Chapter 8 #

"What do you mean survivors?"
"I mean that a few of the outposts crew survived and are hiding out on the basment levels"

"Perhaps the sensors are wrong" Luna suggested.

"Reppys sure that their fine and I,ve learned that when it comes to tech never to question this little guy"

Celestia turned to Reppy "Can you tell us exactly where they are?"

The Yellow and black Replicator shook it's body left and right to say no "Then we shall have to search each room indvidualy"

"Sister I think we should split up into two groups" Luna suggested "I will take Spitfire and Applejack"

Celestia nodded "Very well, I will take Maria and Solar Flare"

Maria reached an arm out to allow Reppy to crawl onto her back "This map says there's a cargo elevator on the lower levels"

Maria checked the body's one more time to make sure they were covered and followed her equine companions out, closing the door and blocking it so the body's were left undisturbed until they could be given a proper burial.

The elevator thank god was still operable and as they descended into the depths, sense of forbidding quickly fell upon them.
None for them spoke a word as they prepared themselves for what ever lay in wait for them in the depths.

As the elevator ground to a stop, the were greeted not by a sight of body's and blood, but a dark almost untouched hallway save for large claw marks that plastered the walls, all the lights were ether smashed or off which men't that power was not working on this level.

Celestia and Luna summoned a ball of pure light each while Solar Flare encased her horn in fire, using her magic to keep the flames from burning her horn or head, Maria and her non magical companions turned on their weapons flashlights.

The corridor ahead split into two directions and they split into their teams saying the briefest of goodbyes before going their separate ways, Celesta's team going left while Luna's team went right.

Little did any of them know what lay in wait for them.

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Team Celestia
Celestia
......................

The corridor was in the same state as the entrance, blood and claw marks were scattered in random places on the walls but dispute this there had still been no body's, and that disturbed her to no end and when Celestia glanced at Maria, she could see that it was having the same effect on her too.

Fifteen minuites later they came up to two unmarked doors one with blood splattered on it and the other slightly dented.

Celestia heard Maria click off her P-90's safety and watched as she quietly but swiftly move up to the blooded door and lean against the wall beside it, she put a finger up to her lips for them to be silent and gestured for them to take the other door. Celestia nodded trusting the Major's instincts and took the left side of the door while Flare took the right, Maria silently counted from 5, opening the door and stepping through it on 0 with Celestia and Flare doing the same with their door.

A small room with four rows of bunk beds greeted them, cloths and other personnel effects letters the floor and bunks, there was slow shallow breathing coming from under one of the bunks, someone or something was attempting to hide and failing badly.

Celestia tapped her student on the shoulder and gestured over to where the breathing was coming from, they took one side of the bunk each and on a count of three lifted the bunk up to find the cowering form of a man.

He wore a lab coat that had spots of blood that was clearly not his and as the bunk was lifted off him he looked up with a look of pure fear, which was replaced by reliefs he realized who his saviors were.

"Oh thank god! Someone came for us" he said as he got to his feet "I've been here for god know how long since the attack, those monsters aren't here still are they?"

"Calm down your safe now" Celestia assured him " what is your name?" She asked trying to calm the man down.

"T-Terry, Terry Winchester" he replied.

"Well Terry, my name is Celestia and this is my personal student Solar Flare"

Terry looked stunned "Celestia? As in THEE Princess Celestia of Equestria?" Celestia nodded, the man probably hadn't recognized her due her storing her royal attire in her saddlebag and Waring a more military style cap and jacket "Without any due respect your majesty but what are you doing here? I wouldn't expect somepony of you stature would be involved in a rescue mission"

"That's because this wasn't a rescue mission" Celestia "our tra-"

BOOM!!!!

A large explosion rocked the room making them stumble, this was followed by the sound of something collapsing outside the door.

Fearing the worst Celestia and Flare with Terry in tow rushed outside to find the doorway Maria had gone through blocked up with rubble.

Celestia wiped out her radio "Maria are you there?!" Static filled her ears " Maria Answer me, are you still alive?" Static again "oh no... Terry where did this door lead?"

"To a stairwell leading to the maintenance level" he told her.

A Somthing started to push a large piece of rubble out of the way and Celestia used her magic to help, hoping that it was the former Airforce Major, but instead the grey and yellow form of Reppy crawled out and and over to her making panicked whirring sounds.

"Reppy wheres Maria? Is she alright?" the small Replicator just shook its body to indicate that it didn't know.

Celestia's radio crackled to Life "Sister can you hear me, is everyone alright over there?!?"

"Yes Luna, I can hear you, me and Solar Flare are fine but we've lost contact with Maria" she said hastaly "But we found a survivor before the explosion" she added "What happened?"

"Maria's missing? Dammit. we've found the rest of the survivors too and they've just provided us with ill news, we've just walked into a trap set by the Vorsoth, expect infected to be swarming us any moment soon"

"Ok, where are you, we'll come to you and figure out a way out of this mess"

"We're in the cafetiere, radio when you get close"

Reaarrge!!!

Celestia leveled her weapon down the hall at the gurgled sound of approaching infected "you'll probably hear us long before we call you" Celestia said as she opened fire on the first to come into view.

