Chapter 7
Unforeseen Events
The ponies down below were causing quite the ruckus despite the early rays of the sun just peeking over the horizon. I looked down through the clear pane of glass onto the pier, where just below the ramp there were ponies gathering around. A few boats had appeared alongside the sun, and when they sailed closer the sailors on board were waving their fishing poles and jumping in joy. On each and every boat was a huge net that held thousands of fish, singlehandedly disproving the theories I created when I heard rumors of the fishermen coming home empty-handed.
I watched as they sailed closer to the pier and dock the boats. While they were working, the urge to ignore keeping their boats tethered and run to their families was obvious on the fishermen, or rather fisherponies, faces. Once they finished they ran up the pier with surprising speed. I watched as a sea of emotion grew into a tidal wave, as husbands reunited with wives, children seeing their parents after so long, and a sense of comfort that I could feel from my second story room.
I heard my door open behind as D4 unsteadily walked into the room. She stood by my side as she witnessed the spectacle with her nose wrinkled and a frown on her face. I wasn't sure if it was the display of affection of the possible hangover she had that cause her to act so unruly.
I was about to put on my disguise and head down there to join the others when I spotted a straggler on one of the remaining boats. I watched as he left the cabin, his aqua blue wing giving a little altitude before he turned to face the inside of the cabin. I saw his mouth move and give whoever was inside a reassuring smile. Then he shut the door and flew towards the crowd of ponies, nearly bowling everypony over in the process to reach a certain elderly mare.
The two exchanged a long hug, then a serious look overshadowed the pegasus' face as he relayed something to Summers. The grey mare gave a slow nod and took the floor for exchanging news. But the way she pointed at the building where we currently resided, it wasn't hard to deduce what the subject matter was.
"Come on, D4. It's time to make our appearance." I put on my disguise and waited for D4's Bob to follow suit. What I got instead was D4 still staring out the window, the frown becoming one of worry and concern. She visibly concentrated to shapeshift, but to no avail.
"D4, what's wrong?" I trotted back to her side. She had that look of concentration on her face, yet she kept wincing in pain or closing her eyes for a moment before returning to the task at hoof.
"D4... do you have a hangover?"
The changeling stopped and stared at me with her blue buglike eyes, a silent question in them.
"Well, a hangover is kinda like a headache amplified by a thousand." I wasn't sure if that was entirely accurate. I never drank enough to earn myself a hangover, but I've had a few friends who drank themselves into the night only to regret it the next day.
"I can't concentrate on holding a disguise like this. You'll have to go out on your own." D4 looked at me with what seemed to be skepticism.
"Alright, it's not like you were doing anything helpful anyways." I replied a little twinge of annoyance at her lack of cooperation.
"I was doing other things and couldn't offer my assistance, but I guess this time I'll take the reins and show you how it's done." she winced again, closing her eyes and rubbing her eyes with her hooves. "After I take a long nap." she finished lamely.
She cantered out of the room and flopped into her own bed. I turned back to see Summers and the pegasus come towards the building, so I quietly left the second floor to greet them without disturbing the hungover changeling. The lime green unicorn was moving all throughout the apothecary-slash-greenhouse, a watering can hovered by her head. She bent down and sprinkled a few plants, a tune springing to her lips as she hummed through her work.
I crouched lower and slowly made my way around to her side. She was concentrating on making sure every plant was watered, so it was an easy task. I leaned in closer and said at normal speaking tones, "Hiya."
She jumped a bit at the sudden appearance, then visibly relaxed when she saw who it was. "Oh, Lucky. You scared me. I wouldn't have expected you to be awake so soon, I heard from Tender that you two had quite the fun night."
I chuckled, "Well, I'm glad that everypony was rather generous with the alcohol. I haven't been much of a drinker, but I really enjoyed last night."
Saffron chuckled, "I'm glad to hear it." She took a quick look around, "So where's Bob? Is he still asleep?"
Now it was my turn to chuckle, "Nah, he's suffering from a hangover. He'll probably be in bed most of the day."
Saffron tilted her head in thought, then went over to the counter and examined the vials it contained. "I think I have something for that, let's see..." She looked thoroughly twice, though was unable to find the cure. With a frown, she inspected the books on the wall, popping her neck as he looked up and around. With a sudden exlaimation, she floated a book from the shelf and flipped through it. Faint whispering flowed together into nonsense, but she eventually found the page she was looking for and set about to gather ingredients.
