"What is this now?!" one of the soldiers complained. "What, there's more? I thought they might be allies but the blue things are just attacking the newcomers too!"

Fluttershy took a broken pair of binoculars and looked through the intact tube to get a better view of the newcomers. "The ones wearing uniforms of some kind look a bit like minotaurs and apes mixed together, but much smaller." The soldiers in the bunker muttered to themselves. "The big ones..."

Fluttershy shivered. Whatever they were wearing was mostly devoid of any finer details save an occasional spot of blue light glowing around the joints that expanded, contracted, and twisted with every minute movement the armored giants made. Their helmets also seemed fairly impractical. One of the red-and-blue bipeds had two separate 'eyes' and the equivalent of a gaping, toothy maw right beneath it. The pegasus wiped her eyes and, for a brief moment, realized that the armor was seemingly enchanted to have that appearance and had a solid, rounded plate under the 'eyes'. The other one was far stranger: It had nothing at all. Just one solid mass of metal. How was it able to see?

But, the longer the mare looked at the featureless helmet, the more unnerved she became, like some kind of eldritch horror was slowly breaking through reality and that helmet was the anchor point. She felt like whatever it was wanted to grab only Fluttershy and drag her into some twisted abyss she had no envy to experience. It was like she was stuck staring at it, only to be freed from her stupor by a loud bang. Some of the blue creatures were throwing discs onto the ground and jumping on them using their armor-plated back, just for said disc to explode as loudly as something that size possibly could and be sent careening through the air. They were hooting and hollering with jubilation as they did so, although Fluttershy recognized cursing when she heard it when they would miss the flying craft of the newcomers.

Going back to the newcomers, the armored giant deck in sun-bleached gold's helmet was more standard for her, although it seemed to carry a lot of tiny antennas that hung from the back. It sported a single, long visor that was also black but reflected sunlight, but with no other traits around. It watched with its fellows as the blue creatures ran toward their craft and the smaller creatures shot at them with everything they had, unbothered by the fanatic approach and howling. The gigantic machines unfurled two cannons from their center and ignored the charging monsters, focusing instead on the machines on approach kicking up dust and debris as they let loose bullets and shells haphazardly in every direction. One of the bipedal machines was struck directly, producing light and fire and caused it to stumble back slightly, but a flickering blue wall seemed to have absorbed most of the impact.

"What is even happening?" one of the ponies gasped.

With a loud 'bang', the two fired in sync at the enemy vehicles in rapid succession.

Fluttershy started counting the seconds between shots. "One, two, thr--" Bang. "One, two, thr--" Bang.

It could take the ponies fifteen seconds at best to reload their own cannons, and they couldn't even sustain such a fire rate.

The ponies watched as the armored giant with a gaping, toothy maw leapt over the defenders, kicking one of the giants in its face, dislodging teeth and sending it flying. It aimed its rifle and fire without pause, a low humming coming from its weapon. It took out four of the blue creatures in a flash, and its own blue 'sphere' appeared around it whenever the monsters shot at it with bullet or explosive. One of the creatures flanked it from its right and raised a mighty club in the air, only to see its face ripped apart when the monster's opponent pulled one of the bullets from the blue stream linking to the top of the rifle, planted it in the monster's face, and slashed across.

The other with the giant hands kept punching and ripping apart every enemy that it encountered, showing a deft skill in melee combat that Fluttershy wished she possessed in the past. She would have been able to help her fellows had she--Another explosion. The smaller creatures didn't react at all, but the ponies around that were outside started fleeing.

"What is with these things?" Fluttershy gasped. "It's like they were born in war."

"We need to relay this back to the princesses in Canterlot," a sergeant relayed.

The radio operator nodded and started relaying the information, but the observers paled when the golden giant watched its opponents run, but a hand to its head, then turn and stare at the ponies directly. It gestured for the faceless one to follow it as it stomped toward Fluttershy's bunker, causing her to curse in response.

"Grab your rifles and watch the entrance!" the sergeant ordered. She pointed at the radio operator. "You stay there and keep relaying the info. This is of vital importance." She failed to hide her worry, causing her face to wrinkle. "Equestria...no, our whole world might be doomed, and I don't want that to happen, so everypony needs to know what's been happening."

The ponies complied and rushed through the twisting and turning corridors, waiting in the corners and aiming through the viewports in the thick walls at the armored door locked into place with multiple very heavy locks, beams, and levers.

"They're not going to manage to get through that, are they?" one pony whispered.

"Just shut up and focus. Stop making us stress out more than we already are!" another chastised.