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2 Minutes earlier
Maria Santiago.

*Maria, you alright?*

"Cough! Cough! Yea, I'm fine" she said as she got up and looked back the way she came "but we ain't going back that way" Maria looked sadly at the twisted remains of her P-90 which stuck out of the rubble that now blocked the way.

*what happened?*

"I think we walked into a trap by coming here, should have known that the vorsoth would do something like this" Maria pulled out her radio and tried to turn it on only for it it fall apart "Great! Just great" she slid out her sidearm, cocked it and got up.

*how could you have known that the place was a trap? It looked abandoned too*

"And the fact that almost every infected in the area seemed to have diapered wasn't a clue?" Maria reached into one if her pockets and pulled out a flare and lit it "That and the Vorsoth did it allot during the war"

The sound of muffled gun shots peaked her attention "And here they are now, come on we've got to find a way back up there" she took off down the tunnel the flare illuminating it with a bright red glow the way, steam hissed from rusty pipes and water dropped from the ceiling accumulating into puddles on the floor of which Maria nearly slipped on multiple times.

Looking around Maria guessed that she was on a maintenance level of some sort, one that hadn't been used in a while.

*MARIA LOOK OUT!*

The warning came just in time as she ducked under a clawed, long fingerd hand that was clearly ment for her head, she rolled away and aimed her pistol at her attacked only for the colour to drain from her face.
Standing before covered in blood was a creature that she has spent more then a year as, a Witch.

Not wasting time Maria quickly aimed for the Witch's head and emptied her clip, only for a single round to sink into the Witch's shoulder while the rest missed.
*"Oh sh-"* both Red and Maria were about to say before Maria was sent flying backwards into a wall, at this time she was glad that one of the traits that she had received from her partially successful cure was a high resilience to damage, but that still didn't make it hurt any less as she slid down the wall wincing.

The witch continued her assault by trying to jump onto her to begin scratching her face off which Maria avoided by rolling away onto her feet and ripping out her combat knife, if she had been a normal human then she would have called herself crazy for even attempting to go hand to hand against a Witch... but she wasn't completely human anymore.

The Witch glared at her with a look of pure blood-lust, obviously Maria was still human enough for it to still want to kill her and Maria prayed that whoever the Witch had been wasn't being forced to watch like she had.

They began circling each other each trying to guess who would make the first move "Red any advice on how to beat her?"

*Yea, don't let her catch you off guard. DODGE!*

Maria sidestepped as the Witch clumsily lunged for her and earned a deep cut into it's back curtasy of Maria knife, it retaliated with a quick strike to Maria's abdomen making her stumble back... one hit each.

This apparently pissed off the Witch enough that it went into a frenzy of claw strikes, most of which Maria managed to dodge but a few still got though but Maria was quick to dish out as much as she was taking, it was still a losing battle.

Finally the Witch knocked Maria onto her back and jumped onto her, raised held claw and prepared to bring it down onto the defeated woman's neck.

Maria tried to lash out with her knife but the witch simply backhanded it with a sickening crack and a cry of pain from Maria as the now broken arm flopped onto the floor.

Now completly at the Witch's mercy Maria closed her eye's and waited for the end to come.

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12 minutes later
Celestia

"Move! Move!" Celestia shouted at her student and Winchester "I'm almost out of ammo!"

They were near where Luna had told them to meet her team, the whole way they had been dogged by the infected who were dead set (excuse the pun) on catching them and Celestia knew that unless they reached the more defensible cafeteria. they had heard nothing from Maria and the Replicator that was now riding on Celestia's back was getting more worried by the minute.

"Sister get down!"

Reacting instantly Celestia dived forword knocking Terry and Flare to the ground just as a large jet of flames went over them creating a wall of fire behind them roasting a number of infected to a crisp.

Celestia looked up to the see her sister and two other humans, one holding the weapon that had launched the jet of flames.

"Hurry Tia that won't hold them for long" Luna said as she helped her elder sibling up and lead them away and back to the cafeteria, along the way she explained what she knew.

"The Leader of the surviving staff here explained to me that the Vorsoth were expecting us to come here and they set up this trap to catch us"

"Why?" Celesita asked "And how did they know that we would come here, did they cause the accident?"

They came up to a set of barricaded door that were opened quickly for them and closed just as quickly after they entered.

A familiar man was waiting for them while they arrived, he wore the same uniform that Maria wore right down to the 21 on the badge on his arm "Princess Celestia, it's good to finally meet you" he said as he reached a hand out for her to shake which she did "your sister has told me your situation as I have explained ours to her"

"Then we must find a way t escape this trap Mr..."

"Names Major Dick Simmons, but I like to just be call Simmons"

At that point the man knoticed Reppy on her back "Reppy... it that you little guy?"

The Replicator gave a happy cherp and jumped off Celestia's back and started to rug against Simmons's Leg happily, at this point Celestia released why this man was familiar, he was Maria's squad mate but to make sure, she asked "Are you a fellow member for SG-21 with Maria Santiago?"

The man blinked in surprise "I was, Before she got infected" he said "how do your know her?"

