6. An Everfree River Runs Through it
Our two teams of heroes, the McDucks and the Mane Heroes, slowly approach an opening in the dark area of Everfree Forest. They all become wary of what lies on the other side of the light. Once they arrived, they looked at the scenery.
The heroes arrived at a huge river, running downstream. There are rocks near the river and trees on the other side. The river runs heavily down the westward direction, splashing into the rocks within the river.
"Where are we?" Spike asked.
Twilight, using her horn, pulls out the map provided by Starswirl. She observes the map and says, "According to the map, we're southwest of Ponyville and just exited out of the Everfree Forest. We will find one of Bradford's towers in the unknown west just down this river."
"Then all we have to do is go down this river, and we'll be at the tower in seconds," Rainbow Dash stated.
But Louie speaks, "But there's only one problem: how are we going to the tower in seconds? We're not great flyers like you, Rainbow."
"Um, I was wondering…" Fluttershy speaks, "Since you're ducks, can't you swim and float down the river like the other ducks?"
Della heard Fluttershy but replied with a firm face, "Just because we're ducks doesn't mean we can swim like ducks."
"Besides that," Huey speaks, "The river is flowing too fast if we try to swim in it. The river's speed will likely make us crash into any shallow rocks for sustainable injuries."
"Unless," Webby speaks, "if we have a boat, we can float down this river and to the tower in minutes."
Applejack hears and says, "I don't want to break it to you, ducks, but how are we going to find a sizeable boat for all of us? Especially, we're out in the middle of this here forest, and Ponyville is way far back."
Hearing Applejack's concern made everybody curious and thinking of an answer. But then, the gang heard a commotion that was not far from them. They turned to the source.
In their view, they see two burly farmer ponies tossing away big and long wood and logs to the side of the river. The two ponies took all the wood and logs out from their big cart, every single one.
"I think we just found our answer," Twilight commented.
The two burly ponies tossed the last log away from their cart and wiped the sweat from their heads.
"Woo!" said the first farmer pony. "The last of it."
"For sure," said the other farmer pony with a manly voice. "We're going to need that space since that crazy vulture up there appeared."
"Excuse me, gentle ponies."
The two farmer ponies turned to the source. Appearing before them are Twilight Sparkle, Scrooge McDuck, and the others.
"Well heavens to Besty," the first farmer pony with a gleeful surprise. "If it ain't the new Princess of Equestria."
"Please to you, Your Majesty," the second pony said, putting his hat on his chest.
"Please, guys," Twilight responds with a little embarrassment, "Just call me Twilight."
"I'm Chip." The first farmer pony said. "And he's Dale."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Dale greeted.
"The pleasure is all ours," Twilight responds.
"Chip and Dale?" Louie said to his triplet brothers. "Why is that sound so familiar?"
"Wasn't that some sort of T.V. show or something?" Dewey asks.
"Uh… What T.V. show?" Spike asks and overhears the two ducklings.
Twilight then questions, "May I ask, what are you two doing with all those lumbers you threw away?"
Dale replies, "Well, ever since that weird vulture appeared in the sky and his hullabaloo nonsense about his 'ideal' plan, the two of us and our families are building a shelter back at our farm if that crazy bird's plan is going to happen."
"Right, y'all," Chip agrees, "So we chopped down some trees, removed excess wood to our shelter space, and brought them here. We're thinking maybe the beavers want these for their dams."
After hearing from Chip and Dale, Scrooge and Twilight see the excess lumber and wood. Then the two stare at each other and smirk, thinking the same idea.
"Chip and Dale," Twilight says, "In doing a princess favor, would it be possible to have your excess lumber? We need it in our quest to save Equestria and stop that vulture-"
"Buzzard!" Huey corrected.
"…Err… buzzard from stealing our world's magic."
"Knock yourself out, Princess," Chip happily replies.
Dale says, "If it means saving Equestria's magic and your mission, then go ahead and take 'em all."
"Much obliged," Scrooge responds with a grin. "And pleasure doing business with you." Chip and Dale became a bit startled to see a big duck talk.
After getting the excess and discarded lumber from Chip and Dale, the duo teams piled them together to create something out of them. Huey skims his Junior Woodchuck guidebook to search for something.
"So, what's the plan?" Spike asks.
"What does it look like?" Della responds in a rhetorical tone. "We're going to build a boat."
