Mabel was wearing a wide grin as she clambered down the trunk of the pine she had grappled onto. She was pretty confident that Dipper and Pacifica had this in the bag, and pretty confident that - in this situation, at least - three heads would only clutter things.

Plus, trains. Trains. She never quite had gotten over the Piedmont Mall Kiddie-train incident of 2006. If she could at least stay a passenger, sure, but the peril of being in a locomotive cab - and the irresistible temptation to pull random levers - was impossibly frightening.

After all, it ended last time with a crash into a fountain and six kids in the emergency room. Nobody needs that level of baggage. What was she meant to do? Not fiddle with random controls and buttons? That was crazy talk!

She daintily lowered herself onto the soft Oregon grass, content that she had done the right thing - not only for herself, but for the railroad. She was pretty certain that Dipper and Pacifica would be more responsible than she was, and that was A-okay!

Pft. Trains. She'd always preferred-

"PONY! PONY! PONY! PONY!"

The shouts frightened birds from the trees - sent leaves and needles falling from branches. They rang out like a particularly deep, abrasive foghorn. To many, that voice inspired fear - perhaps even irritation. To Mabel, it was one of the best possible things to hear.

Grenda and Candy trotted along on a squat, sturdy looking pony, followed swiftly by Marius on a fine, white stallion. Grenda and Candy were both clearly excited. It was just as well that the thing was so well built - the two were jumping so excitedly that it'd probably be enough to break the back of a slighter equine.

"OHMIGOSH! MABEL?! IS THAT YOU?!"

"I think it is, my darli-"

"MARIUS, IT'S MABEL! YOU REMEMBER MABEL? MY FRIEND, MABEL?!"

"Of course, I-"

"YEAH, MABEL, FROM THE PARTY AT NORTHWEST MANOR AND SUCH? REMEMBER?! GOSH, MARIUS, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU FORGOT!"

Marius just smiled in his usual slightly over-accepting manner as the bizarre cavalcade came to a stop in front of Mabel. "How are you? It's not usual we see you separate from your brother."

"I'm fine! They have an emergency, so I grappled onto a tree. Usual stuff, y'know?" Mabel waved away the concern with a broad smile, flapping her sleeves enthusiastically to provide emphasis. "All part of the crazy world of Mabel!"

The baronet in riding breeches flicked his long brown locks as he jumped down from his horse. "You're welcome to join us, if you've nothing else to do."

"Join my best friends and a Bavarian Baron on a jaunt through the forest - with horses?! Man, you guys really know how to live!" Mabel replied. "But uh - I just gotta keep my cellphone with me. In case they need me, y'know?"

"Dipper and Pacifica are tough cookies. They can take care of themselves." Candy replied, pointedly. "You are too responsible. What happened to the party girl?"

"I'm still the partiest girl, Candy. But this is an emergency."

"YOU GOTTA TELL US ABOUT IT!" Grenda bellowed as she changed horses to ride with Marius.

"You know the new train?"

"DUH!"

"It might explode," Mabel replied in a hushed, dramatic voice.

Candy pushed her glasses up her nose. "A steam train would only explode if it ran out of water, or built up too much pressure."

"SINCE WHEN DID YOU KNOW ABOUT TRAINS, CANDY?"

"Since I completed my Vikipedia readthrough."

Grenda let out a very loud sigh and leaned back in despair. "MAN. YOU GIRLS ARE LIKE, TOTAL GENIUSES. AND WHAT DO I HAVE?!"

"The most amazing looks, incredible wit, a beautiful smile…" Marius replied, climbing back onto the horse with a broad grin. He ran a doeskin gloved hand across her round cheek and cooed. "You're like a Rubenesque oil painting, brought to life."

"OH, STOP IT, YOU!" Grenda laughed in artificial embarrassment - which sounded somewhat like a Pterodactyl being hit by a steamroller - and promptly shoved Marius off of the horse. "C'MON GUYS, TELL ME ABOUT THE TRAINS!"

It would be fair to say that Mabel was not the best or most reliable narrator. Truth be told, Marius had his doubts that the older Pines twin had particularly roundhouse kicked anything, or that Kevin had bridal carried her out of the boiler room, or that they had decided a wedding venue.

All the same, there was no doubting her sheer enthusiasm or passion for anecdotal storytelling. With exaggerated hand motions and gestures, impersonations of her family's voices and her own custom sound effects, it came to a point wherein even the horses seemed fairly invested in the matter at hand.

"So then BAM BAM BAM Kevin booted them in the face and Waddles kicked his butt with those tiny trotters and-"

"So they were living lumps of coal?" Marius interrupted as he climbed back onto the large, white horse - hoping to work out what in the story was reality. "Like, speaking and stuff?"

"Exactly!"

"That live to burn themselves up?"

"Exactly!"

"And they could cause a boiler explosion?"

"Exactly!"

Marius blinked. "That does sound like an emergency."

Candy seemed to be mouthing some form of particularly shocked - and offensive - expletives in Korean. Judging from Grenda's stifled (albeit still cacophonous) laughter, the larger girl knew enough Korean to find it utterly hilarious.

"Well, I hope they manage to stop the train." Marius added. "This little town could be blown wide open by something like that."

"That's why I left them to it." Mabel nodded. "To help them get things fixed faster."

"Do you think we should follow the train tracks?" Candy chimed in. "We can see that everything is okay."

Marius blinked. He wasn't usually a man to walk into peril, but-

"LET'S GO! WE COULD BE LIKE A SUPER GLAMOROUS RESCUE TEAM!" Grenda bellowed, shaking the reins. As the cavalcade began descending the hill towards the railroad, it became clear that Marius's mind was made up for him.

"Pft. You guys know it'll all be fine, right?" Mabel giggled. "How could a steam train ever get into that much trouble?"