Comforting hopped into the portal. The trip back wasn't nearly as harrowing. She wasn't losing things, she was gaining them. She emerged in Twilight's basement, her chaotic magic returned in a giddy rush that made her lash her returned tail as she stood up, wobbling with the mild difference in proportions. "I'm home!"
Twilight had backed away from the mirror, gaping at the large form of the monster then occupying her basement. It was a great wolf, with a pony's face. Just the face though, she had wolf ears on her head. Cracked also had pony hooves at the front and a pony's barrel/belly, covered in dense wolven fur. She was a mashed hybrid of the two species, and alarmingly big, her teeth bared and too sharp.
That she was holding a confused pony Diamond Tiara didn't help.
"Stop!" shouted Comforting, putting up her hands. "It's me, Comforting. Let's calm down."
Cracked let out a canine noise of surprise. "Comforting? You changed, maybe more than I did." The tension of the moment had been shattered. "I will put you down." Which she did, releasing Diamond to the floor.
Twilight advanced, horn glowing as she pulled Diamond away to move between Diamond and Cracked. "What are you?" Notes had come in her book, but it was hardly the time for a book, an idea that was abhorrent to Twilight. "You know Comforting?"
"She knows me too." Diamond pointed at herself with a new hoof. "Hmmph, she's the one that got me here. Thanks."
"You promised lunch," growled out Cracked, thumping one of her hind paws against the ground with the scratch of her claws. "I haven't eaten today."
Twilight blinked at the exchange, coiling away from Cracked, at Diamond. "And... you aren't the Diamond Tiara I know, are you?"
"We've walked past each other." Diamond shrugged. "You're Twilight Sparkle, right?"
"That is... correct." One obvious difference Twilight could see, this Diamond had no tiara. She was wearing a school uniform, even if it only mostly fit her pony form. "Don't panic. We'll get you back home as quickly as possible."
"Pass." Diamond raised a hoof in flat negation and clip-clopped over to Comforting, her stance a bit off, but she didn't fall. "Hey, wow, look at you! You got to keep your fingers? Lucky. I thought I'd be seeing a pony you, not... whatever this is. No wonder you were alright with Cracked."
Cracked approached, a strange sound. clip-thump-tick-clop-thump-tick. "You are a monster too... No wonder. Hmmph, part of me was wondering why you didn't start with that, but I would have not believed you if you had told me..."
Comforting laughed nervously. "Yeah... It was a long journey to get here. I was a pony before, and stuff happened and..."
Twilight poked Diamond in the side. "Excuse me? This isn't where you belong."
Diamond cocked a brow at her. "That didn't stop you from visiting. Now, shoosh. I'm here to visit with Comforting and check things out. I'll go home when I'm done."
Twilight sank to her haunches with a weary sigh. "And you?"
Cracked inclined her head. "I was invited to stay."
Comforting raised a hand quickly. "I'll take the blame, and responsibility, for that one. Cracked needs our help, and is from Equestria originally."
"Nice to meet you, Cracked... Hm." Twilight looked Cracked over intently. "I hope you don't take offense... but you appear to be a carnivore."
"I am." That was neither a secret nor a shame for her. "I hear you have hamburgers too."
Twilight colored faintly, reminded of those human hamburgers. "Not the exact same kind. The burgers here are hayburgers. You probably wouldn't like them? I'd be glad to offer one and you can try it?"
Cracked sat up, towering as she crossed her arms. "Bring it, and I will judge it."
Comforting considered making a hayburger, but she just went through that chaos detox. No rush to get right back into those habits. "I'll take her. Diamond wants to see the town anyway, so we'll all go to the Hayburger."
Cracked's tail lifted as she stood up, wagging behind her. "I can just walk outside?"
"I'll be there." Comforting patted Cracked's shoulder, even if she had to reach up to do it. "Nobody's bothering my friends. Besides, the ponies of this town are nice. They just might be startled."
Twilight let them ascend towards the exit. "I should tell Fluttershy." She vanished with a pop, teleporting away to just in front of Fluttershy's cottage. She knocked with a clop on the door. "Fluttershy?"
"Is she back?" Fluttershy opened the door quickly. "Oh..." But there was no Comforting. "Did you want me there when you brought her back?"
"She's back, with friends." Twilight smiled with a little chuckle. "You may be very interested in one of them. She's made friends with a monster, a real monster. They're headed to the hayburger to get them a snack, but I bet they'd love to have an expert at hoof to help feed her properly."
"Oh my!" Fluttershy's eyes widened with the thought of it. "But the monster is friendly?" Twilight nodded. "Well, alright then." Fluttershy spread her wings and took off at a casual soaring. It wasn't hard to find Comforting's crew. Ponies were giving them a wide berth, and her new friend was sizable. Fluttershy came in for a landing just in front of them.
Comforting dashed ahead to grab Fluttershy, squeezing her. "I missed you so much!"
Fluttershy hooked an arm around Comforting, returning the embrace. "It's good to see you back. Um." She looked between Cracked and the curiously dressed Diamond. "Hello. My name is--"
"--Fluttershy," cried out Comforting, cutting her off. "My mom and animal expert."
Fluttershy colored faintly at the praising words. "Nice to meet you all. I hear you're getting something to eat?"
