08.31.16. 9:15 a.m.

The ground shook. Old minivan ran down the forest road as fast as the engine would allow. Inside the car, a heavy argument was in progress.

"It's all your fault, shouldn't have kicked it!"

"It doesn't fucking matter now, whose fault it is! Thompson, can this thing go any faster?!"

"No, guys, it's ancient, you know! The engine is half-dead."

"I can fucking outrun this shit!"

A bunch of gnomes landed on top of the car with heavy thuds. One of them managed to crawl inside through the opened driver's window and immediately jumped on Thompson's face, biting and clawing it. Wendy, who sat on the passenger seat, tried to catch the steering wheel while simultaneously ripping the gnome off of her friend, but the car has already lost control and went off the road. All Corduroy was able to do was to dodge the nearest tree minivan was heading directly into, and then rapid turn made the car fall on its side.

"Now we're fucked!" - Wendy stated. - "You guys alive there?" - she asked, turning to Robbie and Tambry who were on the back seats.

"Barely," - Valentino groaned, trying to unlock his seatbelts.

"Let's get out of here, quick!"

The four of them only had enough time to crawl out of the car, when the huge composite gnome was upon them.

"You!" - Jeff yelled from the top of the gnome. - "How dare you trespass on out sacred grounds?"

"When I say 'go', we all run opposite directions," - the ginger hissed, planning their escape routes. She knew, however, that chances of them all escaping the gnomes were slim, but she wasn't giving up just yet. Her intention was to distract the gnomes long enough to give the others enough time to get away, as she was the most prepared of them all, but even then she didn't like the odds.

"I'll pulverize you all for such blasphemy!" - Jeff roared, while the monster gnome was menacingly rising its enormous fist.

"You what, mate?" - asked the voice from behind the gnome. Wendy's face instantly brightened, while Jeff's jaw dropped, and his eyebrows twitched in dread. He slowly turned around in his place on top of the construct. There he saw Dipper Pines, standing on the roadside and looking calmly at him, with his hand crossed on his chest. He was wearing his accustomed khaki hiking pants and ankle boots, and his multi-pocketed vest was worn over a T-shirt with a picture of Albert Einstein on steroids and inscription 'Smart is the new sexy' that Wendy gave him as this year's welcome-back present. An iconic blue pine tree cap crowned his bush of hazy brown hair. His eyes watched Jeff almost indifferently, but with accusation.

"Oh, hey, Dipper!" - the gnome leader said nervously. - "How's it going?"

"Fine, thanks. Go home, Jeff." - Pines commanded.

"But-"

"Go home."

"But they transgressed our Hallow Groove!" - Jeff yelled desperately. - "How can I forgive them? They have to be punished!"

"Leave them be and get back to your woods."

"Or what?" - the gnome shouted in fury. - "This time, what're you gonna do? Use some of your shenanigans, or something? We've been practising, Dipper, so that next time we face you, you won't be able to stop us!" - The monster gnome turned to face the mystery expert, who only stood there looking indifferently at him, and raised its fists to smash Dipper where he stood, but at the last moment a grappling hook flew from between the trees on the roadside and caught Jeff. A second after all gnomes let out a gasp of horror, the rope started to reel. Shrieking like a prehistoric winged lizard, Jeff flew away to the forest, to where hook's owner resided. The rest of the gnomes froze in place.

"So, guys," - Dipper said, looking heavily upon hapless tiny men, who, left without control, did not even lower the construct's arms, - "Before you go, I need you to do one thing. Grab that car and put it on the road right way up, nice and steady."

"But we can't move without directions," - retorted one of the gnomes who formed the left leg.

"Yeah, we need orders!" - agreed the other one.

"Oh, I'll give you orders!" - Pines promised, taking a step toward gnomes. With a loud and vociferous cry the combi-gnome hastily picked up Thompson's old minivan and carefully placed it on the road. No later than this was done, the gnomes ran helter-skelter as fast as they could muster. - "Everyone cool?" - Dipper asked. Wendy ran to him, making a daring leap in place of last several paces. He caught her mid-air and hugged her tightly, while she placed a passionate kiss on his lips, her sylphlike form pressing against his figure, widened with years of boxing and mystery wrestling.

