Once the cyclops fell, Nivalia cut off all her magic besides holding Onyx. At this point it was a steady glide down. "We sure did. Just hold on." She spots Foxtrot walking around and even notices Mana. So, she descends and lands in the middle. "Hey you two! Over here!" Get magic lifts the mare from her back onto the ground. Sitting her down, she grabs her hoof and channels a slow but steady stream of magic. After, she pulls a bottle of water out and lasts it next to her. "Drink up, you've done quite a bit."

Foxtrot gets to them first. The siblings hug before sitting down. "We did it bro. Drinks are on me when we get home." Home. Looking around, her joyful expression turns somber. This town, their home is completely destroyed. It could be worse, but it begs the question as to why. Why do all of this?

With the cyclops incapacitated the remaining civilians had a far easier time reaching safety, the town watch moving back in with the majority of their forces to help what few still remained, stamp out fires and keep an eye on the creature as it slumbered. At the site of the cyclops crash to earth Mana was pleasantly surprised to find that the majority of the rest of the group had survived with minimal harm done, the fact that they were all still alive being a major bonus that he’d feared too optimistic to hope for. He saw Arum bap Thunder over the head and argue with him over his near dropping of the jar. Thunder was steadfast in his belief that he could have saved it. Charybdis meanwhile was on the cyclops itself, rising and falling with its chest as she stayed watchful for it to get back up.

As if recognizing the thunderous fall of the monster as their sign that things were taken care of, Alacrity and Spirit both trotted out from the surprisingly still intact Green Lion and into the mess that surrounded them. It wasn’t hard to find the others and soon they had joined with Spirit performing a small celebratory dance while Alacrity started trying to crunch numbers and calculate what the effects of the dust would have on the massive body it had been injected into. While not the one to brew any of their alchemy, you pick up a thing or two while tending the counter and listening to the guy in the back encouraging himself, so Alacrity felt she could maybe ball park it at the very least. She warned it would take her a while. Spirit occupied herself by offering the Lion’s surviving stock to help with any first aid or medical help that would be required.

Time passed, Mana revealing himself to the town watch and mayor as a royal guardsman in order to better direct their efforts but taking care to stick to the story that they had just been there for a vacation and were merely in the right place at the wrong time. Charybdis had been tackled by a grateful mare after coming back to the ground but had shoved her away with a rolling of her eyes and regrouped with Arum to discuss things, a third name coming up occasionally that neither Mana nor Thunder recognized.

Nivalia’s identity had kept the Watch from relaxing, most of them treating her like she was contagious with some kind of disease. There were more than a few whispers amongst them that theorized that Foxtrot was under her influence due to how close they clearly were, and both Mana and Thunder weren’t too keen on being near her for the time being. They’d both been present in Canterlot during the invasion and neither felt and warm fuzzy feelings when it came to their kind. Arum was openly suspicious and kept side eyeing her but Charybdis was too busy to care as she wasn’t scared of a lone changeling.

Thunder flew his way to the head of the cyclops and landed just above its eye while Spirit tried to correct Alacrity’s math and accidentally set back her equations by a few numbers.

“Hey, Mana!” he shouted, continuing what he’d been trying to say earlier as some folk from town started wrapping rope they had scrounged up around the cyclops in the hopes it could hold it, “Look who it is!” he tapped his hoof on the cyclops’ forehead and smirked down at Mana, earning a wave.

“Yeah!” Mana replied, though with less ease, “I noticed.”

“Small world, right?”

“Guardsman!” Charybdis cut her way in, Thunder’s recognizing of the cyclops capturing her attention, “Explain.”

“Um… No?” Mana replied, scoffing at her demand, “Why would I tell you anything? I don’t know you.”

“We already told you everything last night,“ Arum this time, eager to know what Mana did, “Just ask your friend.”

“Yeah, he told me, but I still don’t know you. In fact, you should be explaining a lot of things to me right now.”

“His names Grobed,” Thunder said with a boastful grin that frustrated Mana, “Mana and I actually dealt with him a few years ago with a crew of about… what, three other guys?”

“thirteen guardsmen, three hired trackers from the areas, an airship, and at one point a galleon loaded with confetti grapeshot.”

“Yeah, so at least three other guys. Was all us in the end though. I mean I’m pretty sure it was my choke-hold that brought him down. Jerk was stomping around on the west coast after an expedition by some explorers to the south rustled some jungle and woke him up from a nap. It was summer so he wanted to go north to cooler weather, but orders came from on high to stop him since he was stepping on towns and they didn’t want him causing an incident with the Crystal Empire.”

Nyx gratefully absorbed the energy from Nivalia, her muscles relaxing and her eyes becoming a bit more alert. Afterwards, she drained the bottle of water in one go. Finally starting to feel a bit better, she set the bottle beside her and looked around. The others were starting to gather together in some sort of discussion, while guards helped civilians. When she started to notice the looks Nivalia and Foxtrot were getting, her ear twitched in annoyance. Though she couldn't say that she knew exactly how such treatment would make the changeling feel, she could guess. Though her research inspired many, it disgusted the same amount. Nyx knew how it felt to be seen as some kind of parasite.