"Technically, we're going to build a raft in this case," Huey corrects again. He then finds the page in his guidebook. He then shows the page to the team. "With the material we have, we're going build something like this." The picture in his guidebook shows a raft with logs tied together for a base and another log standing up in the middle as balancing support.
The rest of the gang analyzed the image.
"Simple…" Rarity noted, "yet effective."
Scrooge shows a box of long nails to the team. "Those two farmer friends gave us these spare nails for our raft," he said.
"We're probably gonna need some thick vines for the extra support and keeping the raft together," Applejack suggested.
"I can go fetch some," Rainbow said and volunteered.
"I'll do it too," Webby says.
"Alright, ye two," Scrooge responds. "Just be careful… especially you, Webby darling."
"Don't worry, Dad," Webby replied with confidence. "I'm not a kid."
"And don't you worry," Rainbow speaks confidently, "I'll be right with her."
Rainbow and Webby went into the woods to search for sturdy vines.
Scrooge watches his daughter go, and Twilight Sparkle notices.
"Is everything alright, Mr. McDuck?" Twilight said.
"Aye," Scrooge replies, "I'm just a wee bit concerned about me daughter. An please, just call me Scrooge."
"I see…"
While working on the raft, Louie hears his uncle and looks worried. "I still can't believe that…" Louie said with little concern.
"Believe what, Darling?" Rarity asks as she is next to Louie. "Webby is Mr. Mcduck's daughter? What's wrong with that?"
"Well… it's a long tale about that, but you can say it will be 'quite shocking' if I tell you. Perhaps we'll all tell you this some other time. Right now, we need to get to that tower."
"Quite right, Deary."
Huey, Dewey, Applejack, and Starlight are nailing the logs together for the base of the raft. But Huey looked up and noticed Dewey adding some sort of fence and chair on the raft's edge.
"Dewey," Huey speaks, "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like, Bro?" Dewey responds with a confident grin. "Every boat and raft needs a captain's seat. So, I decided to build one right in the front for me to lead the team."
"Two things, Dewey. One: who made you decide to become the leader of this team? And two: adding that much weight to the edge of the raft will cause instability balance and uncontrollable steering."
"D'oh, C'mon! Who says that?"
"My Junior Woodchuck guidebooks say so." Huey opens the building raft section in his guidebook. "It clearly states here that any uneven balance of the raft will lead to unwanted drifting and weight sinking on the river."
"That guidebook says that?" Starlight asks.
"Of course. Read it yourself."
Huey gives his guidebook to Starlight, and she receives it. Starlight reads Huey's guidebook while Dewey makes another complaint.
"Look, Bro," Dewey speaks, "If we're gonna be adventurous and saving E-qew-stria-"
"Equestria," Huey corrected.
"-Whatever! We might as well look adventurous and go out with style. So why not build something daring out of this plain old raft?"
"Dewey, we lack the materials to build a giant ship. This is just enough for a decent sizeable raft for all of us. We must correct the structure, stability, and durability on the first go, or Murphy's law will drop on us.
As Junior Woodchuck rule number 42 clearly states..."
Build things right the first time and they won't need modifications."
"Build things right the first time and they won't need modifications."
But Huey widens his eyes when Starlight says the exact same rule Huey spoke. The young Junior Woodchuck scout duck turned to Starlight. She noticed and stared at Huey.
Huey then softly speaks, "Wait… How did you…?"
As she uses her magic horn to make Huey's guidebook float and show, Starlight replies, "I sort of read your guidebook's notable rules. And they seemed very intelligent after reading them. In fact, I find your guidebook very well informative."
Huey turned a bit in awe. He then says, "You like reading the Junior Woodchuck guidebook? This is the first time I heard someone, er…, some pony, taking a liking to the scout's guidebook."
"Well, I'm no Woodchuck scout, but I like to have potential and keen knowledge. A smart pony like me must possess great and wise knowledge to progress and improve, especially if I'm the headmare of the Friendship School. As Junior Woodchuck rule number five says…"
Huey heard, and he and Starlight said at the same time…
"A Junior Woodchuck must possess great knowledge and wisdom, for it is the real potential in a scout's role."
Huey gasped in excitement for Starlight. "Wow, Starlight! I never thought I met a pony who likes the knowledge of the Junior Woodchucks."
"And I never thought I would meet a duck who likes a lot of knowledge. Seems we both like gaining a lot of knowledge and wisdom that benefits both of us."