"A hero arrives at the last moment to save the day!" - Corduroy exclaimed once she parted from her boyfriend.

"Status update - saved by the Pines twins, again," - jokingly added Tambry. She didn't have her cell phone around.

"Perfect timing, dude," - Robbie said, coming closer and shaking Dipper's hand.

"Guys, I was so scared!" - Thompson confessed.

"What, of the gnomes?"

"No, when Dipper started pushing them around. It was savage!"

"You guys are lucky that we were nearby," - the mystery expert said. - "Where's my sister, by the way?"

"A selfie with a gnome!" - Mabel's voice cried from behind the tree line, and then she stepped to the road from the bushes. She was dressed in a light knee-long dress with a flower motif and a pair of snickers. How did she manage to walk around in the forests dressed like that and not torn her clothes on the twigs nor scratch her legs was another mystery of Gravity Falls. She carried a small bag on her back and her favourite camera on her neck. In her right hand she was carrying a grappling hook, while the left hand held Jeff, who desperately tried to get away. - "Just ten bucks, people, a selfie with a real actual gnome!"

"Mabel, you definitely took after Stan," - Wendy smirked.

"Let me go, you wench!" - the gnome yelled, twisting violently.

"Watch your mouth," - Dipper advised dryly. - "Now let's hear it, why were you chasing my friends and what exactly happened?"

"They were in the Hallow Groove, picking flowers and trampling the grass. I told them to stop, but they didn't listen, and that one black-haired kicked me in the face! What did I have to do?"

"Is it true, Robbie?" - Dipper's eyes slowly moved to Valentino.

"Yeah, I did," - he admitted with reluctance. - "But he said stuff about Tambry, and about Wendy, too."

"Not surprising, knowing him, but man," - Pines sighed. - "you're, like, twenty times his weight. This was unnecessary. But hey," - he turned back to the gnome. - "The Hallow Groove isn't exactly 'yours', as you claimed, and I've caught your people there quite a number of times, not being too careful with the flora either. Why so much concern for the groove now, all of a sudden?"

"They were picking butterflowers!" - Jeff desperately cried.

"Butterflowers?" - Mabel asked with excitement.

"So?" - Dipper said.

"But-" - Jeff was still hanging in Mabel's hand, and his face dropped as he realized that he can't convince Dipper in legitimacy of his actions. - "But- But why do you hate me so much? Why is it so that you and your friends are always against me, interrupting my business every time?"

"Maybe that's because," - the mystery hunter explained tiredly, - "not a single summer has passed without you messing with us somehow, plaguing us, stabbing in the back when we have bigger problems, and so on. Damn, when I first met you, you were kidnapping my sister. Do I even need to continue?"

"So- what are you going to do with me?" - guilty gnome asked.

Mystery twins exchanged a look. The brother frowned, while the sister shrugged.

"You were threatening out friends," - Dipper stated dourly. - "Don't think I love to do this, but I can't let you go unpunished. Not this time," - He pulled something out of his vest's pocket. Jeff started to scream in terror, not sure of what is going to happen, but not expecting anything pleasant from his nemesis. The guy produced what seemed like a matchbox and pressed one of his sides. The other side emitted a cone of faint blue light. Dipper directed the light at Jeff, and the gnome leader, still squealing, retracted wholly inside the box, although it was several times smaller than him. Pines then stashed the box back inside his pocket.

"Yish!" - Robbie exclaimed.

"Did you have to be so harsh on him?" - Thompson asked worriedly.

"He's perfectly safe, and I'll release him by the end of the day. Also, he flipped over your car, what if any of you got hurt?"

"Alright, let's not waste precious time of the greatest day in history for gloomy talks!" - Mabel demanded. - "And now could anybody explains to me, what are butterflowers?"

"Shit," - Wendy yelled. - "Butterflowers!" - She rushed to the minivan and jumped inside, and a moment later a woeful moan resounded from there. - "Mabel, come here, quick."

