The Polar Express: Dual Blade's Journey to the North Pole

by TwinSwords79

Meeting The Other Passengers

Dual Blade climbed up the steps and looked inside of the train car, seeing a few other kids that ranged from 8 to 12 yrs old, they were all singing a song, they didn't sing that good but it's the effort that counts.

He heard the door close behind him as he walked deeper into the car, looking around he saw an empty seat and sat down.

He looked out the window for a bit then looked at his surroundings, he looked to his left and saw a black female wolf pup look back at him.

She had a fleece bathrobe on just like him, but instead of blue, it was bright red. She had a dark blue nightgown underneath it along with red slippers that were the same color as her robe. She looked to be around his age as she kept staring at him with her cute red eyes, smiling at him.

Dual gave a small smile back at her and looked in front of him, seeing an 11-year-old azure unicorn filly trying to get his attention. "Hey! Hey, you! The colt with the glasses! You know what kind of train this is?"

The colt looked at her confused. "Huh?"

"Train, do you know what kind of train this is? Trixie demands to know if you do!"

Dual Blade shook his head slowly, confused by the fact this filly asked him an out of the blue question. "Uh..."

Then the wolf pup spoke up. "Of course...It's a magic train."

Dual and Trixie looked at the wolf pup as she looked only at Dual Blade with a smile on her face. "We're going to the North Pole."

Trixie swatted her hand down. "Trixie knows that this is a magic train... it's actually a Lima 2-8-4 S3-Class steam locomotive...it was built in 1941 at the Lima locomotive works. It weighs 456,100 pounds and...."

As the unicorn rambled on, Dual looked at the wolf and she just smiles shaking her head with her paw on her cheek.

Dual leans in and whispers. "Are we really going to The North Pole?"

The wolf nodded. "Isn't that incredible?"

Dual nodded slowly. "Yeah...I guess it is...I'm Dual Blade, by the way..."

"Dual Blade...I like that name...I'm Virtus."

Dual lightly chuckled. "I like your name too."

Virtus giggled as Trixie looks at them after she finished rambling. "Hey, were you ignoring The Great and Powerful Trixie?"

Before either kid could answer they heard a door open and close loudly, The Conductor talking out loud to everyone. "Greetings ladies and gentlemen, for anyone who doesn't know; I am Shining Armor, the conductor of this locomotive, and I will be your guide for the rest of the trip." He said to everyone. "Now everyone please take your seats and have your tickets out."

Every kid in the passenger car sat down at their seats as The Conductor, who's name was Shining Armor, approached Dual Blade first.

He took out a ticket puncher from his blazer pocket and clicked it twice. "Ticket please..."

"Uh...I don't have a ticket..." Dual nervously said.

"Try your robe pocket," Shining suggested.

Dual puts his hand in his right pocket but his index and middle finger went into the small hole he accidentally made when rushing out of his room, Shining rolled his eyes a bit. "Try your 'other' pocket..."

The turquoise blue colt listened and puts his hand in his left pocket, he then felt something in there and he took it out, revealing it to be a golden ticket with a picture of the train on it along with the numbers 0001225, he turned it around and saw that it had the words 'Round Trip' on the back of it in bold lettering and 'The Polar Express' in script at the top, at the bottom was a sleigh bell.

"H-How did-" Dual began before looking at the white unicorn, seeing he had his hand out waiting for Dual's ticket to be put in it. "Oh r-right..."

Dual slowly put his ticket in Shining's hand and he grabbed it with a smile. "Thank you, sir."

He then started to punch the 12-year-old colt's ticket rapidly with his ticket puncher, a bunch of ticket dots falling onto the colt as he spits one out of his mouth. Once he finished punching his ticket, he gave it back to Dual. "Thank you"

As Shining moved on to the other passengers, Dual Blade takes a look at his ticket with confusion. Seeing that the punches the unicorn made on his ticket was actually two letters which were a B in the beginning and an E at the end.

"Why does it have-" Dual began to ask himself before Trixie walked up to him.