Huey agrees, and he and Starlight smile and giggle at each other for their sudden kinship.
Dewey heard and witnessed, and he rolled his eyes in grief. "Oh, brother!" he said in anguish. "As if having one smart-aleck triplet is annoying enough."
"C'mon, Dewey," Applejack said calmly, "Just let those two be, and let's finish the raft."
In a matter of minutes, the duo teams finished building the raft. They even installed a log standing upright in the middle of the raft for balancing support. Once the raft is thoroughly checked and secured, a few heroes push the raft into the river. Everybody hopped on board as the raft started to float on the river. As the raft began to drift into the river's current, Applejack and Della used a long, thick plank as a steering rudder for the raft. Soon, the duo teams on the raft floated down the river, heading towards the tower in the west of the forest.
In the next few minutes, the teams on the raft ride down the river, passing every tree and bush and avoiding the rocks in the river.
Twilight Sparkle brings out the map Starswirl gave and observes. She tells teams, "By going down this river, we will be arriving at the bay, where the tower is close by."
Huey observes the river's water flow and says, "Judging by the speed of the river's current, I'd say we're gonna get there within a few minutes."
"We're making progress, lads," Scrooge stated with confidence.
"Man!" Dewey complains while leaning his back on the raft's mast, "I still wish this boring raft still had a captain's seat."
"Dewey, just drop it," Huey said with grief.
"We're moving along now!" Rainbow cheered. "We'll be at the tower in no time."
"I don't know…" Louie says with concern. "I have this feeling something's going to stop us."
"Assuming the worst again?" Webby said and heard Louie.
"As always."
"How can it be worse?" Pinkie Pie asked. "We're just cruising down this river smoothly. There's nothing here that's dangerous. Just a bunch of trees, shrubs, water, rocks in the water, fish, bubbles on the water, birds, bugs, you ducks, you ponies, clouds-"
"Wait!" Huey interrupted, "What did you say?"
"I said we're just cruising down this river smoothly. There's-"
"No! No! Near the end of what you last said."
"Oh! That there's rocks in the water, fish, bubbles on the water, birds, bugs-"
"Bubbles on the water?" Della heard in confusion.
"What do ya mean that, Pinkie?" Applejack questions.
"Duh! Right there!" Pinkie replied and pointed.
Everyone looked to where Pinkie Pie pointed and spotted the bubbles boiling on the surface not far from the team and the raft. Then, the duo teams became wary.
"Since when does a river boil bubbles?" Rarity questions with a confused face.
"Wait a minute..." Twilight says as she turns suspicious.
SPLASH!
Suddenly, a huge gush of water spouted in the middle of the river's surface. The McDucks and the Mane Heroes turned surprised.
"Watch out!" Donald yelled.
Della and Applejack heard, quickly maneuvered the raft, and avoided the spouting water. The heroes held tightly as the raft missed the gush of water spouting from the river. After avoiding the huge waterspout, the heroes looked back at the gushing spout.
"Since when did a geyser suddenly spout out of this river?" Dewey asked, feeling a bit scared.
"That's impossible!" Twilight shouted in shock. "This river can't produce geysers like that."
SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!
The duo teams heard and turned around. To their shock, more geysers appeared on the river's surface.
"This must be Bradford's work!" Webby exclaimed.
"Curse me kilts!" Scrooge yelled. "That blasted buzzard is trying to stop us from reaching the tower. Della! A.J.!"
"Hang on!" Applejack heard and replied.
Applejack and Della quickly steered and avoided all the geysers as the rest of the gang held tightly onto the raft. A few ducks and ponies, especially Rarity, screamed in fright.
"At this rate, we'll never reach the tower if these geysers keep appearing out of the blue," Starlight shouted in concern.
"Not while I'm here!" Louie speaks up.
Quickly, Louie brings out the goggles Zecora gave him and puts them on his eyes. After he puts them over his eyes, the special lens detects the hidden geysers within the river. Once Louie sees them, he commands and guides Della and A.J. on which way to go.
"Turn right! Left! Left! Head into the middle!" Louie called and commanded.
Della and Applejack heard Louie, and both followed his directions. The duo team avoided all the incoming geysers thanks to Louie and his special goggles.
"Alright, Louie!" Spike cheered, "Nice job!"
