//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: Hasty Running, Nurse Treatments, and Final (Air)Plane Preparations // Story: Bermuda Beginnings // by ScarFox9700 //------------------------------// While Abby and the two nurses were rushing the still-unconscious Taylor to the hospital, none of them thought through how they were going to explain this to Dr. Stables. In fact, just before they parted ways, he had specifically said, "Now you two nurses take good care of Taylor, you hear?' They both nodded. Now here they were, less than 2 hours later, rushing him unconscious to the hospital, with most likely a severe case of alcohol poisoning. Sure enough, when they arrived at the hospital, they tried to sneak Taylor in through the Emergency Room Entrance. In their hurry, they simply placed him on a blanket on the floor, and began to drag him to an exam room. However, they were caught by none other than the doctor himself. As he was making his rounds through the emergency room, he suddenly spotted the two nurses and Abby racing through the halls dragging something behind them. "Hey! Slow down Redheart and Starlight! This is a hospital, not a racetrack!" The doctor then would have turned back to his work, but then he froze. "Wait a minute, what are Starlight and Redheart doing here? I thought that they were at Sweet Apple Acres!" Then he remembered that they were dragging something, and that both nurses looked visibly frightened. "And why were they dragging something? And why were they trying to sneak that thing in? And why did that look an awful lot like Mr. Taylor?" Then it all clicked. "OH SWEET CELESTIA!!!!! THEY KILLED HIM!!!!!" The doctor then tore through the hospital halls after the nurses, even if only to find out what had happened. Meanwhile, unaware that they had been spotted, Redheart, Starlight, and Abby continued to drag Taylor on his back on that blanket through the hospital. Even though he was on a blanket, they were somewhat straining under Taylor's weight. "Boy, I'm sure glad that Ponyville has such a great hospital." "No kidding Starlight", Redheart answered, "And one so close to where we were. What better place in all of Equestria to treat the sick and injured than right here at Ponyville General?" "Ya both got that right!" Abby agreed. Finally, after a few more minutes of running, the three of them managed to get Taylor to a room where he could be examined. Once they had closed the door, Starlight began to use her magic to examine the hapless pilot on the bed in front of her. "What do you think Starlight?", Redheart asked. "Will he be alright?" Starlight sighed. "Yeah, I think he'll be ok. However, we'll have to put together our special 'Coffee wake up solution', to wake him up, as well an another mixture to help purge all of that alcohol from his system." Redheart shook her head. "He'll definitely sober up in a hurry, but he'll probably be pretty sick when he does wake up." "Well, if he is sick, it's his own gosh-darn fault!" Starlight scoffed. "We both tried to warn him that taking that challenge was an incredibly stupid idea, but he didn't want to listen, did he?" "Ah'm still so, so sorry 'bout all of this," Abby sighed. "If Ah'd ain't been so haughty, none o' this ever would'a happened." "Darn right it wouldn't!" Redheart shot. "You should have known that since Taylor was a male, he wouldn't have backed down from a challenge like that! And moonshine?! No other form of alcohol is as toxic as that, ESPECIALLY in large quantities!" Abby looked like she was about to cry. Starlight went over to comfort her, while Redheart quickly concocted, and administered, the dosages of both mixtures to her beloved patient. She then waited the 5 minutes required for it to work. Once the time was up, Taylor's eyes suddenly snapped open, and he sat up in the bed with a start, as well as a loud gasp. "GWAAAH!!!! What happened?! Did I win?! HA! I told ya I could do it Abby!" Taylor then fell backwards onto the bed, clearly having no idea that he had been unconscious for the past 45 minutes. Redheart looked down at him. "Um, Taylor?" "Yes sweetheart?" Taylor asked somewhat weakly. Redheart put a hoof over her face. "Can you please go for more than a few hours at a time without requiring medical attention for your actions?!" "Wait, what? I'm in the hospital, again?" Redheart nodded, and after examining his surroundings and found this to be true. After sighing deeply, Taylor then sat up again, reached out, and gently pulled Redheart into a hug. "I know that you hate me for my actions Miss Redheart, and I wouldn't blame you in the least for being upset. However, just remember that through it all, I love you." Redheart smiled. "No matter how hard I try, I just can't stay mad at you Taylor. I guess that it just shows how much chemistry we have together." "You're definitely right about that." Taylor agreed. He would have