//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 - A Magical Friendship 
// Story: It's Quiet in the City 
// by SkyArrow 
//------------------------------//

"Up and at 'em, Martha! We're burning daylight!" Kat's voice called out to my sleeping form.

"Five more minutes..." I groaned, turning over in my 'bed'.

"You said that five minutes ago. And five minutes before that! Besides, don't ya want some breakfast? I promise it's probably better than what you've been scrounging up."

"Mmph... fine. What is it?" I mumbled, punctuating myself with a yawn.

"Oh, well if ya wanna know, you're gonna have to get up and come see. Otherwise, I guess Jay and I will be eating it all," she teased. As did Jay, somehow finding a way to chirp teasingly.

With a sigh, I got up, stretching similarly to a cat with their back arched. Blinking the tired out of my eyes, I trotted out to the breakroom-turned-kitchen. It was my own fault really for being so tired. I spent a good chunk of the night practicing my mouthdrawing. Not a word? Well, I'm making it one now and no one can stop me.

I entered, the warm smell of a cooked meal wafting by me. I almost thought I was dreaming. Or maybe I was dead and in heaven. Either way, I eagerly went over and sat at a chair. Or tried to.

"Try sitting on your hind legs, and placing your forelegs in front of you. Like how cats sit," Kat suggested, turning off her electric skillet.

"How 'Kats' sit?" I joked.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. You know what I meant."

I did as she said, and it was so much easier. Though, even trying to sit like a human, my joints didn't seem to be in any pain, just that this felt more natural.

Kat levitated over a plate of scrambled eggs onto the table next to me. "Here ya go. Careful, it's a might bit hot still. Also, your tail is wagging."

"Huh?" I blushed and looked at my tail, which was indeed wagging back and forth like it had a mind of its own.

Kat giggled as I frantically tried to make it stop. "No need to get embarrassed. It's an involuntary behavior; perfectly normal."

"I'm... uh... pretty sure that magical talking ponies aren't normal," I countered.

"Well, yeah. That's also true, but from what I have noticed, a lot of our involuntary behavior mimics normal ponies somewhat, with a smidge of cat behavior mixed in there. Though we're a lot more flexible than normal ponies."

I nodded as I began to eat, stopping to talk in between bites. "So, where'd you get eggs from? I'd expect them all to be rotten by this point," I paused. "These aren't rotten, right?"

She gave a huff. "What, you think I'd try to poison you? How rude."

"S-sorry, I–" I started before she ruffled my mane with a hoof, giving me a playful grin.

"Settle down girl, I'm just messin' with ya. Nah, these aren't eggs from the store. I've got some hens out back. Rescued them from a farm I did. It's a good thing I did too. Poor things had almost starved."

"Aren't you worried they'll get attacked?" I asked, finishing the last of my eggs.

"The back fence is secure enough to stop most creatures. Though, if we're dealing with smarter animals, including smarter predators, we'll probably need to bring them inside with us eventually. But don't worry about that now. I've got a whole list of other more immediate things that need getting done."

I stood up, eager to help out. Kat's offered to help me, so I was not going to leave her high and dry. "Alright. What's the first thing on the list? Is it something I can do?"

She sniffed and recoiled a bit. "Mm-hm. There sure is. You haven't taken a shower since this all started, have you?"

I coughed, awkwardly tapping a hoof on the ground. "...m-maaaybe."

She gave me a suspicious look.

"Okay fine, no. I wanted to, but I had so much else on my mind. Plus, the shower in the lodge was making weird noises."

"Well, lucky for you, my old house still has a working shower. Or... at least until it breaks," she said, looking up in thought before waving a hoof dismissively. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Come on, let's go."

"Wait, I'm not even dressed yet!" I complained, but she was already out the door. I sighed. I guess I didn't really need to wear clothes like before. Unlike human me, I was entirely covered in a coat of fur, and I probably wouldn't truly need any extra insulation until it really got cold out.

I did, however, quickly retrieve my backpack (just in case of a drawing emergency) and headed out after her.

---⬦⟢⬦♢⬦⟣⬦---

Fortunately, her house was just a few doors down, so Martha's Triptastic Adventures Vol. 2 would have to be put on hold.

It wasn't anything grand. Just a simple single-story blue bungalow. However, the inside was anything but ordinary. Upon entering, I could only describe the decor as very pet-themed. Paw-print sofas, countless photos of dogs and cats adorning the walls, a clock with little cat ears, need I say more?

She saw my look and rolled her eyes a bit. "Yeah, yeah, I know. It's a bit tacky. A lot of it was housewarming gifts from my mom. I just couldn't find it in me to say no. Guess I still keep them around now cause it's all I've got left of her."

I nodded, understanding. "It's not that bad," I lied, then noticed a photo of a woman. She had brown eyes and long ginger hair, a big smile on her face as she held a superhero pose for the camera. She looked to be in her late 20s. 

"Who's this?" I asked, even though I had a pretty good guess.

"Hmm... I dunno, but she sure is a looker, isn't she?" Kat answered with a knowing smile. "But yeah, that's me. Or, was me. My husband took the photo, but... " her eyes glanced down, and she bit her bottom lip.

I put a comforting hoof on her shoulder. I hadn't thought about it, but obviously she must have lost people she cared for as well. I just tried to be there, someone to give her a little hope.