After gathering a dozen different petals, she nabbed what looked like a rose and a bottle of liquid from a room behind the counter that I wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't walked through it. It was the same color as the wood and blended in perfectly, making me think it's supposed to be unnoticeable for a reason.
"OK, I think that should do it." She mumbled under her breath and she pulled out a mortar and pestle. She began crushing the ingredients inside the mortar, and talked to me while she did so. "I should be finished with this in a few minutes. Bob's sleeping, yes?" I nodded, "Let him sleep then, I'll give it to him when he's ready."
Three sharp raps came from the door, making both of us jump a little. I motioned for her to continue while I opened the door to reveal the appearance of Summer and the pegasus, and I politely let them inside. Upon seeing the two Saffron dropped her mortar and pestle to the ground and tackled the aqua blue pony in a big hug. The sudden change in the unicorn kinda startled me, and I could only look at the elderly mare watching the two with a soft smile on her face.
She noticed me and leaned closer to whisper, "They're an item." I nodded as I contemplated her actions with sudden insight. I continued to watch as the pegasus and unicorn held each other, thankful to be in each others presence after who knows how long. Pity D4 can't feast on love, it'd make things go by a little smoother if I didn't have to start fights.
"Drop Shot, you have no idea how much I missed you." A couple of bells went off in my head, and I tried to recall where I've heard that name before.
"Sorry, Saf, but I'm going to be gone even longer starting today. You're going to have to trust me on this," he added quickly as Saffron's eyes began to water.
"You haven't even been here for five minutes and you're leaving again?!" Saffron protested. "Have you really brought in so little catch that you have to spend more time on the sea than with me?"
Drop Shot shook his head, "Not that, it's something else entirely. Please, just trust me?" Those pleading green eyes were hard for Saffron to resist, and I saw her visibly relax and melt away any protest she may have gained.
"I trust you, Drop Shot." The two smiled at each other for a moment. The love between the two was starting to fill the room and suffocate me.
I wasn't exactly comfortable with the amount of affection that was going on right in front of me, but I was even less comfortable when the pegasus turned his sea green eyes on me. I suddenly missed the parts where I wasn't noticed.
"You must be one of the travelers Gran-Gran told me about." Gran-Gran. OK, yeah, that's fine. A community like this was bound to have close family, so it didn't thoroughly surprise me. "Lucky, right?" I smiled and nodded, too uncomfortable with the spotlight on me all of a sudden.
"You may be able to help us, since you aren't from around here. But where's your brother? I heard you two were usually together." He glanced around for any signs of D4.
I licked my lips, noticing they're kind of chapped. Ponies got chapped lips, intriguing. "He's hung over from last night, so Saffron was making something to help him with that, weren't you, Saffron?" I looked at the unicorn mare still squeezing her boy toy in a hug. She gave a small pout and picked up the mortar and pestle with telekinesis, continuing her work without moving.
I stuck my tongue out at her in response. Stupid unicorns and their magic... wait, I could do magic too. Maybe unicorns weren't so bad after all."So what is it you need help with?" I asked, returning to the topic of the conversation.
The question caused Drop Shot to drop his smile. He got up and trotted out the door, indicating me to follow him. I looked to Saffron, who was still crushing the ingredients together. I nodded my head towards the door, but Saffron just stood there with confusion written on her face.
"Are you coming or not?" Now the confusion cause her to stop mashing the ingredients together and just stare at me.
At the tilt of my head, she replied, "Did you want me to make something for your brother or not?"
Summer took this opportunity to take the bowl into her own hooves and started mashing the pestle with such vigor I wondered where she hid it all. "I'll take care of poor Bob, you two go and have your fun. And if you see Junebug anywhere tell her that the hat for her father is ready and at my house."
Saffron thanked the elder, and we left D4's fate in her hooves as we left the house to an impatient Drop Shot. We continued down the path to the pier, which was noticeably empty save for a few stragglers. Said stragglers waved at Drop Shot, but he ignored them as we walked to the end of the pier, intent on getting on the boat that held whoever was inside the cabin.