"Attaboy, Louie!" Scrooge complimented.
"Don't celebrate yet!" Louie shouted a firm tone while looking up ahead of the river. "We've got bigger problems."
Using Louie's special goggles, the lens detects a mystic aura that's about to pop out of the river. And appearing are…
"Boulders!" Louie screamed.
Everybody else heard Louie and witnessed the boulders popping out of the river and obscuring the path.
"There's no way to get around!" Della screamed.
"We're doomed!" Donald panicked.
"Not yet!" Twilight shouted in revolt. "Starlight!"
"Right!" Starlight said and heard Twilight.
As the two powerful and magical ponies joined, Twilight and Starlight glowed their horns and shot their own beam at the boulders. Their magic shrunk the boulders into pebbles. The two powerful and magical ponies shrunk every boulder in their path as the raft continued safely down the river.
"Wow!" Webby shouted with great awe, "It's one thing to see or imagine magical unicorns or alicorns in books or on the screen. But now to see in life…!? This is awesome!"
"Webby!" Dewey shouted, "Now is not the time! Focus on the danger at hand."
After the two powerful magical ponies successfully shrunk the boulders in the heroes' path, the duo teams continued safely floating down the river on their raft. Everyone on board felt relieved that they avoided the boulders…
But it wasn't long until a magical and dark aura appeared on the river up ahead from where the heroes were. The two teams spotted the dark aura. Suddenly, the magical aura has turned a section of the river into a giant whirlpool. The massive watery vortex is sucking everything surrounding it in counterclockwise direction. The two heroes noticed and gasped in shock.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Rainbow Dash said with stun.
"We're about to be sucked into the swirling vortex of terror!" Launchpad shouted in fright.
"Where did that come from?" Spike questioned with awkwardness.
"This Bradford really wants to stop us," Applejack said with a firm face.
The duo teams on the raft are getting closer to the whirlpool within every second.
"We're doomed!" Rarity panicked. "DOOMED!"
It seemed like it… to Rarity's dramatic case. But Huey looks up and spots a thick, sturdy tree with a solid, thick branch sticking out to its side. It was then Huey struck an idea. "Not yet!" Huey shouted to everyone. Huey immediately leans to the raft's edge and scoops up a small rock. He then turns back to the team and says, "Do you have any extra vine I can use?"
"Plenty!" Twilight answered and showed the extra vine.
"Toss me one end of it and tie the other to the mast."
Immediately, Twilight uses her horn and passes the extra vine to Huey. The Woodchuck scout duckling grabs the vine, pulls out an arrow, and ties the vine and the small rock together on the arrow's fletching. At the same time, Twilight uses her horn and binds the other end of the same vine all around the raft's log mast tightly and secured.
Once both ends of the vine are tied, Huey quickly grabs his bow, pulls back with the arrow tied with the vine and rock, and aims towards the thick branch he spotted a few moments ago.
"What are you doing, Huey!?" Donald said and panicked.
"Saying our lives, Uncle," Huey responded calmly.
Huey instantly lets go and launches the arrow. It flies over the thick branch. Once it arcs downward, the arrow, along with the rock and vine, wraps around the thick branch multiple times. The projectile now became a grappling line for the raft.
Once Huey witnessed the line tightly secured to the branch, he quickly made a command to the team. "Everyone!" he shouted. "Pull the vine! Mom! A.J.! Starboard!"
Immediately, Della and Applejack steered the raft to the right of the river. The other ducks and ponies and Spike quickly grabbed the vine and pulled along with the raft to the side of the river.
At that moment, the raft came in contact with the giant whirlpool. But thanks to Huey's strategy, the raft went around along the edge of the whirlpool and avoided getting sucked into its sucking vortex. The raft safely made its way to the other side of the whirlpool.
"Dewey!" Huey shouted. "Machete!"
"I'm on it!" Dewey replied.
The blue triplet duck immediately used his machete and sliced off the vine attaching to the raft. When cut, the raft is free and floats down the river as it avoids the giant whirlpool. Everyone looks back and sees that they're safely away from the whirlpool.
"That's my senior Junior Woodchuck boy!" Della cheered, winked, and gave a thumbs-up to Huey.
"Attaboy, Huey!" Scrooge complimented.
"Wowie!" Pinkie Pie cheered. "That was a close one."
"Too close if you ask me, darling," Rarity said with grief.
