//------------------------------//
// On Your Way Home 
// Story: The Polar Express: Dual Blade's Journey to the North Pole 
// by TwinSwords79 
//------------------------------//

At the train, Conductor Shining was punching all of the kids' tickets again, this time turning the letters he punched when they got on into full words now. While that was going on, four elves managed to find the observation car and take it back to the train, coupling it back up to it.

It was Trixie's turn to get her ticket punched, Shining grabbed the ticket and punched the rest of the letters on it for the word that had 'L-E' in it and gave the golden ticket back to her. The azure pony looked at it confused as she read the word. "LEAN...what's that supposed to mean?" Shining took her ticket again and he places his fingers in the position hers' was. 

"LEAN is spelled with four-letters...I believed that I punched five..." He showed her what her actual word was by moving his thumb away from a letter she was covering, apparently, Trixie's ticket spelled the word 'LEARN', her finger was covering the 'R' which made it 'LEAN'.

Trixie snatched her ticket out of Shining's hand. "HEY! Are you saying Trixie doesn't know how to-" She looked at her ticket again and realized her mistake. "Oh...Tri-...I mean...I'm sorry, it says LEARN..." The pony climbed onto the train as Shining nodded.

"Lesson Learned..." He looked down and saw it was Dark's turn. "Ticket.." The male wolf handed his ticket to Shining and he began punching the rest of the letters for his word that had 'O-N' in it, he gave it back to the wolf and the 11-year-old read his ticket.

"COUNT ON?" Dark asked.

"Yes...I'm well aware that you have a bit of trouble with that...but I have to ask." Shining went on one knee to look at him in the eyes. "Can you count on us to get you home safe and sound, little one?"

Dark nodded. "Absolutely...me..." He looked behind him at Dual and Virtus. "And my new friends..."  The white stallion nodded with a smile and stood up, letting Dark climb aboard, seeing that it was Virtus' turn now.

"Ticket." Virtus handed her ticket in and Shining punched the rest of the letters on it for the word that had 'L-E' in it and gave the golden ticket back to her.

Virtus looked at it. "It says LEAD (led)...like a lead balloon?"

"Hm...that's funny cuz it can also be pronounced...LEAD (leed)...ya know as in Leader, Leadership, or LEAD the way." He gave her a salute and smiled. "I'll follow you anywhere ma'am." 

The female wolf smiled and climbed onto the train, The Conductor saw that Dual Blade was the last one and sighed a bit. "Ah yes...The young stallion who enjoys trouble and asks too many questions..." He held his hand out. "Ticket..." 

Dual gave his ticket to Shining but instead of punching it where he can see it, Shining decided to put his hands behind his back and punch the colt's ticket while looking straight into his eyes. After finishing adding more letters to Dual's 'B-E' he gave his ticket back to the colt.

The colt looked at his ticket, seeing the word on it. 


"I-It says-"

"D'oh!!" Shining interrupted the colt before he can finish. "I don't need to know that..." 

All Dual did in return was smile at him, nodding his head as he climbed back onto the train.





The turquoise colt walked into the passenger car and everyone was waiting for him, basically surrounding him, Virtus grabbed his wrist and guided him to a seat. "Come on Dual, show us the bell!"

"Yeah, let's see it!" Trixie agreed. Dual was more than happy to show them the bell he got, but when he checked the pocket he put it into his index and middle finger went into the small hole he accidentally made when rushing out of his room at the beginning of the journey. He couldn't believe what he just had done...he put the bell in the wrong pocket and it slipped out of the hole!!

Dual was devastated. "I-It's gone..."

"Where is it?" The kids asked. 

"I-I lost it...I lost the bell from Santa's sleigh..." The train then started to move, jerking the kids back a bit. 

Virtus was just as sad as Dual. "I'm so sorry, Dual..." The young colt let out a small tear in response as the kids separated from him and sat down in seats, some of them falling asleep along with Virtus a few minutes later who laid her head onto Dual's shoulder.





A few hours went by and Virtus woke up from the small nap she had, she looked around and saw that Dual left his seat. She yawned and stood up, stretching her legs a bit before she saw the colt through the slide doors circular window. She slowly tiptoed over to the door and opened it slowly so she wouldn't wake the kids sleeping.





Dual was leaning forward on the back platform, his elbow resting on the bar and his hand resting on his cheek. The small breeze blew through his black mane a little bit as he stared into the night's sky. 

Virtus opened up the door to the balcony slowly and smiled a little. "H-Hey..." Dual looked at her.

"Hey..."

"May I join you?"

"Sure..." 

Virtus went onto the balcony with him, her hair now slightly moving in the wind as she looked at the colt. "Listen, I'm sorry about the bell...it was a wonderful present"

Dual shook his head. "It was....but it's not your fault...it's mine for being so stupid..."

"Why do you say that? You're not stupid.."

"I lost the one thing that was given to me by Santa himself from his hand...and I lost it..." Virtus placed her paw on his back. 

"It's just a bell Dual, don't worry about it..."

"It wasn't just any bell...it was the bell from Santa's real sleigh...when you hear it ring, then you can hear it, it means you believe in the true magic of Hearths Warming..."