We clamored aboard the dingy wooden ship and entered the cabin. The ship was small, and the cabins floor rested on the surface of the water, which explained how there was a raised rectangle that opened up into the open ocean. There wasn't a glass pane shielding the water from the ship, so the area around the raised area was a little damp. It wasn't the structure that held my attention, though. It was the orange pony that was staring at us while swimming in the pool that was so intriguing to me.
The pony didn't even look like one, either. There were three slits along each side of the neck, which flared in and out on occasion as if the pony was trying to breathe, there were two fins that stuck out where there should have been two legs. All these clues gave me the conclusion that I immediately blurted out without thinking, "That's a bucking seapony!"
The seapony in question smiled at my open amazement, "Haven't seen many seaponies before, have ya?" His voice was tinged with a slight Australian accent, of all things.
Drop Shot walked in between us, his eyes flicked back and forth at both of us. "Lucky, Jetsam; Jetsam, Lucky. Now that introductions are out of the way, we need to get you two up to speed." Me and Saffron shared a quick look of curiosity.
The pegasus hopped out of the way, hovering beside the seapony and indicated that the floor was his. The seapony gave a grim nod and turned to us. "I'm going to assume that you don't know about the current state of Atlantis?"
It took me a minute to realize he was talking to me, to which I shook my head. He cleared his throat in preparation for the long-winded story he was about to tell. "Well," he continued, "Atlantis is the capital to all seaponies. Kind of like your Canterlot, OK? Our leader, King Nethuns, had started colonized a few other parts of the sea in places where we could easily reach land ponies in hopes to better our relations between Equestria and Atlantis. The first of those cities was Gaiety, and it was going to be the foundation of a beautiful relationship between seaponies and airwalkers."
A polite cough from Drop Shot cause Jetsam to falter in his monologue, "Between ponies and seaponies," he amended. My face was probably expressing my confusion as to why this was necessary as he went on to explain, "You see, a long time ago ponies used to fish seaponies up just like any other creature of the sea. Most of the time they wanted our scales to make armor or jewelry for the high class ponies, but other times they sold our brothers and sisters as food to the griffins and the dragons."
I shuddered at the thought, ponies slaughtered a species that were so closely related to themselves for a quick buck. Maybe they didn't even kill them, they could have sold them as live food for the carnivores. Most animals won't eat food unless it was alive or dead for a short amount of time. The thought nearly made me gag as my vivid imagination brought a picture of a seapony being viciously killed by a griffin.
The motion was caught by my new seapony friend, "It was a long, long time ago. Things have changed since the pony ambassadors have visited Atlantis. They realized that their actions were unforgivable, so they searched for a truce. Neither of each races were liked by the other, but we co-existed for the last few centuries unharmed. At least, we did until Gaiety.
"We built the town not a few miles from the city you call Manehattan, yea?" Drop Shot nodded. "Well, we attempted to make contact by sending a few scouts to the surface, but they never came back. My patrol was assigned to go investigate what happened, and so we did. We traveled to the surface and beheld the spectacle of Manehattan. We never saw anything like it, the huge towers, reaching towards the sky in vain. The sounds were new, too. Loud, energetic, cluttered, and alive. Unfortunately, we were ambushed when we were awestruck. Before we knew it, a net had caught under us and pulled us out of the water." A dramatic pause was given here as Saffron gave a small gasp.
"Me and my mates struggled against the thick netting, but we weren't able to escape before we were piled onto a large ship. The net was controlled by a few unicorns that were wearing masks. The masks were... disturbing, to say the least. It was depicted as a normal pony face in a scowl, and the open mouth had long fangs. Fangs! On a pony, for crying out loud! Crikey, it wasn't a mask I'd like to see again anytime soon.
"Anyways, when the net was safely back on the boat, the unicorns picked up my mates and carried them into the bowels of the ship. Eventually I was the only on left on the deck. There was only one other pony left with me, and the unicorn picked me up and started to carry me away. Luckily this pony's magic was weaker than I had expected. That pony must have had a weaker connection to magic or maybe was just a novice, so I was able to break free of the unicorn's hold after some struggle and made my way back into the water.
"After that, I swam as fast as I could, trying to get as far away as I could. I must have swam for a good hour or two until I hit Drop Shot's boat. After that, I traveled with him in hopes of being able to send a rescue team to get my men back." The seapony sighed in relief after telling his story, and leaned against one of the walls of the opening. I looked to Saffron to see her reaction. She had a small fire in her eyes, obviously determined to go on this mission.