As the duo team was far from the giant whirlpool, it was smooth sailing down the river, heading towards the tower.
Webby climbed to the mast and looked around for any unexpected dangers. "I think we're in the clear, everyone," Webby stated. "I think we passed Bradford's river obstacle course."
"That was an obstacle course?" Louie pondered with a sarcastic face and put his goggles away.
"How in Equestria was that an obstacle course?" Starlight asked.
Huey answers, "In Webby's mind, every adventure we go on is like a dangerous mission she faces. Danger is like fun to her."
"I thought it was fun," Dewey said with a grin.
"Yeah, me too!" Rainbow Dash agrees and follows.
Then, every duck, pony, and Spike stared at Dewey and Rainbow Dash in grief.
"What?" Dewey asked with a quizzical face.
"You two dare too much," Huey stated with a little irk.
"I completely agree," Rarity agrees with the red-cap duckling.
"Well," Spike speaks up, "All it matters is we made it past those dangerous obstacles, and we'll reach the tower in no time. Nothing can stop us now." But as Spike takes a relieving sigh…
"Wait!" Scrooge suddenly speaks up. "Did ye hear that?"
When they heard Scrooge, everyone stopped and listened. Then, they heard some kind of rumbling sound but far away.
"Oh my," Fluttershy says in concern, "what's that?"
The gang continued to listen and find the source of the rumbling sound. But a few seconds later, the sound started to get louder. The increasing volume of the rumbling sound made the heroes edgy.
"Uh, what in tarnation is that?" Applejack asks in concern.
"It's getting louder every second…" Huey noted.
As Webby continued to hear and look for the source, she noticed Louie's face turned horrified.
"Louie...?" Webby asks, "What's the matter?" The rest of the gang then noticed Louie's shocking state.
Louie didn't say anything but responded by pointing out towards the river. They all turn to where Louie is staring. And when they did... they turned horrified at what they saw:
A Giant Waterfall
The heroes on the raft are coming closer to the waterfall every second. The ducks, ponies, and Spike begin to panic.
"Now we're doomed!" Rarity screamed in great fear. "DOOMED!"
"Will you stop panicking, Miss Drama Pony Queen?" Della said in irk.
Twilight quickly brings out her map and observes. "This is not on the map!" she said in fright.
"That blasted bumbling buzzard," Scrooge insulted. "He's so eager to stop us by all means that even he's disturbing mother nature's balance and landscaping."
Then, the raft reached the edge of the waterfall, and it slowly tilted downward. The duo heroic team held their balance as the raft tilted, but they all turned horrified as they saw the long drop and the waterfall's base.
"We're gonna fall!" Applejack screamed.
"Twilight!" Rainbow shouts and gets Twilight's attention. "Can't you use teleportation magic to get all of us out of here?"
"There's too many of us!" Twilight answered in fear. "Teleporting all sixteen of us consumes a lot of magic and energy. I don't think I can make it."
The raft continues tiling downward as it is on the verge of dropping.
"We're all gonna die!" Launchpad shouted.
"I'm too young and adorable to die!" Spike yelled.
"When did you decide to become adorable?" Starlight asks.
"For Rarity's case."
Starlight rolled her eyes at Spike's response.
"Wait!" Pinkie Pie speaks up, "You ducks can fly. You can just fly and carry us out of here!"
"What are we, carrier pigeons!?" Louie answered rhetorically. "Like we said, just because we're ducks doesn't mean we can swim and fly!"
"Wait a minute!" Huey speaks up and alerts everyone else. "We ducks can't fly… but you ponies with wings can! Including Spike! You can carry all of us to safety."
"There's too many of you guys to carry," Rainbow responded in a panic. "I don't think we can fly you guys to safety."
"You don't have to fly to safety. Just hover and float all of us to the soft dirt ground."
"Oh, dear..." Fluttershy said with concern. "I'm not sure it's going to work."
"Got any better ideas?" Louie questions. Dewey raises his finger and is about to answer... "That doesn't involve daredevil actions like diving down the waterfall, Dewey." Dewey slumps in grief and irk.
Twilight Sparkle isn't sure about Huey's suggestion, but... "We have to try, every pony. We got no other choices." Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Spike are frightened by Twilight's answer, but the three agree with the alicorn princess.