Every moment of waiting tested the ponies' wits, the silence being worse than the loud explosions and sounds of active combat. They could hear each other's breathing and the sounds of their weaponry shifting as they moved about wearily. Then came the multiple thuds. They were quiet. Muffled, at first. Then, gradually and unmistakably, grew louder and closer. Fur became drenched in cold sweat and hearts pounded loudly as the steps stopped just shy of the door. They all flinched when a few light knocks hit the outside of the door, and several of the ponies felt like they were on the verge of collapsing.

They screamed when both sides of the wall encompassing the door were broken through, and familiar, giant golden fingers reached in, grabbed the door, and squeezed the metal before ripping the whole thing off its hinges and pulling it away with rebar, cement blocks, and broken pressure pipes meant to hold everything in place. wIth a casual toss, it threw the door behind it, creating a space that was quickly filled in by the other metal titan aiming its strange, bulky rifle at the ponies.

"Fire!" the seargeant yelled.

The ponies complied and pulled the triggers. Loud bangs followed by the clicking and whirring of bolts moving into place filled the area. When they ran out, they would use their teeth to pull out clips from a banolier around their neck, ppull the rifle down diagonally, insert the clip, then lock everything back into place and repeat the action. After several seconds of firing and replacing the atmosphere with smoke, the equines were horrified to see that the giants were unharmed and unbothered.

Several of the ponies screamed, with a couple fainting when the giants stepped in. Fluttershy stood firmlyu as they approached and ignored the swords and spears clanging and breaking against their armor. Tall as they are, they needed to duck to walk in the bunker. The golden giant casually pushed Fluttershy back, its hand somehow as big as her whole body. When they came upon the radio operator, said pony froze in fear.

"Leave him alone!" Fluttershy shouted. She picked up a spare spear from the wall and placed it in a locking strap around her right shoulder to point at the giants. "Get out of here!"

The other titan stepped forward, its helmet scraping against the ceiling and ripping out concrete, and deftly ripped the spear in half while the pony still held it. It stared at her silently, dropping the spear hand that had been crumpled like it was made of aluminum foil.

The pegasus could only stare in disbelief at the ease with which they crumpled the metal of the spear, as if ripping a metal door designed to hold back even Sombra's monstrous beasts wasn't enough. The giants seemed to communicate with each other, although the ponies couldn't hear them. Fluttershy braced for them to kill her, clenching her teeth, muscles, and eyes. However, when nothing happened, she hesitantly cracked an eye open, only to realize the giants had left without hurting anypony.

The sergeant rushed to Fluttershy, her red fur standing from the fear and stress. "Lieutenant Fluttershy?"

Said pony put a hoof to her chest, barely able to move from the terror gripping her. "Y-yes?"

"They didn't hurt you?"

"No..."

The sergeant became filled with concern and looked toward the slit in the bunker wall. "Maybe these ones are different from the blue monsters."

Fluttershy gulped and breathed heavily. "What if we make allies with them and they stab us in the back afterward? The kirin of the western mountains did that to us before."

The sergeant scratched her head and shrugged. "These things come from outside our world. They might not have the same moral concepts as we do, and unlike the blue things, they don't seem intent on attacking us or destroying everything haphazardly because they think it's funny."

The lieutenant mulled it over. "Then we need to find a way to establish contact and try to learn what we can from them while it's possible." Fluttershy grit her teeth. "We can't afford anymore surprises against these po-...creatures."

"It's Princess Celestia!" a pony outside shouted.

Fluttershy and the sergeant cursed under their breath and rushed outside after the giants despite the other soldiers' protests and hid behind the wall, preferring it to the obvious opening in front of the fortification. She was accompanied by several armored carriages being pulled by heavily armored pegasi and landed just shy of the huge vessel the new creatures came out of. As the vehicles touched down, their occupants rolled out and pointed their rifles at the new invaders, opening fire. The carriages continued forward, crashing into the remaining blue giants and trampling over them. Several of the larger ones caught them and the ponies, flipping them over.

Fluttershy and the sergeant watched as the smaller invaders hid behind sandbags and thin, metal plates planted in the ground, doing their best to avoid getting shot. The few unicorns that had accompanied Celestia were bombarding them with explosive spell and beam from every angle they could cast in. Celestia, garbed in golden armor bedazzled with purple gems glared furiously at the fortified position near her bunkers.

"We've suffered enough at the hooves of Sombra's monsters. I don't need to see more of my ponies trampled upon by third parties!" she howled. "Leave Equestria, now!"

"They don't understand her!" the sergeant whispered to Fluttershy. "Should we step i--"

The yellow pegasus put a hoof to the sergeant's mouth. "If go in we'll get caught in the collateral damage. I don't want to be struck by Celestia when she uses a spell more complex than a ball of energy or a beam of light."