"Hm...Trixie thinks Mr. Armor likes showing off..." She showed Dual her ticket. "Look what he's punched on Trixie's ticket..."

Dual tilts his head. "L-E? What does that mean?"

"Trixie doesn't know...what did you get on yours?"

"B-E, see?" Dual shows his ticket to Trixie.

"Hm...what do these letters mean?" The filly asked him, the colt shrugged his shoulders.

They then heard a public speaker screech as Shining spoke into the radio. "Next stop...2004 Cavern…"

Trixie goes to her seat and opens up her window to look outside, her mane slightly moving as the train slowly stopped. Dual sees a small house outside the window and he opens up his window too, looking outside.

They watched Conductor Shining step out of the train and looked at a young 11-year-old gray male wolf pup. The wolf's hair, tail, and paws were all dark red while his fur was a light gray. He wore dark green PJs with brown slippers

The Conductor begins talking to the pup as Trixie talked to Dual. "Meh...It's just another pickup...That's funny, Trixie thought you were the last one..."

Dual watched Shining Armor smile at the wolf, hearing him. "Why to the North Pole, of course!" The stallion lifted up his hand and motioned it to the train. "THIS IS THE POLAR EXPRESS!!!"

The pup backed up, not wanting to go, Shining nodded. "Suit yourself.." He gets on and waved his lantern, the train whistled in response and the locomotive jerked Dual back a bit as it began to move.

He watched the pup and waved at him when he looked at him. Then before the train started to pick up speed, the wolf started to run towards the handrail as Dual did before.

Dual spoke into the car. "Hey, that kid wants to get on..." He looked back outside as he saw the wolf struggling. "Come on!"

The wolf managed to grab the rail but the train was moving faster, Dual continuing to shout. "Pull yourself on! Hurry up!!!"

The train was moving too fast for him as he couldn't hold on anymore, he let go of the rail and tripped, face-planting into the snow.

Dual gasped and went back into the train, looking at Virtus. "We have to stop the train!"

Virtus pointed to her right. "The emergency brake is right there!"

The turquoise blue colt ran to the brake and grabbed it with two hands, pulling the cord down hard. The train screeched loudly and made a very immediate stop, everyone in the passenger car fell to the ground due to the force of the stop. Dual landed on Virtus and they both fell to the floor as Trixie and the rest of the kids fell to the floor by not bumping into anyone.

Once the train stopped Dual got off of Virtus and he helped her up. "You ok?"

Virtus rubbed her head and nodded. "Y-Yeah...Dual look!" She pointed to the door and Dual turned around looking at the wolf who finally got on board.

The blue pegasus tried to wave at him but he just turned around and went into the observation car to sit alone. Dual looked at Virtus and she just shrugged her shoulders in response.

Then they heard a sliding door open very violently behind them, showing Shining Armor and he was not happy one bit. "Who in the blazes applied that emergency brake!!??" He slammed the door behind him in anger.

Trixie pointed to Dual Blade. "He did!"

"Trixie!" Virtus said as the white unicorn stallion looked at Dual.

"You..." He walked over to the pegasus as he spoke angrily. "In case you didn't know Dual, that cord is for emergency purposes only!"

He went to the window Dual was at and waved outside. "And if you hadn't noticed..." He closed the window and looked at Dual again. "Tonight is Hearth's Warming Eve and this train is on a very tight schedule...now young stallion, Hearth's Warming may not be important to some creatures...but it is very important to the rest of us!!"

Dual tried to explain himself but he couldn't put it into words. "But- But- But- But-"

"He was just trying to stop the train so that pup could get on!" Virtus interjected, standing up for him herself.

The Conductor looked at Virtus and then out the circular window on the green sliding door, seeing the young wolf sit at the far end of the car. "Hm...young stallion is that what happened?"

Dual and Virtus nodded together at him, Shining then nodded once in response, deciding to let this incident slide. "Well...let me remind you two...we are on a very tight schedule..." He looks at his pocket watch and goes over to the radio speaker. "I've never been late before and I will certainly not be late tonight...now everybody take your seats, please!!"

Everyone listened as Shining smiled. "Thank you..."