"Ill help you get your men back, you can count on it!" she stated. After her exlaimation, attention once again turned towards me, waiting for my approval. Unfortunately, it took me a bit longer than usual to answer. My brain had sped up its thoughts; I was talking to a seapony, something I never knew existed until just five minutes ago. I was given a choice on whether I wanted to embark on a journey of heroism and excitement, a real and honest-to-goodness adventure.
It was too good to be true. I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe he wasn't telling me the whole deal, so I decided to start shaking him up in order to tell me what it was he was hiding. And since this time I wasn't confused about where I was or how the world worked, so a repeat of my first meeting with D4 hopefully wasn't bound to happen. I'm also fairly certain that I was the only one who was able to think of asking question and thinking of responses in a fashion very similar to chess.
"You're in the Atlantis military, yes?" The seapony nodded, "Well why don't you go get help from them?" Pawn to E4.
The question threw off the aquatic butterscotch pony. "Yes," he answered warily. "I can go to them for help, but I will likely not get any. The military abhors failure of any kind, and I cannot go with my fins behind my back like a coward." Knight to F6.
"Also, how were you able to escape the ship? You can't walk, can you?" I briefly imagined seaponies that could grow legs whenever on land before returning to the task at hand. Pawn to F3.
The seapony was starting to get frustrated, "I hoped over the edge. I was close enough to it that I could clear it in a single bound." Pawn to D5.
My skeptical side wasn't satisfied, "How do we know you're not making this up? You could be setting up an ambush for us right now." Bishop to B5. Check.
I noticed that both Drop Shot and Saffron's eyes had started darting between us as if they were watching a tennis match. "Because Atlantians value truth and honesty above all else." Bishop to D7.
"But we don't know that you're actually from Atlantis, how do we know you are?" Knight to C3.
"Because I'm part of the Atlantis military." Bishop to B5.
"So you say." Knight to B5.
"I am." Pawn to E4.
"Sure you are. Maybe you can call upon the fish of the deep to help you out in tough situations." Pawn to E4.
"Who do you take me for, King Nethuns himself?" Knight to E4.
"Hey, you could be. It isn't the first time royalty has taken on a lower-class disguise." Pawn to B3.
"I am no king." Knight to C5.
"No. You just blindly follow his orders. Or so your story goes." Pawn to D4.
"I trust me king with my life. He wouldn't order me to my death without good reason." Knight to D3. Check. I found his slip-up.
"Your death? How do you know that these ponies would kill you? All you know is that they took your mates below deck, for all you know they were preparing a spa treatment for the guests of honor, and the masks were a way of honoring their ancestors. You have no idea, you've never visited the city before." Queen to D3, I already see my path to victory.
Jetsam looked shocked, then his face quickly turned to one of impatience and frustration. When he spoke, his voice betrayed his restrained anger. "We have no time to be arguing, we should be out there searching for my men. I can only hope that they still live while we sit here and squabble over petty issues." Wanting to end it quickly, he made another mistake, Queen to D4.
"Again with your men. Like I said, how do we know that they can be anything other than alive?" Queen to D4.
"I don't want to talk about it, we need to be there now. We can't dilly dally any longer." Knight to C6. Time to end this.
"I won't dilly dally either, but if you won't tell me then I won't go. I have other business to attend to, namely taking care of my brother. Now, if you won't give me a good reason to leave right now, then I will get off this boat and go help somepony who I know is in pain and needs my assistance. What could you possibly know what sort of treatment your men are going through?"
I turned and started to walk out slowly, and I made it halfway out the door before I heard Jetsam yell, "WAIT!"
Knight to C7. Checkmate. I had to keep myself from wearing a huge grin as I turned back.
I returned to my position in front of Jetsam, facing him eye-to-eye. "It wasn't the pony's lack of magical ability that allowed me to escape. It was the noises." He turned away from us, looking down at the calm reflection of himself in the water.
"I... I could hear them, Lucky. They were screaming. It wasn't any other scream, either, not like how one screams when somepony jumps out and scares them. These were the screams of dying ponies. But they never stopped, like how somepony on the verge of death should. They kept going, and going, and going.
