"Cower behind your pathetic little bubble of magic all you like, weaklings!" Queen Chrysalis taunted, heart filled with glee, as her overwhelming swarm of Changelings continue to hammer and blast at the spherical shield surrounding all of Canterlot with all their might, "It won't be long before it fails, and it'll just make my victory more sweet when my minions swarm your capital once again, and feast on the love from you and the rest of your kind!"



"You won't break down this barrier this time, Queenie!" Shining Armor shouted, waving a hoof while at it, from the balcony of the tallest tower in the Canterlot palace, with Princess Luna and his wife Princess Cadence by his side, "This new magical shield spell is strong enough to tank a meteor strike at point-blank range!"



"A meteor strike?" asked Queen Chrysalis. The excitement she felt of her imminent triumph suddenly replaced by confusion - and worryingly, a gut-feeling of dread - when she took into account of the shield's apparent strength, and a little fact of his character that she picked up early on while disguised as his groom just before her failed Wedding Invasion.



"Knowing how humble this idiot is, he wouldn't boasted so specifically about it unless it could actually -"



That was when she noticed Princess Luna's horn was glowing blue from where she hovers.



"Oh no..."



Whatever she was going to say next died in her throat, when the overcast sunset sky begins to glow bright, and a distant rumble became audible. Almost as one, the Changeling swarm paused their attack to take note; the ponies taking refuge indoors looked out of the curtains and doors of their homes and public shelters as both light and sound grew in prominence.



Then, almost mere moments later, it came screaming out of the sky; a meteor, size of a hot-air balloon, fell towards the earth, blazing a trail through the heavens as it fell towards Canterlot. It didn't hit the city, or even landed on the ground; when the friction and compression generated by the atmosphere as it plummeted finally took its toll upon the space rock, it exploded in mid-air, right in the middle of the Changeling swarm, with the force of an atomic bomb.



Queen Chrysalis only managed a horrified scream before her whole world was engulfed in a blinding flash of light.



= = =



It was only three days later before the Princesses deigned it safe to drop the shield. By then, the mushroom cloud of dust and debri had cleared away, along with the smoke from the firestorm that burnt away the forests surrounding the city.



Even with the force that detonated near Canterlot, the city of gold and alabaster stood relatively intact; the shield worked as advertised, and even turned completely opaque to prevent the city from being flash-blinded or burned. The same could not be said for those outside the shield: there were no signs of Queen Chrysalis or the Changeling swarm besieging Canterlot. Where they had been, only a crater of cooling rock and glass remained...