"I think we should speak somewhere more private" Celestia suggested "What I'm about to tell you is probably going to shock you" Celestia turned her head to Terry and Flare "You two should get your selves checked out

The man nodded and mentioned over to the far corner of the room that held a number of maps, Simmons told everyone to stay clear of the area until they were done.

Once she was sure they were alone Celestia began " a month or so ago we captured her as a Witch and brought her back to equestria, a week after her capture the Witch escaped and almost killed Spitfire the captian of the Wonder Bolts but Maria was able to subdue the Witch's consciousness and regain control"

"You mean she managed to fight the virus?" Simmons asked.

"Yes, we are unsure of how but she did, after she rested we tested a new Magic based cure on her. It worked but only partially" Celestia said "Maria was left with a human appearance. enough that nobody would notice what she was even infected , but she also has gained some traits from being a witch such as increased strength what not. also the Witch that was controlling her was left in her mind and can communicate with Maria, she's lost all the blood lust and characteristics of a witch and has shown great remorse for what she has done"

The man shook his head angrily "Like that would make up for all the people she's probably killed and for making Maria watch too"

"Maria seems to have forgiven her" Luna told him "Red has been trying her best to help us since we got here. In a way I think she's looking for redemption"

"Wait you mean she's with you? Where?"

Celestis hang her head "She was with us but we lost contact with her when the explosion collapsed a stairwell leading down to the maintenance level"

"I'm sure she's fine" Simmons said confidently "It would take more then a few tones of concrete to stop that woman"

A man came running up to them and whispered something into Simmons's ear, Simmons nodded solomly "The mare you brought in's condition has worsened"

Celestia didn't need to be told who Simmons was talking about and as he lead them to a row of bunks, unsurprisingly there lay a blond orange mare with her eyes clenched shut as if she was in pain.

"What is wrong with her?" Celestia asked, trying to keep the distress of seeing one of her little ponies in pain " Has the infection taken her again?"

"No Sister. The doctors here can't figure out what is wrong with her" Luna explained " one second she was fine and talking with the guards at the barricade, the next she was spasming on the floor screaming about the voices"

"Voices you say?" Celestia said pondering "I wonder..."

BOOM!

The sound a a breaching charge was over shadowed by the sound of growling, screaming and gunfire. "THEY'VE BREACHED THE PERIMETER!!"

"Shit!" Simmons growled through gritted teeth as he picked up a fallen AK and rushed towards the sound of carnage "Come on!". Carnage was right, a hole had been blown through the wall and now infected were flowing through like water through a burst dam

Anyone who could fight was doing so, Celestia saw Solar Flare burning off infected after infected while Spitfire was finishing off infected after infected with head shots and doubling them over with knee shots. Luna descended upon a group of infected that was about to overwhelm some of the defenders using her magic to throw them like rag dolls against the wall and with a sickening crack dropped their lifeless corpses to the ground.

Celestia let off short controlled bursts into the continuously bloating mass trying to stem the tied somehow but still they came and when her rifle finally clicked empty Celestia went to using the now useless Scar like a club
And knocking down wave after wave that came at her. Many of the infected were going after the survivors that wernt fighting singling them out as the weak one's. Solar Flare and Spitfire were protecting as many as they could but it was still not enough as Celestia saw a man pulled into the hoard and out of sight, his dying screams filling the large room.

A wall of Celestia and Luna were now making a wall of bodies with how many infected were charging at them, Celestia had killed almost 20 while her sister was at a higher kill count of 34. Solar Flare incinerated a boomer before it could vomit on Simmons who had just cracked an infected's neck to the left "We need a way out fast" he shouted to Celestia "If we can fight our way to the the emergency escape hatch we can get to the Makos" it was a sound plan and it could have worked.... if not for the tank that came stomping down the hallway "..... Well shit...."

Celestia dropped her rifle and used her magic in conjuncture with Luna to try and force the tank back but found the magic to slip off, just like it had on Applejack when she was a tank. The the most unexpected thing happens, a decapitated head was thrown with surprising accuracy at the tank's small head making it stop in surprise, both the tank and the survivors looked to where the head had come from.

Standing there covered in blood holding a bloody combat knife was Maria looking a little worse for ware.

"Maria!" Celestia exclaimed with a smile, a smile that dropped when she noticed something about the woman, dispute the blood Celestia could see stark white hair with a red streak, and she knew only one person had that, or should she say... infected.

Red was glaring daggers at the tank and Celestia saw the tank physicly shudder. Then Red turned Celestia, instead with sad eyes "I will handle this" she said, her voice dripping with misery "Find a way out of here" without another word she turned to the tank cleaned te blood off her knife with her jecket, brandeshed her knife infront of her and charged at her advisary her blade gleaming in the dim light.

Author's Note

Authors note #

This chapter wasn't particularly hard but there will be a few spelling errors in the last bit but I still hope you enjoy the chapter.

Also I will be shortening the story's name to just A Witch's Redemption, this is because of convinced and because this story has ended up not being just a Left for dead fiction, but I still hope you enjoy it.

Also I am looking for a replacement for the story picture, if you have any recommendations please leave them in the comments.

Thank you again for sticking with this fiction for so long. :)