probably kissed Nurse Redheart, but she said that he could not until he stopped smelling like kerosene, and promised to her that he would only touch moonshine again if he was using it to make gasoline for his plane. Taylor agreed to this, and after he accepted the apologies from Miss Abby, and promised to return to Sweet Apple Acres sometime in the future, the two nurses helped Taylor get up, and they were just about to leave the room, when all of a sudden, the doctor burst through the door. "GWAHH!!!! What happened?! How did he die?! SOMEPONY TALK TO ME!!!!!" Taylor looked at the doctor curiously. "Um, are you alright there Dr. Stables?" The doctor then saw that Taylor was alive and well. "What?!" I thought that you were dead Mr. Taylor!!!" "What? Ok, now I'm really confused. Could you please start this from the beginning?" The doctor then explained everything that he had seen. "And I thought that you were dead!" The doctor finished. Taylor then turned to the nurses. "Um, could either of you shed some light on this please?" "Yeah", Redheart sighed. "After you passed out from Abby's moonshine challenge, the three of us dragged you all the way to the hospital. Once we arrived, we tried to sneak you in without arousing too much suspicion, so we placed you on a blanket, and dragged you through the hospital. I guess that at some point, the doctor saw us, and he must have thought that you were dead." "Well, obviously I'm not dead, but still, I do appreciate you worrying about me Dr. Stables. It's nice to know that people, and ponies, really do care." The doctor nodded, but his nerves were too shot to say anything. After helping him back to his office so that he could recollect himself, Taylor and the two nurses made their way back to the Ponyville train station for the return trip to Canterlot. Once they were back at Canterlot station, and Taylor had once again helped to unload all of the luggage, he was stopped by a mail carrier. "Um, excuse me, but are you Mr. Taylor?" "Um, yes, yes I am." "Well, I have a few crates for you here." He pointed a hoof at the four crates behind him. "Oh, well um, thanks, I guess." After signing for the crates, Taylor went over to see what they were. "Strange", he muttered, "I don't remember ordering anything." As he was puzzling over the crates, he suddenly noticed a note attached to the sides of one of them. "Huh? What's this?" After pulling the note off of the crate, he began to read it. "Dear Mr. Taylor", the note read, "After witnessing what my sister Abby did to you, and learning that she caused you to be sent to the hospital, I decided to send you these crates of the moonshine that you requested earlier today, free of charge. We have a surplus of it on the farm right now, and since we do need to get rid of some of it, Ma suggested sending some of it to you as an act of goodwill, (Read, Abby's reparations for damages done!) Anyway, I do hope that you decide to come back to Sweet Apple Acres some time in the near future. It would be so nice to see you again. Many thanks, and much love, Kristy. P.S., Abby will be tied up to a leash in the barn on your next trip so that she won't cause any more trouble for you!" Taylor folded the note back up. "Wow", he murmured. "This was really nice of Kristy to send me this moonshine." "Who are the crates from Taylor?' Redheart asked. "They're from Kristy. It's the moonshine that I requested earlier. She sent it to me free of charge." "Aww, that was nice of her", Starlight put in, "Especially after what happened." "Yeah, it was", Taylor agreed. He then had all of the crates placed on a cart, and arranged for them to be sent down to the workshop in the castle basement where the plane was. Soon after this, Taylor and the two nurses arrived back at the castle themselves. "Tomorrow, after the final work has been finished on the plane, the engineers and I will get to work to take the moonshine, and see if we can mix it with gear oil to be turned into gasoline." "Do you think that if it works, that the engine will run again?" Taylor shrugged. "It's possible, I suppose. But since moonshine is not an oil-based fuel, there is the chance that the engine could get so hot that it would explode." "EXPLODE?!?!?!" The nurses gasped. Taylor nodded. "Yeah, but don't worry", he reassured them, "We'll test it in small quantities first to see if this is even a feasible option for making gasoline." "Do what you like, but PLEASE, for the love of Celestia don't do anything that would require medical attention, and/or hospitalization!" Redheart was trying to be serious. Taylor nodded, smiling. "If you say so, Miss Redheart. After he left the two nurses, Taylor then went down to the basement to see if the final phases of work were ready to be performed on the plane. Sure enough, he was in for a treat. Just moments before his arrival, the brand new propeller had just arrived from the