Her fellow agreed reluctantly and rubbed her muzzle. However, as they argued, the faceless giant watched silently, ignoring the bullets ricocheting off its armor. A blue light shone whenever a spell was directed at it, absorbing the hit and doing naught much else, but when Celestia stepped forth and started to summon storm clouds under the fire of the bipedal machines, it leapt forth.

It grabbed what Fluttershy assumed was asword handle with no blade. Under her eyes she saw pieces of metal fly up from the hilt and interlock under a blue light, creating a blade that left a wisp of blue energy behind it. Two bodyguards of Celestia's, covered in very thick and heavy plate armor, charged at the giant with their own weapons, but seeing its faceless helmet caused their strength to weaken, causing them to falter when one jumped on the other to create a two-leveled sword swing.

Despite its size, the giant jumped to the side, avoiding the swipes. In that split moment, it kicked the lower pony away, caving in its chest armor and open-palm struck the higher one, crushing its helmet and likely breaking its muzzle in the process as they flew past the princess.

With her guards being suppressed by the other bipeds despite the magic shields being put up to help block their rapid-firing weapons.

A third bodygfuard came in from the side and found its weapon and helmet being chopped apart with one downward, diagonal swing? Celestia gasped in horror at the sight as red came from the wound inflicted and let her magic go wild.

"No more deaths for my little ponies! This day you will die instead!"

Her whole body shimmered with a bright light, cooking the ground around them and causing the ponies and bipeds to flee and cover their eyes. The alicorn let loose waves of boiling-hot flame, burning away the land and striking the giant, b ut the same, shimmer blue bubble appeared to take the brunt of the attack as it closed in. Fluttershy flew to the sky to focus the light of the sun above already focused by the storm clouds the alicorn created to focus light through the atmospheric disturbance and let loose a carriage-sized beam of searing light that melted away all the stones and errant bits of metal it came across. Fluttershy and the sergeant could only watch this display of terrifying magic while the other two giants watched behind the smaller bipeds.

The faceless one grabbed a rock as big as a pony's head while running from the beam and chucked it at Celestia with speed that would make a baseball player pale. The alicorn narrowly dodged the attack and would have continued focusing on her spell if a second rock hadn't struck her horn, hurting her tremendously and disrupting the flow of magic. With a loud pop and bright flash of light, the mare fell down, smoking from the aftershocks of her disrupted spell and injury.

Trapped on the ground, she glared up at the faceless giant. "I won't let myself be struck down by some faceless invader just because you disrupted a small spell," she bluffed.

The mare jumped up, striking the giant's chest with her horn in a shower of sparks as it slid backward across the dusty, fractured soil. Undaunted, the giant rushed forward and swung at Celestia, the alicorn barely blocking with magic in time. Fluttershy knew alicorns were inherently magical in nature and were able to creates small spells without their horns, but seeing Celestia being pushed to such an extreme was shocking. The alicorn continued to use her hooves to strike at the giant, but no matter how much she hit it, the armor wouldn't get damaged, and she was only exhausting heself in the process.

"We can't just let her die like that!" Fluttershy said fearfully.

"What are we supposed to do, then?!" the sergeant asked her. She spun the lieutenant around and looked her straight in the eyes. "What can we do?"

Celestia screamed in pain and fell backward, her leg and chest armor cut and bleeding as the giant struck her and the ponies that broke from their positions to attack it and defend their princess.

Fluttershy's eyes widened as she had an epiphany. "Twilight will kill me if I don't help her!" The mare pushed past the sergeant and rushed forward. "Princess Celestia!"

She flew past the giants and smaller hominids and made to tackle the giant, knowing that she likely wouldn't survive the outcome, but Celestia had to live. The princesses were all they had left in Equestria.

Author's Note

You'll find the link to Lux Locus: The First Awakening here.

It's a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid spanning 82k words, set in a universe where eldritch aliens can come in from other dimensions with weapons that have odd effects within our reality and gods that can enter our plane with the right rituals, but that's for later books.

Here's the description:

Killigan Ghor, a blacksmith of the Calaghi System, explores the swamps beyond his village and discovers immense gauntlets that put him on the path to becoming a super soldier of the Terran Expanse: A Pillar Scieldan. As he grows in experience over the years, he returns to his home system with the promise of defending it from threats. However, due to his reckless actions, he awakens a rotting threat that casts its eyes over his home system. Its ever-changing tendrils grow closer to his home, and Killigan must find a way to stay its decaying flesh lest it destroys all of his work.