The rest of the deliveries went smoothly. There were no murderous pets in sight, and they only ran into a few more night owls. After another day in a half, they were on their way back to the North Pole. They couldn't sleep on the way back because they still had to drink the potions to prevent them from being ripped to shreds by the wind, but they were all less tense than when they had been delivering presents. Penny pulled the sleigh onto the landing platform smoothly, and the trio hopped down from the sleigh in unison, surrounded by cheering elves. Sparkle ran up to them, sporting puffy red eyes.

"You actually did it! I can't believe you actually did it! I never doubted you for a second, of course." Penny snorted, feeling the last potion wear off as she did so.

"Right, so you're all teary-eyed from our stellar performance?" Sparkle sniffed and waved her away before turning to go find a tissue. As he walked away, Santa hobbled up on a pair of crutches.

"Don't mind him, he gets cranky when he's tired. You did a fantastic job. I hope Leonid didn't give you too much trouble. He is on the naughty list for a reason." Nita gasped loudly.

"You remember him? That little chi-"

"No trouble at all!" Dynamike cut in, placing his hand over Nita's mouth. Santa chuckled at their antics.

"That's good to hear." The man straightened up as much as he could. " Now, down to business. Nita Littlefoot and Dynamike Rogers, I hereby clear you of any debt you have to the north pole and induct you as honorary members of the prestigious Order of Clauses. You should keep those outfits, in case you are ever needed again. But for now, you can banish them just by thinking about it. '' Nita quickly squeezed her eyes shut, and after a few seconds, her reindeer outfit was replaced by her normal dress. Bruce underwent a similar undressing, seeing as his magic was directly connected to Nita's. Mike followed suit, and was soon back in his everyday outfit. Penny sighed from behind them, and Nita and Dynamike could see that her elf outfit was gone, replaced by her signature stripes shirt and baggy pants. She was stretching, an occasional faint popping noise coming from one of her joints or another.

"Traveling around the entire world in a day gives you a God-awful ache in your bones." Santa nodded.

"Yes, you all should go. Your families will be waking up soon."

Penny stepped up to the spirit of Christmas. She pointed to a set of boxes nearby, "Can we talk? Privately?"

The two drifted away from the main celebration. Nita tried to focus on their speech but the celebrating elves drowned all other sounds. The ocean of songs was too much for her to ignore.

Penny shortly returned with a simple smile, "Ready to go?"

Nita yawned as the three turned to go find the teleporter. Stepping on the large platform, Penny pulled out her phone to activate it. Pressing her finger to the button on her phone, the trio of Santas finally went home.

Colt was woken up on Christmas morning by Spike pushing at his arm. The little cactus was followed by Shelly, who was holding two cups of coffee. He smiled gratefully and took the cup, the scent of the drink already helping to wake him up.

Spike dashed out to the living room, with Shelly and Colt slogging along behind him, still half asleep. They all smiled when they saw the gifts sitting under the tree. Colt set his coffee down on a side table and walked over to a mirror leaned against the wall. "I'm going to assume this one is for me. Don't I look great, Shell?"

"Mmm, sure," she replied, curling up in a chair with her coffee. Colt stuck his tongue out at her and turned back to the mirror to admire his reflection. Stuck to the corner was a red-and-green striped sticky note. Colt pulled it off the frame and read the writing on it.

"'Merry Christmas Red' hey, this kind of looks like Penny's handwriting!"

Shelly spoke up from her chair. "How do you know Penny's handwriting?"

"She isn't very good at forgeries."

"Ah." Shelly took a long sip of her coffee. "Couldn't be hers though."

"Why?"

"She would have broken the mirror."

At Bull's diner, the employees were all wearing Santa hats. Cheerful music filled the air, and the restaurant was packed with families eating Christmas breakfast.

Bibi was sitting in the kitchen, staring at one of her presents. It was a large bear tooth, with a length of leather cord tied to it.

"I dunno sis, was there a note or somethin?" Bull asked as he walked by, tying on a brand-new apron emblazoned with his symbol.

"Nah, not that I saw."

"Check the inside of the paper, maybe?" Crow said from where he was seated. "That's how we used to pass notes in the gang. Doesn't raise a whole lotta suspicion.." Bibi pulled out the paper that had been sloppily covering the gift and sure enough, there was a note on the inside.

'For ur bat, luv' The word 'Nita' was scribbled out, replaced with 'Santa Claws'.