Engineering Workshops in Canterlot. "Wow, now that's a brand new propeller!" And sure enough, it was. Made to the exact specifications of the original, it had three blades, was all black with yellow tips, and had a brand new nosecone as well. "Ok then, let's get this beauty back onto the plane, shall we?" "Yes sir, Mr. Taylor!" With the help of a ceiling winch, the propeller was carefully lifted off of its wooden pallet. "We have to be extremely careful with this." One of the engineers warned. "One little slip-up could wipe out almost a week of hard work by the boys at the Engineering Workshops!" They all knew that he was right. As carefully as they could, they hoisted the propeller up to the right height. Then, once it was there, ladders were placed next to the plane, and Taylor and two other engineers climbed up to mount it on properly. Once it was securely attached to the propeller shaft, two of the unicorns in the group used their magic to spin the propeller manually for a few spins, just to make sure that it spun like it was supposed to. Sure enough, it did. "That's a fine piece of work boys! Now all that's left to do is prime those spots on the body, paint them, and then apply the decals. How close are we to being able to do that?" "Well Mr. Taylor, we can do the priming tonight, however, that takes about 4 hours to fully dry properly. Once that's happened, then we can paint, which takes another 4-6 hours to fully dry. Then we can apply the decals." Taylor nodded. "well then, I would suggest that we do the priming now, then, after waiting the 4 hours, paint it, and then we leave it to dry overnight. Tomorrow, we can do the decals, as well as work on the fuel." They all agreed to this, and as carefully as they could, they rolled the plane away from the workbenches, and built a makeshift paint booth around it. They did this by first covering the floor with several layers of painting tarps, then putting up makeshift walls made from discarded wood, and covered with more painting tarps. Finally, after putting more tarps on top of the walls to make a sort of ceiling, they were ready to begin the work. However, before they could begin, they had to protect the areas of the plane that weren't going to be painted. Canvases were placed over the cockpit canopy, as well as the rear turret, the wheels were wrapped in newspapers, as was the propeller, and the exhaust ports were covered with tape. Once all of this was complete, it was time to apply the primer. "Well, this should be interesting", Taylor thought. "I wonder how their painting will differ from how they do it back on Earth." When he saw their methods, Taylor was utterly shocked. If he was expecting them to use spray guns, or even aerosol cans, he was sorely disappointed. Instead, the engineers brought out painting specialists, who mixed together a grey liquid which they identified as primer, poured it into paint trays, and actually painted the plane's body by hand! Or rather, by hoof! "So they paint all of this with brushes?! I guess that they don't have spray guns yet, and maybe they don't have aerosol cans either. However, they seem to be doing a remarkable job with it." After getting over his shock, Taylor then removed his leather jacket, picked up a brush, and asked to help. He did so, and about 30 minutes later, the plane was all primed, and ready for her 4 hours of drying. The gang all braked for dinner, and promised to come back afterwards to finish the job. Sure enough, 4 hours, a bunch of dinners, 2 hoof-ball games, some chatting time, and a couple of sodas later, they were all back at it again. This time, armed with paintbrushes, and trays full of sea-blue paint, they attacked the gray areas, painting them as blue as the rest of the plane's body. An hour or so later, everything was done. The painting now brought the work on the plane up to 98% complete. Now all that was left to finish that final 2% was to apply the decals, which would come from the local print shop. The painting area was covered in a magic force-field to protect it from dust, as well as anypony accidentally disturbing it. Taylor and the 8 engineers assigned to help him couldn't have been prouder. They even took a group photo with their portable camera in front of one of their work benches. Lt. Charles Taylor: Owner. Metal Work: Chief Engineer. Dusty Pile: Second Engineer. Oilcan: Machinist. Fly Windgust: Machinist. Royal Blue: Specialist. Blueprints: Lead designer. Inky Well: Assistant Designer. And Squeaky Clean: Clean up and Mess Containment. All of them working on the plane, and all of them want to see it fly again. After wrapping everything up, cleaning up the messes, putting everything away, and closing down the workshop again, they all went to bed, wondering what the next day would bring. They would finish the painting, put on the decals, but most of all, they would attempt to make gasoline.