Pines sister didn't force Wendy to wait for her. She quickly ran to the car, and this time an enthusiastic scream vibrated through the forest. Dipper took his time to come closer and look inside. There was a cloud of butterflies inside the car that flew all around muzzily, clapping their glittering wings. Mabel was sitting in the middle of the vortex in total amusement, raising her hands and looking around her, unable to comprehend the diversity of colours. Butterflies sat on her hands and face and flew away. Some of them slowly escaped through the windows and opened door, but there was enough of them inside the car to make look like Andy Warhol's bad trip.

"We wanted to give them to you at your birthday party," - Wendy explained to Mabel guiltily. - "But so much commotion to the car made them all wake up and fly away."

"How did you gather so many butterflies?" - Mabel asked, shaking with excitement.

"These are not butterflies, but butterflowers," - Dipper said. - "Flowers that grow in the Hallow Groove that look life butterflies, and when they are ripe they fly away to spread the seeds. They can be startled by rapid movement or commotion even if underripe, then they fly away too. I only found butterflowers by accident a week ago when I was striding through the Groove."

"And you never told me?" - Mabel tried to sound offensively, but she was too exalted for that.

"I brought a bouquet to Wendy, and we decided that we'll give you one for birthday, so I kept it secret until today."

"This is absolutely beautiful," - Mabel sang, almost unable to focus her eyes on anything. - "I'm in heaven."

"Yeah, it is," - replied Robbie, who by that time also came close and peered inside. - "But now we'll have to drive to town with these things flying everywhere. What if one of them decides to sit on Thompson's eye?"

"We can drive slowly. The ceremony isn't starting in an hour and a half," - Tambry said.

"Seriously, dudes," - Dipper said quietly. - "Thanks for your work, but didn't you take too many of them? I mean, butterflowers are already rare enough."

"Yeah, you're probably right," - Valentino rubbed the back of his neck, - "But there's nothing to do now. We just wanted to make Mabel happy."

"I know, guys," - Pines smiled. - "Thank you for that," - He moved his eyes back to his sister's mesmerized face. - "It works."


Their way back was accompanied with Mabel's sweet humming of some nameless motif. At first she refused to react to the outside world's stimuli in any other way. Then, when most of the butterflowers were blown out of the car window or ran dormant, she slowly resumed her interactions with other people.

"We'll now have to stay at the Shack for some time, while we change and get ready to the ceremony," - she said, with her eyes still gleaming. - "What will you guy do meanwhile? Wait for us there?"

"Of course we will, don't be ridiculous, we're not leaving you alone today," - Robbie retorted.

"Too bad Lee and Nate couldn't join us," - Tambry sighed.

"Are they trying to a-Lee-e-Nate from us?"

"Mabel, that's hilarious."

"Lee had to go visit his parents, his dad got seriously ill. Nate had to move to his college earlier this year."

"Sorry to hear that, hope Lee's father gets better soon," - Mabel frowned.

The car stopped on the parking lot of Mystery Shack. Mabel was first to run outside, still accompanied by a cloud of butterflies. She danced inside the Shack, singing 'Soos! Melody!' on her way.

"So, we nailed the first gift, but not completely," - Wendy announced.

"Man, it's a good thing we weren't carrying the cake," - Thompson said.

"OK, guys, thanks for the ride," - Dipper sighed, climbing out of the van. - "There's more than an hour left till the ceremony. I'll go change. In the meantime, you come inside and help yourselves. There's soda and snacks in the kitchen, also, beer, but I'd suggest we save it for later."

"You think Soos and Melody would welcome us ransacking the fridge?" - Wendy said.

"I deem you members of a party preparation crew, so you have my permission."

"Your permission?" - Robbie rebelled. - "Don't get too cocky, youngster!"

"Dude, but that's, like, his family's house, sort of," - Thompson pointed out.

"Whatever, I'll be back ASAP," - Dipper said going inside the shack. He stopped at the doorstep and looked around the shoulder at his friends, who were still inside the minivan. Then he made another step and disappeared inside the Shack.

"The coast is clear," - Corduroy said.

"C'mon, let's go," - Robbie responded. - "We have some surprise presents to plant."