it behind them. Walking over to the lone wolf. "Look, you have to come with us..." Virtus told him, Dual nodded in agreement. "Hearth's Warming never worked out for me...it never has..." The wolf replied, looking down. "But Hearth's Warming is such a wonderful and beautiful time, it's about giving and sharing the love with friends and family as we celebrate when all of our races reunited with The Fire of Friendship. Creatures hang up decorations and lights for the occasion and then Santa comes and leaves presents under our Hearth's Warming trees!" "Hearth's Warming...just doesn't work out for me...I don't have friends and my family is just so busy most of the time...I feel like it's hard to even count on them to take care of me...because....they're never here...I'm all alone..." "You're not alone...we're your friends..." Dual replied, the wolf looked up at him with slightly watery eyes. "Listen...you don't want to be alone anymore? Then come with us...don't stay here by yourself..." "He's right..." Virtus added. "Come on...We'll go together." She held her hand out towards the lonely wolf. The wolf smiled at her and before he could grab her hand, the car moved slightly, making them wobble a bit. As the lights inside the car flickered off, Dual looked at the door he and Virtus entered from and he jogged over to it. He swung the blue doorknob door open and he saw that the observation car was uncoupled from the rest of the train! "W-What's going on?!" Virtus asked Dual, who looked back at her. "The car uncoupled!" "What?!" The lone wolf said, getting up quickly. Dual ran back to them and nodded. "Yeah!" Virtus ran over to the rear balcony and opened up the door, grabbing the handlebar as Dual and the male wolf did the same, the train car was slowly rolling on the track behind the rest of the train. "Don't worry...I'm sure we'll be ok..." A front wheel then ran over a safety box which caused the junction system to buzz and switch tracks, sending the car down a very steep slope. "OH DEAR GOD!!!!!!!!!!" The car was picking up a lot of speed as it went down the large steep slope like a roller coaster, the train car’s wheels beginning to rapidly rattle along the tracks. The car slightly tilted and screeched very loudly as Dual, Virtus, and the lonely wolf's hair and clothing were swishing around violently in the hard wind the car was picking up. "THE EMERGENCY BRAKE!!!!" Dual yelled. "THE EMERGENCY BRAKE!!!!" He turned around and quickly tried to go back to the other door as Virtus and the other wolf stayed where they were, their paws gripping the bar very tightly. Dual looked around as best as he could, yelling out. "THERE'S NO BRAKE!!!! HOW DO WE STOP THIS CRAZY THIIIIIING!?!?" Dual reached to the other door and grabbed the doorframe with both hands, looking down at the blurring tracks and hearing the car rattle on it super fast, his mane and robe continued to move around violently in the strong wind as he heard a clang next to the door. He looked at it, seeing a familiar face sitting on top of the car. It was Ultima, holding a pitcher and a cup. "Hey tiny pone, how's it going? You look like you could use a break, you look stressed out...How about some coffee?" He poured some coffee into the cup with a bit of trouble considering the speed of the car and when he tried to lower it to Dual, a tunnel came out of nowhere and the top of it hit him head-on, spilling the cup and the pitcher onto the tracks as the colt looked away, not wanting to see. The tunnel was very dark inside as the car continued to rattle too fast, Virtus and The lonely wolf's screams echoed in the tunnel. Dual looked at what Ultima was hitting and saw it was a wheel. He reached into the darkness and grabbed it with his left hand while gripping the door frame with his right, beginning to turn it. Sure enough, the wheels were sparking and screeching, he found the car's brake. Virtus and the lonely wolf kept screaming as the car kept speeding through the tunnel as Dual was turning the wheel, the wheels continuing to spark and screech loudly. The car made it to the end of the tunnel and they see a bumper with a red light in front of them. "We're gonna crash!!" yelled Virtus. The car crashed head-first into the bumper, making Virtus and the wolf nearly go over the bar as they jolted forward. Dual on the other hand, nearly flew off the car when the car crashed, his legs flew over the edge and he found them dangling as he held onto the brake with one hand. He swung himself back into the car and he went over to the two wolves who were on the platform sitting down with their backs on the bars. "Hey...you alright?" Virtus nodded and slowly stood up, her paw on her stomach. "Y-Yeah, we're ok..." She then proceeded to help the other wolf to his feet, his paw on his head. Dual looked around saw they were on a turntable in the middle of 4 tracks leading into 4 different tunnels. "Where are we?" The two wolves looked around as well, Virtus jumping over the railing. "Wait...you hear that?" "Hear what?" "The sleigh bell.." She pointed to a tunnel, as Dual jumped over the railing while the lonely wolf walked out of the car from the other door. "Over there, It's coming from that tunnel!” Virtus grabbed Dual’s hand and ran with him to the track leading to the tunnel while the lonely wolf followed close behind. They stopped when the track had huge gaps that were too huge to jump over, they couldn’t walk any further unless they wanted to fall. “What now?” Dual asked. “I’m not good at balancing and I can’t fly us over to the tunnel because you’ll be too heavy for me...” Virtus waved it off. “Don’t worry about it...grab on...” She grabbed Dual’s hand and placed it on her left shoulder, the male wolf grabbed her right. The female wolf picked up her left paw and snapped her fingers. In one quick ‘swoop’ the three kids were on the other side of the tracks and the tunnel. Dual and the lonely wolf looked at the somehow magic female pup with shocked expressions. She just smiled in response. “H-How...d-d-did...we j-just..huh???” Dual tried to spit out but couldn’t put it into words. Virtus continues to smile. “I’m a demon goddess...got magical powers,” Virtus replies with a smile, Dual, and the lonely male wolf tilted their heads. “Huh???” Dual and the wolf said at the same time. “It’s fine...as long as no one provokes me...I’m completely harmless and playful.” Virtus sticks her tongue out at the boys. “Now come one...I think the sleigh bell is this way...” She started to run to where the bell sound was, as the boys shook their heads and followed her.