Though her legs were shaky, she forced herself up and headed towards Nivalia and Fox, who appeared to be leaving. "Nivalia! Foxtrot! Wait!" She called out as she came closer, her gait slower than she would have liked. When she reached them, she smiled. "Great job guys. I still can't believe we took that thing out." She glanced over her shoulder at the fallen cyclops. "Temporarily, at least." She directed her attention to Nivalia. "You saved my life more than once. Thank you." Her gaze grew more serious. "I am in your debt, and I won't forget that."

She was silent for a moment, sighing heavily. "I'm sorry for how some ponies must treat you. Ponies naturally fear those who are different, whether they are their own kind or not." She hesitated before continuing. "You two aren't leaving so soon, are you?"

And so the beast came down with a loud boom and a shook of earth that could be felt near it. Equilibrium took some cover behind the corner of the building, peeking out after the monster had hit the ground. She was mostly happy with her notes, but spotted something small she would totally need. A piece of the eye? No, the magic? What ever it was it was solid, and quickly bottled before more guards made it to the area. Equilibrium backed away from the scene, looking for an intact building and with some magic assist she jumped on top of it, trying to map out the town and make out the spot the carnage begun in. That would be the most likely source for more information, perhaps even a relic of somekind.

She watched as some ponies began to leave, from the looks of it they were some commoners, even though two of them were responsible for one huge popped eyeball. Equilibrium made sure to note down that one of them hid a secret.

“Oh, he got way worse than a slap on the wrist.” Thunder hovered his way down to join the others.

“That’s what’s been worrying me so much,” Mana added with a frown, “last I saw him he was shackled, neutralized and sent off to be kept in check. I figured we’d never see him again and was happy for it.”

“Wasn’t very shackled this time around what with the town smashing and all,” Thunder cast a glance over towards the townsfolk trying their best to tie up arms far larger than themselves, “freebird got an early release it looks like.”

“No, he still had decades left to serve. As for the next likely place for those mages to show up, Berrylsburg was a likely candidate but they were supposed to be targeted instead of Weaver. Other than there I’m not sure.”

“Where, exactly, did he the cyclops get shipped off to when he was detained?” Charybdis asked for clarification.

“The same place all big and dangerous things tend to go,” Mana replies, “Tartarus. I think he was on the third or fourth level? We didn’t go with when he was taken there so I can’t say I know much about the details, but I can say that it’s strange we hadn’t heard about him escaping as we and the rest of the team were meant to respond in case he got back out.”

Nyx trotted over to the others, frowning as she heard the cyclop's previous location. "Well, I've never been to Tartarus, but from what I've heard about it, what we saw through that portal certainly could have been it. My guess would be that that was the cyclops' escape- that they summoned a portal directly between here and Tartarus. That would explain why you hadn't heard of an escape previously, but does not bode well for us. If these guys can portal things out of Tartarus, this could just be the beginning." But then she fell silent, not exactly sure what to do next.

“It’s certainly possible,” Charybdis answered Glory, “it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened. From what I understand using magic to get in or out is entirely plausible albeit difficult and beyond most people’s abilities.”

“How do you know this?” Mana asked only to be ignored.

“If they had three here working together,” she continued, bringing a claw to her beak in thought, “they may have been able to do it assuming they were talented enough, but with the distractions, instability and cyclops waiting for its cue on the other side there must have been more helping to open the portal from the other end.”

“I don’t understand how that could be,” Mana spoke again, “if it was opened from within Tartarus then they’d have needed to free him from his cell first and that should have been impossible without someone knowing about it. He wasn’t low enough to go without active guards keeping tabs and those magi couldn’t have opened a portal into Tartarus to sneak inside without a very clear understanding of where they would be going. Considering his particular containment they couldn’t have just poofed into his cell either. Such Magic was supposed to be negated around his cell with special wards.”

“Well, if you never heard of him getting out and he was supposed to be in Tartarus, then where else could they have done this?” Charybdis questioned with waning patience.

“If a gigantic cyclops was being portal’d out of the highest security prison in the country, how could none of the guards assigned to him not have noticed?” Mana asked back, neither getting anywhere.

“Why don’t we just go ask them?” Thunder suggested with the hopes it would move them along.

“Ask them?” Mana echoes.

“Yeah. With words and stuff. Either they’ll know something or they’ll be happy to learn that one of their inmates has escaped. We’re going to need them to send a team here regardless since I’m pretty sure that some rope scrounged up from a a few farms won’t be able to hold Grobed for long when he wakes up.”

Being reminded of the possibility, Mana called over to the pair of mates from the Green Lion. “Hey, Alacrity, did you figure out how much time we have?”

“Forever!” Spirit shouted back much to the surprise to the few watchmen who had been following along well enough to understand the implications.

“I’m not sure,” Alacrity replied with more restraint, “if it had been a regular pony then it may actually have meant forever. That was an insanely big dose. But, given that I don’t know giant monster biology, the things obvious size and how I’m being told that it’s eye has already been healing I can only really guesstimate. I’d say... maybe a week? Less?”

“They have the means and the training, Mana,” Thunder reminded.

“I understand that,” Mana assured, “but with the train station wrecked it could take a week for us to get anywhere already. We’d have to walk and I’ve never been there and that could take even longer depending on if we even arrived at the right time.”

“You didn’t look up last night, did you?” Charybdis asked, “The cycle just shifted into Epsi. I’d say it would only take a couple days to reach the entrance if we went at a brisk pace.”

“Okay, seriously, how?” Mana asked back only to be tsk’d.

“Guardsman, there are so many more pressing things you should be worrying about right now.”