//------------------------------//
// Con 
// Story: Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

Twilight was sure she'd hit Stella. The alicorn had fallen for her trick of playing unconscious longer than she'd actually been, and hadn't realised what was happening until it was too late. And while she couldn't know it for sure, she was in fact right. She had struck Stella in full with her spell. Where she was wrong was in thinking that would be even close to enough to finish their fight.
She barely felt the fluctuation of magic as Stella cast her spell, the way the flow of her blast shifted just slightly as its occupant teleported away. She sensed and saw the other at her side, but not fast enough to react in any way. Not to attack, not to move away, not even to defend herself. Stella's hoof connected with her body, backed by all the strength the alicorn managed to magically channel into it, and Twilight was once again sailing through the air as the resulting sonic boom swept up the dust and sand on the ground below.
The other ponies there feared for a moment Stella would come for them, but instead she channeled magic into her wings like Twilight had before and took off after the princess. Her coat was covered in burns and her mane and tail were partly charred, and the metal pieces she wore were still giving off heat, their surface pattern altered after almost melting under Twilight's spell. She had sent the mare flying so fast it took her a while to catch up, enough to properly contemplate her situation and seethe with rage. She had wanted to execute Twilight publicly, but she could always kill her first, and simply make a show of ripping her head off her corpse afterwards.
Twilight, at the end of her flight, became extremely glad she had asked for Manehattan to be evacuated regardless of Stella choosing to free the city. Mostly because said flight ended with her passing through one of the town's towers, and then falling down into another building next to it. It wasn't so much about the damage she'd caused crashing there as it was about the damage soon to come as Stella would follow her there. She thanked Harmony they'd had enough time to get everyone away, even if physical belongings were sure to have been left behind.
She'd had the air completely knocked out of her lungs by Stella's blow, and standing up she realised she wasn't sure her shoulder would hold her right. Thankfully, her wing hadn't been in the way, otherwise it would have snapped in two under Stella's hoof. Her ribs weren't without cracks, she could feel it, but that all she could deal with. Lack of mobile flight would have been far more of a problem.
She didn't have much time to consider her options. She heard Stella arrive outside, and she knew her position would be obvious. She teleported away, into the streets of the city below, hoping she'd be able to hide.