"Dual, you don't need a bell to believe in the true magic of Hearths Warming..." Virtus turned Dual around and poked at his chest. "The true spirit of believing lies within your heart...believe in what you feel inside and you'll find it all on Hearths Warming Day.

"Heh...Thanks, Virtus...I don't know what I'd do without you..." Dual said, blushing slightly, but it could've just been how cold it was. "It just makes me a bit sad that...we might not see each other again after the train drops me off at my house..."

Virtus started to think then smiled. "Ya know...how about I can give you something to remember me by..."

"What's that?" 

The female wolf grabbed Dual and blushed a bit. "This..." 

She then leaned in and kissed the turquoise colt straight on the lips. Dual's face turned really bright red as Virtus kissed him, but his eyes slowly closed and he kissed her back, his arms wrapping around her into a hug. The kiss they shared lasted for 3 minutes before they separated, smiling at each other with blushes.

Virtus giggled. "You good?" Dual nodded slowly, which in response caused the wolf to kiss him on the lips again which the colt gladly accepted, they kept kissing in the moonlight as the wind continued to blow through their hair peacefully.





They went back to their seats in the passenger a few minutes later as the train finally stopped and they were in front of Dark's house. The 11-year-old wolf got up from his seat and walked over to where Dual and Virtus sat to say his goodbyes. He held out his paw towards Dual with a smile.  "Thanks for stopping the train for me..." Dual shook his paw with a smile as Virtus got up and hugged Dark tightly.

"Happy Hearths Warming..."

"Thank you guys for being my first friends..." Dark replied, hugging her back and walking off the train, Shining already outside waiting for him. 

"Watch your step please," Shining said, smiling at the wolf. "Happy Hearths Warming."  The wolf looked at his house and pointed at it, looking at Shining. The white stallion gave him a single nod and beckoned his hand toward the house, signaling him that he's free to go back home. Dark smiled brightly and ran to his house, opening the door.

The train started to move again as Virtus got Dual's attention. "Hey look! Santa got to Dark's house already!" After saying that, the two saw Dark run back outside but this time he was holding the present they found when they were in Santa's bag, a huge smile was on the 11-year-old's face. 

"LOOK LOOK!!! DUAL, VIRTUS!! SANTA GOT HERE!!!" Dark yelled. "I HAVE THE PRESENT!!!"

Dual smiled. "Wow...that's incredible..." Dark's yelling slowly faded as the train went past his house, Virtus smiling and placing her head on the colt's shoulder again.





The train finally pulled up in front of Dual's house, it was time for the colt to go home after his long journey. Dual was followed by Virtus and Trixie as they looked at his house.

Trixie gave a single pat to Dual's back. "Hey...we're sorry about the bell, Dual...It would've been cool seeing it." Dual gave a small nod as Virtus spoke to him now.

"But hey...it's the thought of it that counts...also remember what I said before, right?"

The 12-year-old colt nodded. "Yeah..."

"Well...See ya..." Trixie said, giving Dual a hug before going back into the passenger car. Virtus and Dual smiled at each other.

"See ya...I'm gonna miss you Virtus..." Dual said, a bit sad.

"I'll miss you too Dual Blade...I'll never forget you..." Virtus replied, giving him a quick peck on his lips along with a hug, the colt accepted both of them with a smile.

Dual sighed and stepped down off the train, Shining was outside waiting for him. "Watch your step please..." 

The colt looked up at the stallion. "Thank you."

"No...Thank You" Shining said back, the colt continued to look at him as the white stallion smiled. "One thing about trains: It doesn't matter where you're going...what matters is deciding...to get on." He then gave the colt a wink which made Dual smile.





Dual walked into his house and heard Shining say something but he couldn't hear him. "What?"

"HAPPY HEARTHS WARMING!!!!" Shining shouted, giving the colt a salute which made Dual do it back at him. He looked up at the train's roof and saw Ultima playing his hurdy-gurdy by his makeshift fireplace, the dragon smiled at him and waved goodbye to him as well. Dual sadly waved back at him and watched Ultima turn to dust and blow away into the wind for the final time.

What he saw last hurt him the most, he saw Virtus was on the back balcony waving goodbye to him, Dual waved back at her very sadly, seeing her go smaller and smaller as the train was gone.

Dual slowly closed his front door and put his hand in his broken pocket, feeling the hole again as he looked around his living room, it was exactly the way it was before he left: The tree was still empty, the stockings were still empty, and the cookies and milk he told his sister to put out still remained untouched.

The colt sighed and climbed up the stairs, going into his room, and was surprised to see that everything was back to normal, his pencil holder was back on his desk, his framed pictures were back up, and his alarm clock was back on his nightstand.

When he looked at the time on the clock it read 12:01 AM and the red hand was moving again. It was as if the train never actually showed up at his house. Which made him sigh again, was all this really just a dream?

Dual decided not to think about it and just hanged his robe back upon his bedpost, along with taking off his slippers and placing his glasses on his nightstand. The colt climbed into bed and took one last look at the night sky before finally falling asleep.