Cracked flashed a dangerous smile. "Yes. I hunger..." She licked some spittle that had been about to escape. "You say you're an animal expert, does that include monsters?"
"Actually... yes." Fluttershy approached Cracked without fear. "May I examine you?"
Cracked flumped down to her haunches. "Really? I was really expecting you to say no..." Still, she didn't fight at Fluttershy circled and poked and examined. "Ponies have changed a lot from when I last remember them... They wouldn't dare to do this."
"You're just a hungry animal." Fluttershy reached up to peel back Cracked's lips to examine her teeth critically. "We're all hungry animals at times, and we need the proper food to be healthy and happy. Knowing what to feed them is one of many jobs I've accepted."
Cracked flexed some internal muscle, causing her teeth to shift between harmless pony chompers and sharp cutting wolven teeth. "Pretty sure the pony ones are for looking less scary."
"Maybe..." Fluttershy pressed a hoof against Cracked's belly, feeling around, as if making some judgement on her insides, taking weight and feel of her very organs. "Maybe..."
Diamond huhed at the whole thing. "Your mom's kinda out there. Cool. I want to try pony fast food. That sounds so stupid, it has to be great."
"I never went to hayburger," admitted Comforting, realizing that was true as she said it. "Never occured to me when I have her for a mom. She makes the best food."
Fluttershy colored faintly. "All animals need good food, be they pets or wild critters or even my daughter." She poked at something that made Cracked grunt and glare at her. "Sorry. Your insides are fascinating! Have you... tried adjusting them, like you do your teeth?" She pointed a hoof at her own mouth. "It's just an idea, but you may be able to do that."
Cracked inclined her head slowly. "Uh... adjust them how? My stomach doesn't need teeth." She smirked at the thought of it. "But that does sound pretty scary..." And that didn't sound like she was entirely against the idea. "I'm not a changeling. The form I have is the form I have, minus the teeth."
Fluttershy put both hooves on one of Cracked's hoof, drawing it closer. "Feel mine." She directed that hoof at her belly. "Ponies have many chambers in their belly. It's good for breaking down things that are hard to digest, like plants." She led the hoof on a journey, to feel each part of her digestive tract from the outside. "Carnivores are a lot simpler. Meat is easier to get at the goodies, um, as it were. Yours feels a little in the middle."
"I hope you aren't offended... But you feel delicious." Cracked growled with the imagination of what meal would come from Fluttershy's insides.
"No." Comforting bopped Cracked with a newspaper she hadn't been holding before. "Bad. She's trying to help you."
Fluttershy released Cracked, falling to all fours. "You were going to the hayburger, weren't you? That might be the perfect place to try this."
Diamond kept up with Comforting. "Your mom's hard core. Not many people I know would take that without freaking out." She frowned with thought. "Mental note, not offering my belly to Cracked."
"Comforting!" called out Diamond, but it wasn't that Diamond. The one with a tiara came trotting up to join the crew. "And... friends?" She peered at Cracked suspiciously, but that redoubled into a scowl at the sight of her doppelganger. "It's rude to take a pony's shape. Stop that."
Diamond 2 pointed at herself. "I didn't get a choice. So you're pony me? Neat..." She went to circle Diamond Prime with naked curiosity. "Are you just as rich?"
Diamond 1 looked instead to Comforting. "Yo, explain this." She pointed at her circling double. "It's making me mad, but you're the one I bet could say what's going on, so out with it."
Comforting hopped between them. "Hey Diamond, great to see you again. I went to a whole other world, and you were there, as an alien species."
"That's me," agreed Diamond 2. "But I'm a pony here, just like you."
"Like me?" Diamond 1 poked Diamond 2. "I was here first. I was friends with Comforting first. Hmph." She looked to Comforting. "How long is this going to be a thing? She's not staying here, right?"
Comforting wrapped an arm around the neck of either of her Diamond friends. "Just a visit, promise. Let's be nice, even to our other-universe selves. You'd want her to do the same if you were visiting her, wouldn't you?"
"One thing." Diamond 2 pointed at Fluttershy. "Why are we so small? I know I was still growing up and all, but I was getting close to adult! Now I'm tiny!"
Diamond 1 cocked a brow. "Huh. Your species, whatever it is, must work different. We ponies have some pretty big growth spurts. Practically overnight, you're in the next stage." She looked over her twin. "What is your... What do you normally look like? Not a pony, I gathered."
Fluttershy was guiding Cracked away, off into the Hayburger. Ponies started with surprise, but Fluttershy was right there. Surely any monster with her had to be alright if she wasn't already locked in deadly combat with it. She went right up to the counter with Cracked trailing behind. "Um, hello. I'd like to place an order."
"Whattaya have in mind?" asked the bored mare before she noticed the big thing behind Fluttershy. "Woah..."
"Don't mind her. One fish, one hayburger, an order of hay fries, um, a water... That'll be enough for now, thank you."
"Sure, no problem." The mare brought down a hoof on the register, collected the bits, and took a stiff step back. "Coming right up..." She fled.
Cracked snickered at the sight. "That is more of what I'm used to.. Part of me wants to chase her..."
"Don't do that, um, please." Fluttershy sat in place. "She's getting your food. She can't do that if you hurt her."
"True." Cracked reared up a big wolf hindpaw which proved quite good at scratching an itch. "Sorry, this is all new to me... but thank you for being patient."