Bibi smiled at the small note before folding the paper and putting it back in her pocket.

"Alright, I got my answers. We should get back to work."

If anyone noticed the bear tooth swinging next to the ball on the end of her bat the next day, nobody said anything.

Gale stretched and yawned as he walked out to the lobby, mentally preparing himself for another day of work. He was surprised to see Mr. P standing next to a Christmas tree, clad in a bright red Santa costume.

"Gale, open your presents and take the day off. I can get these blasted robots to do your job for one day." Gale smiled at his boss and moved closer to give the disgruntled penguin a hug. "Nope. no hugging." Despite his protests, Gale still hugged Mr. P, his smile growing even wider when the man hugged him back after a few seconds.

Mr. P walked away in a hurry, leaving Gale alone with the colorful presents underneath the tree. He opened the first one to reveal a hand-carved chess set and a note, scribbled on one of the hotel's custom sticky notes.

Call up your old friend Mike, it read, Invite him over to play sometime.

Gale looked at his boots and coat sitting next to the door. He threw them on, tucked the chessboard under his arm, and set off towards the mine.

'I'll do you one better, Mike.'

When he got out of the mine cart that had brought him to the heart of the mine, he was met with the sight of Jacky and Carl consoling Dynamike.

"Don't worry, old-timer, I'm sure this means you'll get twice the presents next year!" Jacky shouted from his side. Carl was at his other side, patting his back.

"Or he may drop them off before them. Santa has never forgotten a gift before, so as long as you weren't on the naughty list, you'll get something!" Carl squeaked.

"What happened?" The miners turned to look at Gale as he approached, shucking his coat and boots.

"Santa forgot my gifts," Mike said with a smile.

"I know what will make you feel better." Gale pulled the chessboard out from behind his back. "A rousing game of chess!" Dynamike moved to clear off a table.

"You sure you ready for a butt-kicking like that, Gale?"

"Bring it on, Mike!"

Nita was sitting on Bo's lap, the man's arms wrapped around her as if she were a three-year-old at danger of running off any moment.

"Bo, you can put me down. I'm not going to disappear!"

"Somehow I doubt that, little one." Nita looked to Leon for help, but the boy merely shrugged and went back to opening and passing out presents. Occasionally, he brought a gift to her, and she unwrapped every one as she sat in Bo's arms.

"Hey, Nita, this one is for you. It's from Penny." Nita grabbed the small gift that Leon held out and unwrapped it. It was a small black mask, like the type that robbers wore in her picture books. Attached to it was a small note.

'Keep being mischievous, and when in doubt, give 'em hell. -Penny'

Nita pulled her bear hat off, tied the mask on, and put her hat back on. She turned as well as she could to face Bo.

"Hey Bo, look at what Penny gave me!" Bo smiled at her.

"A mask, very nice. What is it for?"

"To cause mischief!" Bo felt his blood chill at her words.

"Lovely."

Penny was sitting on her ship, looking tiredly out to sea. Someone poked her on the shoulder, and she turned around to see the youngest member of the crew, Joy, holding three pieces of coal.

"Penny, check this out!" She stuck her tongue out and tossed the coal into the air, one piece after the other. When they came back down, she started juggling them, smiling goofily at Penny once she had the rhythm down. After about a minute, she caught all three pieces and bowed to Penny's wild applause.

"Glad one of us found something to do with this junk. Keep working on it and you could join the circus!" Joy laughed and ran off, presumably to go show someone else. Penny thought back to what she had been doing when she was Joy's age.

In her mind's eye, she saw a much younger version of herself, shooting anything she saw with her brand-new mortar. She had seen a large bird, larger than she had ever seen before, and decided she wanted to shoot it out of the sky. She remembered that it had taken a few tries, but she had finally seen the bird plunge towards the sea. She remembered how she had taken one of the dinghies and rowed out to haul in her catch. Only to find a man dressed in white and red unconscious in a ruined vehicle. There was this tiny person in the object with him, rabid and in a mad panic trying to wake him up. Penny smiled as she remembered getting chewed out by the pipsqueak. She remembered the deal she had struck with Santa and that elf, clear as day.

"Sir, we aren't going to be able to deliver the rest of the presents, between your injuries and the sleigh's state. What are we going to do?" He groaned as the elf tried to lift him up.

"We're going home." Penny and the assistant simply stared at him, stunned into silence. The man dragged himself into a sitting position, groaning the entire time. "But first, Penny, I need to talk to you." Penny stayed still for just a second before turning and bolting back across the side of the sleigh. "Sparkle, catch her."