"The pony that held me in their telekinesis didn't like what was happened, so she let me go. She told me her name was Mary Lyn, and she told me to gather a group of trustworthy ponies to help stop everything that was going on. She wouldn't let me know who this group was or why they were doing this, only that things will escalate to even more horrific stages unless we put a stop to this. She had saved my life, if it wasn't her that held me in their grip, I would probably be with my squad right now, screaming along with them..."
Saffron and Drop Shot were horrified. They couldn't think of a proper response. Not shocking at all when you consider what exactly was going on. In fact, I'm fairly certain the ponies in this town wouldn't ever dream of harming anypony else, and what Jetsam was talking about was straight-up torture. This was something I'd have expected from humans, not ponies. I probably had to go through some re-evaluation on what Equestria was like and change my idea of the fluffy and cute cartoon that I knew and loved.
I hesitantly agreed to go along with them, but first I had to make sure D4 would be OK with abandoning the mission like this. Of course, she'll probably just get mad and say that it's all my fault for not collecting any food. If she see's the potential of gathering food during this journey, especially when the groups involved are going to be hate-filled, and revenge driven. Revenge is a form of anger, right? Mutely, I made my way back to the house, noting that Saffron and Drop Shot had opted to stay in the boat's cabin. Perhaps they were comforting one another after hearing such a tale.
I opened the door and found the plants strewn about, broken clay pots, books were thrown about and there was dirt everywhere. The room was chaotic, as if somepony had just spun around trying to knock as much stuff as they can over. The room was turned topsy-turvy, and in the middle of it all, the elderly grey mare Summer lay unconscious. there was a vase next to her head, and blood steadily trickled from a small wound on the back of her head.
I had paused for a split-second before I was filled with confusion. "D4!" I bellowed, not realizing that I had let go of the disguise in my haste to find the changeling. I had started to walk into the next room, when I saw D4 stand in the doorway. Her Bob disguise had come on, and the smirk that she wore just served to confirm what I had already suspected. "D4," I said quietly as I tried to keep the anger that started to rise in my chest in control. "What did you do?"
D4 looked around the room before turning her grin back at me, "I trashed the place and hit that old bag over the head. What, does it look like we had a slumber party or something?"
That did it, I finally let my anger go and just screamed, an incoherent noise that only served the purpose of letting my rage known. I started to charge the changeling who I thought was my friend before I realized that I wasn't moving. D4 held me in her magical grasp, shifting back into her changeling form. She gave a big show of sniffing the air, taking a deep breath and letting out a contented sigh. "This is how you feed, 'Lucky.' This is what we should have done the moment we stepped into the miserable town. We shouldn't have even talked to these pathetic creatures." She paused to give Summers a swift kick in the head, and my vision started to swirl with red.
"Your anger is delicious, did you know? It tastes as if you've been holding it in for years and finally let it all out in one fluid motion." She looked back down at the elder, not caring if she was bleeding or even checking to see if she was alive. "Why do you care about her, you've only known her for a day and yet you treat her as if you would die to protect her."
I floated there, trying to calm down enough to answer her, "Because she was kind, she welcomed us into the town when she could have turned us away, she let Saffron take care of us, and even volunteered to help cure you of your hang over. Was that another lie, just another set up to make me think you were safe to leave alone? Huh?! ANSWER ME, D4!"
Her big blue bug eyes flashed red for a moment, and her voice started to gain a more booming quality. "I. Am not. D4! I AM DRONE 473 AND I AM A PART OF THE HIVEMIND!"
With that, she tossed me out the door with such force that I landed into the building across the street. She followed through with a magical force field that pushed me against the wall, which kept me pinned and unable to move.
She stepped through the doorway, which had the new addition of a changeling shaped hole, and laughed. She had switched from her changeling disguise to Saffron, and now the lime-green unicorn disguise grinned. "Did you really think a hatching born yesterday would be able to overpower me? You haven't even had your first feeding! You are too weak to compare to one who has not only fed from you, but three other ponies in this town. And a word of advice; drop Lucky's disguise. If you don't you'll have to pay the consequences for what she did to those poor, innocent, fillies."
She chuckled, an unnatural laugh in Saffron's body. The noise that had been cause started to garner attention, and ponies gathered around as they watched their resident healer and a changeling duke it out. D4 looked around with pure glee on her face, and she used her magic to pick up a piece of wood that had broken off from the door frame. "I think I'm going to enjoy this," she whispered and she charged straight at one of the fisherponies that had returned, and with a whack she knocked him over the head and unconsciousness fell on him almost immediately.
