//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14 - Towering Inferno 
// Story: For the New Lunar Republic 
// by Moxypony 
//------------------------------//

	Fire spreads quickly under normal circumstances, but when it’s fueled by countless bottles of flammable liquids and unstable chemicals,  it charges with a vengeance. Moxi and Dreamcatcher barely had time to notice that the flames were rapidly climbing the walls toward them before they were emerging over the frame of the observation window. 
“Oh shit!” Moxi swore, taking to the air to avoid stepping in the searing flames below, but immediately was forced to land as the acrid smoke and fumes began to pool at the room’s  ceiling. “Catcher!” she called out, barely able to make out the earth pony’s shape through the haze surrounding them, “Get the files and let’s get the buck out of here!” She saw Catcher scrabbling at the loose papers on the desk, rushing to gather them all up before the fire could erase the data, when he finally straightened up, Moxi heard him shout, “I’ve got them! Moxi, catapult!”
Moxi braced her legs against what little clear floor was left and, with the full force of her legs and wings combined, kicked off from the floor. Taking to the air, she grabbed Dreamcatcher’s outstretched hoof and barreled through the door into the hall they’d entered through, the flames were already starting to emerge from doors on either side of the hall, back drafts exploding from them as burning doors collapsed under their own weight. “The building shouldn’t be going up this fast!” Dreamcatcher coughed over the roar of the flames and the distant screams of the frantic researchers, “There would have to be multiple origin points for it to have reached this part of the building this quickly!”
“This isn’t the time for a formal investigation, Catch!” Moxi shouted, weaving between the gouts of flame bursting forth from each opening along the narrow hall, “Let’s get out of here first, worry about the implications later!” 
The twists and turns of the lab’s hallways proved treacherous, and more than once Moxi found their path all but blocked off by a wall of flames. She saw a number of doors burst open to reveal screaming lab ponies, their eyes wide with terror as they clawed at their burning coats and flesh. Moxi fought to repress a sneer at the torturous screams, focusing all her efforts on getting herself and Dreamcatcher out of harm’s way. “I can see daylight!” Catcher called above the roar of the flames around them, “ahead and to the right! We’re almost there!” 
Moxi threw her efforts into overdrive and pressed on, forcing her way to the glass doors at the entrance of the laboratory. By the end, Moxi’s ears pounded with her own screams, drowning out the objection of her wing muscles to her sudden increased efforts, and at the last moment she tucked her head against her chest and covered tucked in her wings. Moxi hit the doors like a stone, smashing through the glass and rolling out onto the cobblestone street just beyond.
Moxi and Dreamcatcher lay panting on the ground, savoring the precious clean air as the building behind them continued to waste away to nothing. “You lads jus’ won me fitty bits,” came a familiar voice from above them, Moxi looked up, her was vision blurred from exertion and asphyxiation, but that voice was unrecognizable, once again the pair found themselves at the mercy of Chaser Doolit, “Y’see, Chesh over ‘ere was sayin’ you lot weren’ gonna make it out ah that fire, but I kept tellin’ ‘er, I did, ‘Chesh,’ I says, ‘that lot got a fire in dey’s eyes, dey gonna find a way out even if we do’s set da place on fire,’ an’ I was right, weren’t I?”
“Y-you,” Moxi panted, glaring at Doolit, “you tried to burn us!” 
“Perish the thought, love,” He replied, in mock indignity, “we burned dem Celestian lot, you two was jus’ along for da ride, y’see, if I’d tried to burn ya,” he clapped his hooves once and Chesh appeared beside him carrying a tank of petroleum, “you’d be burnin’ right now.”
Moxi scowled up at him, but kept her mouth shut. “Smart girl,” he said, casting her a devilish grin, “now, how’s about you lot make your way back to Luna’s little army? We’s got business to attend to ‘round ‘ere, and I don’ need you lot crampin’ my style.” 
“Any idea where to start looking for them?” Dreamcatcher panted, pushing hirself to her feet before helping Moxi to hers.
Doolit frowed, “Nah, Luna’s good at keepin’ ‘er secrets, an’ ever since that security leak what  brought you lot ‘ere, she’s only gotten more cautious.” He paused, looking pensive, “If I had to make a suggestion, I’d say go check Sugarcube Acres, they prolly got summa your lot there, they might know where to look.” 
“Sugarcube acres,” Dreamcatcher sighed, “why do I always seem to be getting dragged back there?” 
“Search me, lad,” Doolit shot back, “but you’d best be gettin’ outta my town, ‘fore you’s get shown out. Oh,” he continued with a smirk, “and Celestia’s lot’s prolly searchin’ da railways for you two now, so it looks like you lads is hoofin’ it.”