Penny made it about three steps before she was tackled from behind by Sparkle. An "oof" escaped her lips as her chin hit the ledge, and she watched a tooth go skittering across the sled and into the sea.

"A shame." She whirled around under Sparkle'sgrip and looked in awe at the intimidating figure of the colorful man. Despite his injuries, he was still almost eight feet tall, and he cut an impressive figure against the stars. "I'll have to call the tooth fairy when we get home. That was a good one, she would appreciate it."

Penny gulped and twisted a bit more, trying to make herself look at least a little bit powerful. "What do you want from me?" He clasped his hands together behind his back.

"What do you think you deserve?"

"A slap on the wrist?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her and began to lean a little heavier on his makeshift crutch. "Is that so? Sparkle, how many countries do we have left?"

"48, sir."

"Forty-eight." He stroked his long, white beard contemplatively. "Forty-eight years on the naughty list, working as my mechanic. That seems fair."

Penny finally connected the dots, "Naughty list? Wait… are you?"

"That's right," he stood high above her. "You shot Santa Claus."

Penny shook herself out of her thoughts as Darryl walked up next to her.

"Whatchya thinking about matey?"

Penny sighed. "Christmas."

Darryl chuckled in that pitchy squeal of his. "Coincidentally, that's what I came over here to talk about. You have a gift to open." Penny begrudgingly took the box.

"Let's get this over with." She ripped off the wrapping paper to reveal a plain white box. She pulled off the lid and began to pull aside a bit of the tissue paper when she caught a glimpse of pink.

'Pink?'

She grabbed ahold of the pink item and pulled with all her might to reveal an irreversibly stained bunny outfit that may have been pink once upon a dream. What had once been a bright and lively outfit was now covered in coal dust.

Her blood was boiling, "Claus."

She turned to talk to Darryl but the bot had suddenly disappeared. She draped the outfit over the side rail and stepped back to admire it.

'You know what, screw you, Claus. It's cooler black.'

Queen: *surrounded by piles of gold* Hello everyone!
Sammy: *in disbelief* When did you-
Queen: Ask no questions and I'll tell no lies.
Sammy: *takes a careful step backward* Okay, hi everyone. This is the end of the story.
Queen: *pulls out old fashioned hanky* I'm really gonna miss this one.
Sammy: Me as well Queen. Me as well. I will forever remember the amazing story we told. The adventure we created. The backstory (not canon to any of my other works) that we created. And the fun we had in the- *gets cut off by a loud noise overhead* Queen…
Queen: Yes Sammy?
Sammy: Is that an airplane?
Queen: No. It's a blimp.
Sammy: *looks to her with concern* WHY?!
Queen: You say why, I say, "why not?" Besides, read the side of it.
Sammy: "Goodbye Santa's Little Helpers" Cute… Question though.
Queen: Yeah?
Sammy: Why do all this now. We stop existing once this dialogue ends.
Queen: What? Since when?

Sammy: Since always… didn't I tell you?
Queen: No? You didn't?
Sammy: Yes I did. It was when I first left to go get a drink. Remember… in Chapter 3. I came back with popcorn and… *remembers what happened* and you covered my mouth with your hand.
Queen: That's what you were going to say? I thought you were dropping spoilers for the story!
Sammy: What?! No! I was going to say, "Have they gotten to the secret about us no longer existing after this story is done." Why would I spoil a story I wrote such an intricate outline for?
Queen: I have no idea. Kicks?
Sammy: *shakes head lightly* It's like I always say, it's all shits and giggles until someone giggles and shits. *looks to his left* Is that an elephant?!
Queen: No, it's a giraffe. Yes it's an elephant!
Sammy: Why?!
Queen: Again, why not? But I guess it will be gone soon…
Sammy: All things must end someday. *looks around one final time* Since this is the end… wanna make it extravagant?
Queen: But of course! Fireworks? The whole shebang?
Sammy: Let's turn this black void into a rainbow of lights!
Queen: Alright! *pulls out comically large party popper* Ready?
Sammy: *two giant machine guns appear* I was born ready.
Queen: light it up!

*Loud popping noises*

*bright flashing lights*

Queen: From both of us-
Sammy: To all of you!
Queen: Thank you for reading one last silly script!
Sammy: *blows the readers a kiss* GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY!

*Both bow and disappear in a flash of light*