With no time to waste, the McDuck family and the Mane heroes took haste. Rainbow Dash grabs Launchpad by the shoulders, with Donald and Rarity holding onto Launchpad. Dewey and Webby ride on top of Rainbow. Huey and Della are on Twilight Sparkle as the alicorn princess grabs Applejack and Scrooge. For Fluttershy, Louie rides on her, and the yellow pegasus grabs Pinkie Pie. Finally, Spike grabs hold of Starlight Glimmer. They are all prepared to take off.
As the moment the raft starts to plunge, Twilight yells...
"NOW!"
Immediately, the heroes took off from the raft and started to float downward and away from the waterfall. The raft then drops instantly towards the base of the waterfall. While the heroes are floating down to the ground, the raft gets to the base and...
SPLASH!
The raft crashed into smithereens.
In mid-air, the heroes are continually floating down to the ground but at a fast rate. Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, and Spike flap their wings fast and hard to keep everyone airborne. But the four flying creatures struggle with weariness due to everyone they carry.
In seconds, the heroes are coming very close and fast to the ground.
"We're gonna crash!" Huey panicked.
"Quick!" Scrooge shouted. "Fly into the grass and bushes!"
"Brace yourselves!" Rainbow Dash yelled.
The three flying ponies and Spike heard, and they quickly turned to the grass and bushes on the river's side. As soon as they reached the ground...
CRASH!
The ducks, the ponies, and Spike made a crash and tumbled, landing on the grass ground, covered with leaves and dirt.
Everyone felt a bit achy after the crash landing, but they were all glad they survived the plunging death of the waterfall.
"Wow," Launchpad said with surprise and sat upward, "that felt like my first crash landing during my flight school."
"That's the first thing you can think of, L.P.?" Webby said with irk.
Rainbow Dash, tired and dizzy, crash-lands onto a tree's thick branch. "At least no pony else saw me and called me 'Rainbow Crash' again," she said.
Applejack, lying upside down on a bush, hears her friend Rainbow and says, "Don't worry… Your embarrassing secret is still safe with us."
Donald huffs and puffs in shocking stress and says, "I thought… I saw… my life flashing before my eyes…"
"Uncle Don," Louie says as he wipes the dirt off his sweater, "you keep saying that like a thousand times now."
"Considering how my bro is a jinx," Della noted as she heavily breathes and regains her strength.
Rarity, lying on the ground breathing, grieves, "I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I hate epic adventures."
"Welcome to the club…" Donald replies to Rarity.
Rarity heard Donald. "Really, dear Donald? Even though your family loves and goes on adventures?"
"You don't know how many dangerous things I've encountered when I was with Uncle Scrooge and my family back then and now. Whenever this happens, I've always wished a normal family life at least five times per day."
"Yeah...," Huey heard and said, "We've been there. That was a disaster."
"Well, trust me, Donald Darling," Rarity says as she regains her composure, "I've faced many dangerous and disastrous obstacles during my adventures with Twilight and the others. And you don't know how many times I freaked out, especially when it messes up my gorgeous mane."
"Woo-oo!" Pinkie Pie cheered and regained her stance. "That was fun! Let's do that again!"
"NO! LET'S NOT!" Donald and Rarity screamed and replied at the same time. Both suddenly, in surprise, turned to each other.
Spike shakes his head and regains his consciousness. He then says, "Ugh! Please tell me that dangerous ride is over, and we're getting close to the tower?"
Louie hears and replies, "Well, given that we overcome a challenging obstacle course like that created by our nemesis…" Louie then looks up and makes a smirk. "I'd say we're on the right track."
Louie Duck then points for the other heroes to see. Everyone else noticed and got a glimpse. Appearing not far from the gang is the tower on the far west side of the forest.
"Huh…" Dewey said in an intriguing mood, "Time sure flies when you go on wild and crazy adventures."
Huey heard and said to his blue triplet, "I'm not sure that's time flying. Time passes when you're distracted and focused on a task at hand. And technically, we rode a raft down a crazy river, so basically the speed of the river–"
"Ah-ta-tata-ta! Don't act so brainy to me, okay, Big Bro? Let's just go!"
Dewey and everyone else pressed forward and headed to the tower. But before Huey catches up to the group, a thought clouds his mind as he realizes something.
"Did he just call me 'Big Bro' as an acknowledgment without realizing it?" Huey said softly to himself.
…
"Finally!"
Huey cheers himself with pleasure, and then he rejoins the gang.