The other watchers started to yell at D4, thinking that she was Saffron, confused by what just happened. "Everypony, please listen to me!" She yelled, her voice carrying weight as everyone quieted down. "This changeling has infiltrated our homes! The ones named Lucky and Bob are actually changelings! The pony here is the other changeling, disguised as one of our own! We must carry out the punishment for their crimes! String them up and beat them until they leave, chase them if you want, there may be more where they came from!"
With that, she lifted me and the unconscious pony up and tossed us to the ground, a mob of ponies surrounding us with pure hatred in their eyes. After a moment one of the ponies picked up a rock and threw it at my head, causing me to cry out in pain. That set off the rest, and they picked up anything they could find and started beating me and the poor fisherpony senseless. I managed to remember that I had wings (I really should remember to use these often), and I grabbed the unconscious stallion up with me. I strained to make sure he didn't fall, my forelegs looped under his own.
He was rather heavy, and we only made it into the forest. I was able to hear the angry ponies from where I was, but it would take a while for them to reach us. I shapeshifted into Lucky and gave the fisherpony a hard slap across the face. He returned to the conscious world with a gasp. "Hey, buddy, buddy, it's all right, just calm down." He stared at me with wide eyes, unable to comprehend what was going on.
"The town thinks you're a changeling, so you're going to have to listen to me carefully. Would you rather find your way to Manehattan on your own and wait our this for a few days and maybe weeks, or do you want to come with me on a dangerous mission that may or may not end with death or brutal mental scarring?"
He gave me one bruised and battered look before he turned to the north and ran as fast as he could. I nodded wisely, "Good choice." I noticed the trail of fear he left behind in his wake, and gave a quick breath so I can gain a little more strength.
I took to the skies again, and I sailed just above the canopy so I didn't attract much attention. The leaves brushed under my wings as I turned back towards the ocean, and I could see the pier from here. It was considerably empty, which wasn't odd since everypony was out hunting for me and the random pony I just saved from a fate worse than death. I reached the boat and collapsed on the deck, as I started to pant as hard as I could.
Saffron had heard the noise and come back onto the deck, "Oh Celestia, Lucky, what happened to you?!" She asked. I struggled to stand up and felt my legs give out. The adrenaline had started to wear out so I felt the bruises on my face and body, in particular one nasty bruise just on my side, which ave the possibility of a broken rib. Just what I needed, eh?
By now Drop Shot had emerged as well, as he took stock of my injuries and my panting. I lifted my head to reply, "Changelings... they... they got into the town. The apothecary is trashed... Summers was knocked in the head... and bleeding. One... one of them was impersonating you, Saffron. The other ran away... but not... not before he gave me a good beating... heh, I've never been a good fighter." I chuckled dryly as Saffron lifted me up and carried me back into the cabin.
Jetsam gave one look at me and dove back into the water. He came back a second later hold what looked like a clam shell with water in it. "Here," he said perfectly fine through clenched teeth, "It's a Healing Clam. Water that's been drunk from the clam's shell dulls any pain that you may be feeling." Oh, good, natural painkillers. I like Atlantis already.
I gulped down the sweet tasting water, the shell put off to the side. "We need to get out of here, the changeling convinced the entire town to follow it. It could be heading down here at any moment." I said, making sure to use 'it' instead of 'she.'
Drop Shot ran over to the front of the cabin, where one of those wheels you see on ships lays in wait for somepony to steer. "All ready to go, the anchor's up, the line's been cut, and we have food to last us a few days. I think it's time to say goodbye to our home for now." Jetsam nodded and ducked under the cabin, not wanting to get trapped by the moving boat.
Saffron looked outside the window of the cabin, as the boat started to leave the pier. The town started to grow smaller and smaller, but not before a pillar of smoke reared its ugly head from the middle of town. The pillar of smoke was the last to disappear as we sailed away from the shore. The noon light shone down right on my, giving me its warmth as the healing liquids from the clam started to ease away the bruises and sores that I've started to gather since last night.
I had said that this was exciting, but this was a little too much excitement for me. I let myself drift off into unconsciousness as I missed the days where my biggest worry was catching up to the latest TV show.