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// Now Loading: kf_ponyville 
// Story: Pony Floor, or "How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dosh" 
// by The card holder 
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Twilight sighed in relaxation as the Ponyville Fair decorations were taken down around her. The event had started just before noon, and stretched well into the evening, and even though she was a princess now, she was completely beat. Not that she didn't have fun, of course. She only had a few days off from her princess-ly duties in Canterlot, so she planned to spend the most of it catching up and spending time with her friends. Though, at this rate, she'd spend all day tomorrow sleeping in.

After helping to put the last of the decorations away, she wiped some of the sweat off her forehead with a hoof and began looking for Spike. She found him already asleep next to an empty bag of sweets. Chuckling, she lifted him onto her back with her magic and began walking back towards their former tree home, which was now mostly just a library, with how often they were in Canterlot.

As she was thinking over this, she failed to notice a new addition to her home. Namely, the large metal door replacing the average wooden door's place.

The alicorn didn't notice this until she walked straight into said metal door. The impact knocked her out of her thinking, and also woke up Spike.

"Huh- what- where-" He yawned. "Oh, hey, Twilight. What's going on?"

Twilight tapped the metal door with a hoof, receiving a clang in return. "I don't know, Spike, this door wasn't here this morning..."

Now mostly awake, Spike finally noticed the object of her concern. "Oh. No, it wasn't."

Firing up her horn, Twilight tried to teleport inside the library directly, but for some reason, it just wouldn't work. "This is odd..."

"TWILIGHT!"

The pony in question nearly jumped out of her skin as Pinkie seemingly popped out of nowhere, as she usually does.

"You'll never guess what happened!" the pink pony continued, a look of distress on her face. "I was going back to Sugarcube corner, because after all that fun at the fair I just wanted to sleep to be refreshed for tomorrow, but there was this big metal door at the front, and me and the Cakes couldn't get in! So I decided to come to you, because since you're a princess now you can probably help with these things and-" While looking around nervously, Pinkie spotted the same door she was describing at the front of the library. Her pupils dilated slightly. "Oh no! It happened to you too!"

With that, the mare screamed a vocalization of her despair into the heavens, making Twilight and Spike both flinch from the volume. 

"It's not just you two," a new voice added, which certainly belonged to the blue, rainbow-maned pegasus hovering next to them. "There are a couple other doors like those in other parts of town."

Twilight's brain was on overdrive. Apparently there were four doors like this throughout the town, and it was safe to assume that none of them could be manipulated by magic for some unknown reason, which meant that whatever this was, it could be serious. 

However, she couldn't send a letter to the other princesses about this, as her parchments and other letter writing tools were still in the library, and even the windows seemed to be inaccessible. 

"Where are the others?" the princess asked Rainbow, a plan of action already forming in her head.

"Uh, I think Rarity and Applejack are at Rarity's place, because that was one of the other places with a door. I don't know where Fluttershy is, but it shouldn't be too hard to find her."

"Alright, good. Get the three of them here, and tell everypony else to stay calm. Surely, whatever this is, it won't be serious."

Rainbow gave a short salute before flying off to fulfill her given tasks. 

Spike turned to Twilight. "So, what's going on?"

"I don't know, Spike. But hopefully we'll find out."

After a couple minutes, the other four Elements arrived in front of the library. Twilight explained the situation to them, and they set about thinking up a plan of action.

"Ah say we just break our way in. These doors can't be that tough, right?"

"I don't know, they seem pretty solid..."

"Whatever it is, this better be resolved soon. I would like to sleep in my own bed tonight, please."

"I-I just hope that-"

Fluttershy's quiet statement was cut off by her less quiet squeak of distress. When the others questioned why she made that noise, she just pointed away from the library. Following her point, they saw six... things standing in a loose formation some distance away. Most of them seemed to be wearing armor of some kind, as well as some sort of mask. Among them, two were notable in the fact that not only were they wearing what looked like somewhat torn suits with a gas mask, but they also were wearing roughly the same outfit, although one of the two seemed a bit... "curvier", for lack of a better term. Of the other four, two were wearing some sort of plain blue outfit, while the others were wearing green. All of them held small black objects in their front appendages. They were pointed straight forward, but didn't look to be aimed at anything in particular.

The six ponies stared in shocked silence at the six creatures, and neither party moved for a good five seconds. Then the creatures started walking around, startling the ponies into taking a few steps back. The creatures looked around them, then one of them looked right at the ponies. Its face was obscured by a gas mask, but they could still clearly hear a voice come from the figure:

"Can anyone lend me a tenner?"