The metallic pounding of armored hooves against the floor and heavy breathing from the three as they continued to run was all they could hear now. It had grown quiet for some reason, which wasn't exactly the most calming of things, especially on a ship such as this one. Twilight's mind kept drifting back to Captain Shard and how he had sacrificed himself for their chance at survival. Maybe he was still alive? No, the explosion had gone off with him inside of the room. Shaking off hopeless hope, Twilight stopped at a door, which was locked. Above the door, the sign said tram station.

"Hey, guys, get back here! Look!" Twilight said, pointing at the sign. If there was a means of faster travelling, then Twilight was all for it. It sure beat just running through corridor after corridor, not making any real progress.

Rainbow kept her rifle pointed around them, saying, "Well, hack it, Egghead, we need a faster way to travel."

Twilight rolled her eyes at being called that, "Okay... just keep me covered."

Twilight took the panel off, just like before. Jamming her hoof into the hole. She felt around for the familiar circular power source, her face scrunched up in concentration. Within a couple of minutes, the door opened, allowing them access to the tram system. Hopefully it was still online and functional. Otherwise, fixing it could prove to be a problem, since the technology was fairly different. Doors were one thing, but fully automated tram systems?

They walked into what they assumed was a lobby. There was some luggage strewn about amongst the floor here and there, blood just about everywhere. Why was there always blood? One side of the room was open, tunnels moving away from the lobby, going both ways perpendicular to the room itself. On a single rail inside of this tunnel was a small train-like vehicle, which Twilight assumed was the tram. She walked inside of it, turning right to a small console that was at the front. It was definitely a console, but there were no blue holographic screens, or even an orange one.

Groaning, Twilight went back out into the lobby and took a longer, more careful look. She looked at the tram sign, some letters moving by. Eventually, after some time, it was indicated that the tram no longer had power, and that a team would be sent to deal with the problem immediately. Twilight scoffed at that, rolling her eyes. Fat chance that would ever happen. It looked like they'd need to find the source that supplied this thing with power and somehow fix it."

Rainbow was looking at some advertisements on the wall, grimacing a little at the appearance of these aliens. She walked over to Twilight and asked, "So, can we use that thing?"

Twilight shook her head, sighing, "No, there's no power to the tram system at all. We might need to manually fix the problem itself."

Fluttershy had went into a glassed-in room, which had some very uncomfortable-looking couches and chairs. There was more luggage inside of there as well. A light flashed inside of the room, making the yellow pegasu squeak in fear and surprise. Rainbow and Twilight, for fear of their friend, ran inside of the room. They had their rifles at the ready, just in case they had to deal with any of those creatures.

"Ah, ze blue and purple pony! I was wonder when you'd show up." A voice said with a rather familiar accent from a floating holographic screen on the wall. Fluttershy looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

Twilight walked forward to get a better look, immediately realizing who this was. It was that Doctor Resonov from the video in the medical bay. Apparently he had survived all of this.

Twilight was a little speechless, so she just stood there with her mouth open in surprise.

Doctor Resonov laughed at that, speaking a sentence or two in a completely different language, then said, "Do not worry yourselves, I am here to lend you some assistance. You need ze tram working, and I need you to get to me. We can help each other out, little ponies."

Twilight didn't exactly trust Resonov, "How do we know that you won't betray us?"

Resonov crossed his heart, "You have mein word, purple one."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at this, "I don't know how good your word is... but go on, we're listening."

Resonov clapped his hands together, rubbing them back and forth a couple times, "Alright, long story short, I need some assistance on something. In return, I will show you to a secondary hangar, which has a small cargo ship inside. Only I have ze access codes anymore. The rest have been purged from ze system. You want out, I need to get something done before I leave with you. And trust me, there is no way you will be able to get back to your ship. My guess is, they'll leave and come back with an even larger team... you don't want that, do you? Who knows what will happen to zem in zeir search for you. So, I suggest you act quickly."

Rainbow stepped forward, her overzealous attitude getting the best of her, "And what's that, huh?! How do we know that your word is any good? How do we know you're telling the truth?"

Resonov sighed, sounding a little annoyed, "Because at this point, I am ze only hope you have of getting off of this ship alive. Now, are you willing to listen to my proposition?"

Twilight asked, "Well, what do you need done?"

Resonov chuckled at this, smiling brightly, "Well, first, we need to get ze tram system activated. And to do zat, you will need to go down to engineering and divert power manually. I have a colleague in your general area. When you get over to me, I will explain what it is I need you to help me with. In this hell, we need to stick together."

Twilight was still a little wary of him, "Okay... how far away is the colleague of yours?"

Resonov said, "Surprisingly, he's not zat far away from you. You may have to take a little walk, but I'm confident zat you will find him. First off, do you have a guidance system I can tap into? I have your most basic functions in mein computer... had to do a little hacking."

Twilight groaned in annoyance, "Why am I not surprised? And yes, we do have a guidance system. It's in our helmets. It maps out the layout of what's in front of you and tells you which way to go. But we need to have a map of this place downloaded into it... otherwise, we'd flying blind in a shit storm."

Resonov laughed at that, "Oh, I can tell zat I am going to like you. So, I need you to lower the security on your guidance system, so I can mark the path for you. Don't worry, zat is all that I will do."

Twilight looked at Rainbow and Fluttershy, knowing that there was no way they'd get out of this alive without any help. She sighed in defeat, and took a leap of faith. She took her helmet off and used a small tool from her storage compartment to disable the security on the guidance system. She put her helmet back on, and told Rainbow and Fluttershy to take theirs off. After disabling their security, they put them back on. Twilight looked back at the screen.

Twilight said, "There... now download the map into our suits' systems. We'll take it from there."

Resonov nodded, obviously excited, "Ah, zat is excellent! Okay, I'm hacking into your suit's connection... riding along ze data stream... my, your suits are complex and very much different than our own. Then again, zat is to be expected. Okay, compensating... and... there! Check your suits, you will see a path laid out for you. Do not deviate from this path. The sooner you get to me with my friend, the sooner you can help me, so I can help you."

Twilight accessed her guidance system, her visor indicating that a path had indeed been lain out for them to follow, "Okay, we'll follow this path... but how will we contact you if we need you?"

Resonov said, "Well, I couldn't get ze video to work on your suits, but due to you deactivating your security, I was able to access your coms. So, you three will be able to hear me. And, you will be able to hear my colleague. I have sent your coms code to his suit. I must take my leave now. I'm sorry, but mein duty calls, little ponies."

Before they could say anything further, the holographic screen shut itself off, and the lobby became eerily quiet once again. The three looked at each other, knowing that they had no choice but to trust the doctor. They began to leave the tram station, following the path that had been laid out for them.

A much deeper voice sounded out through their suit's communications, "Hello? Is this thing on? Can you hear me?"

Twilight had an idea who this was, but she decided to ask anyway, "Yes, who is this?"

The voice said, "My name is Markus Banning. I'm the friend that Resonov was talking about. You need to get to the location that's on your guidance system. I will meet you there... and... try not to get yourselves killed, will you?"

Rainbow laughed, "Don't worry about us, we got this down..."

Markus didn't find that very funny, "That's what all the others said. Just look around you. Be careful... and don't contact me any further unless you absolutely have to. Banning out."

The coms died down, leaving the three to their thoughts and trust issues. One one hoof, they could be allies, but on the other, they could very well be the enemy. They started walking along the suggested path, knowing that they'd die without help. Twilight wondered what their chances were for survival. They now had a goal, which sure as hell was an improvement on the situation. So, they went deeper into the ship.

Author's Note

Okay, the story finally progresses, and the ponies now have a goal to strive for.