She gave a smile and hugged me this time, though briefly. "Thanks. Now let's get back on track," she said, quickly recovering and leading me over to the bathroom.

Kat helped get the knobs turned with her magical unicorn talents, but left me to my privacy and my thoughts. It was a bit awkward standing at such a low stature in the shower, and washing myself without hands was a nightmare. I eventually just succumbed to it being a lost cause and had to bring Kat in to help me. She didn't mind at all, but that didn't help with my embarrassment.

When that was done, Kat dried me off with a towel, then thoroughly brushed my coat, as well as my mane and tail. It felt... nice. Is this why animals like being petted so much? (Well, until they didn't and bit you. I swear I didn't bite Kat, though).

"There ya go, Martha. Now you're sparkly clean, take a look," she said, directing my attention to the mirror. I glanced over, seeing pony me, but my fur was much less dull. Not bright like Kat's, but still brighter than it was before.

"Wow. Thank you so much, Kat. I could have never done this on my own," I said.

"Don't mention it. 'Sides, when we find any other people or ponies, we gotta at least look like we're civilized."

"You really think there are others still out there somewhere? In the same situation as us?" I asked, thinking about the possibility. I guess if Kat and I were still here, there could be others.

Kat reaffirmed my thoughts and nodded firmly. "That's why I said 'when'. There's no way it's just us. I got no way of proving it, just a feeling. A very strong feeling at that."

All dry now, I trotted out of the bathroom with her. "How will we find them then? And how will we know if they're on our side?"

Her ears flattened a bit. "Well, for starters, not greeting them with a shotgun. Real sorry about that again. But you're right, we could find others, but they might not be too friendly. I guess we'll just have to play it by ear, which leads to what we're gonna be doing today."

"Which is?" I asked, curious.

"That depends. First I gotta ask. You any good with radios?" she asked.

"I know that you can tune to stations, put CDs in, and change the volume. That's about it, sorry. It's just something I never really looked into," I replied, sad to see a bit of disappointment in her face. I don't think it was directed at me, but I still felt bad.

"That's alright. I had a backup plan anyways. If we're going to be finding others, we need a way to communicate with them. So, since phones aren't working, I think our best bet is to start broadcasting with a radio. And seeing that neither of us know a lick about that stuff, my plan was that we head to the library and see if we can learn something," she explained.

"Sounds like a great idea. I'm in," I said.

"Great! Oh, and before we go, I've got a present for you back at the hospital."

---⬦⟢⬦♢⬦⟣⬦---

We packed some supplies in case we took longer than a day, as well as leaving a note just on the off-chance some survivors discovered our little base. Jay was given orders to watch the hospital, to which he did a salute at. 

The present Kat was talking about was a pair of hoof boots. Apparently that's a thing. She told me that there's a horseback riding place northwest of here, and sometimes they'd come here for treatment. Whenever they had a hoof injury, they'd have to wear these hoof boots for a while.

Neither of us had injured hooves, but Kat said that the asphalt would start to wear down on them after a while. 

In her words, "Unless you wanna be shorter than you are now, it might be a good idea to wear them."

I wasn't short. I was... fun-sized.

That aside, the boots were actually kinda nice. They felt comfy and they didn't fall off. They were a bit simple, though, being mostly just a simple gray. Maybe I'd give them a bit of a paint-job when I got the chance.

I also decided to at least put the hoodie back on. I know I didn't really need to. Kat sure wasn't. All she had was a scarf. But it still felt weird not wearing clothes, especially if we were heading deeper into the city, even though it was likely just us for miles.

We spent the walk to the library talking and sharing more things about each other. From what Kat tells me, she used to live in the southern US, but moved up here with her family back when she was in her teens. Never lost the accent, though. She also told me more about her husband. His name was James. Apparently he was one of her clients, but one thing led to another and well, they ended up married.

She asked me about my love interests and I just said "I'd rather not talk about it," hoping she'd leave it at that. She did, thankfully, and didn't push any further.

Other than that, nothing of note happened. I had hoped we'd at least see signs of others, but it was just empty streets, the occasional parked car or wild animal here or there. Luckily, none of the wild animals we found were the predatory kind. I knew our luck would probably run out at some point, though, and we'd run into dog packs. I did not look forward to that day.

The library was locked, to no one's surprise. However, Kat seemed to be unconcerned, levitating out a screwdriver and bobby pin from her bags. With practiced care, she started working on the lock until it gave a 'Click!' sound.

I blinked, surprised. "You know how to lockpick?"

"Eeyup. Locked myself out of my own house enough times to warrant learning. Why pay a locksmith when you can do the job yourself?" she answered, trotting in first.

I followed and looked around. Yep, definitely had that 'library smell' to it, though it was even stronger smelling as a pony. A mixture of dusty books, paper, and a bit of worn leather. If the smell and the big sign outside weren't blatant enough clues as to what building we walked into, the rows upon rows of bookshelves were a pretty big hint.

We decided to split up and search for the books we need. Anything to do with radios, or broadcasting, or survival prep guides. I decided to also look for some books about horses, figuring that it might help me out with the terminology as well as learning about my new body. Though I really doubted there would be a chapter on 'blue talking ponies', it would at least be something.

I may have also snuck in some time drawing after reading through a particularly long book about the history of radiocommunications. Don't judge me, you'd want a break after that too.