Mabel stood next to her grunkle, staring out at the fair that he'd set up. "There she is, Mabel. The cheapest fair money can rent," Stan said, proudly looking at it. "I spared every expense!"

Overhead, there was the sound of a line snapping, and her brother's familiar screaming fading into maximum volume. It slammed into the ground, and she turned to see him, his eyes wide.

"I think the sky tram is broken," he commented, pale. "Also, most of my bones."

She heard Antonio laughing in the distance, and she looked across to see him screwing around with Wendy and a ladder. Her smile widened a little bit.

Stan laughed, too. "This guy! All right, all right." Dipper climbed out of the sky tram and stood next to her. "I got a job for you two. I printed up a bunch of fake safety inspection certificates. Go slap one on anything that looks like a lawsuit." He tried to hand them the stack.

Mabel looked at them dubiously. "Grunkle Stan, is that legal?"

"When there's no cops around, anything's legal!" was his flippant response.

"Words to live by!" Antonio shouted, again from the distance. She watched as Wendy shook the ladder he was standing on. Mabel nearly freaked out, but he caught his balance and glared down at Wendy, dropping some small metal thing on her head. It looked like a nut. The teen just rubbed her head and glared right back up.

"Soos, how's that dunk tank coming along?" Stan asked.

Soos, who'd been welding it on, lifted up the welding mask and said, "Almost ready to go, Mr. Pines." She watched as Stan walked up and pounded on the target, with the seat barely moving. She frowned. That was like lying, but not directly.

"Ha!" Stan laughed. "You got it rigged from here to Timbuktu! There's nothin' on Earth that could knock me down!"

"Yeah, except for, like, a futuristic laser arm cannon."

Stan just grunted, though Mabel wasn't really paying attention to them anymore. She and Dipper had started sticking fake safety certificates basically everywhere, and neither of them would tear their eyes away from Wendy and Antonio.

After they'd depleted their resources (Dipper wandered off to go find Stan, since they definitely would need more) she headed over to where the teens were. Wendy was still holding the ladder, and Antonio was screwing bolts on, or whatever those were. "Hey," Mabel said, giving them a little wave.

"Hey," Wendy said right back, giving a little nod.

She was pretty sure Antonio intended to say "'Sup?", but he was holding a wrench in his mouth and trying to line up the little metalmajobs, so it came out more like a muffled "Hub?"

"So, uh . . . Antonio," she said. Why was she always so carefree when she wasn't around him?! "I was wondering . . . if you'd maybe want to spend the day at the fair with me?"

He removed the wrench from his mouth and looked down at her as he screwed the stuff on. "Uh . . . yeah? I was planning on hanging out with Wendy, but—"

"Nah, I'm spending it with Dipper. Go right on ahead," the teen said with a grin, then she turned to Mabel and discreetly winked.

She felt herself go a little red.

"Oh, well, in that case, yeah, sure. I'd love to." He turned back to what he was working on, but his hand slipped, and the metalmajobs fell to the ground. "Aw, nuts," he muttered.

She picked them up and gave them to him, trying to hide her happy jitters inside.

"It's twelve o'clock! The dunk tank is now open!"

The intercom Stan was using screeched with feedback, and everyone winced, Dipper included.

"Step right up and dunk me, folks. I'm talkin' to you, cut-offs. That's right! Muffin top! High pants! Who wants a piece of me?!"

He watched as they all threw their baseballs and did absolutely nothing to him, and he sighed. He got why Stan needed to goad people to make money at the scam, but it wasn't great.

Whatever. He wasn't hanging out with Stan, he was hanging out with Wendy. He smiled at her, holding the question-mark pretzels. "How do they get them into this shape? It's unnatural," he commented.

"But, Dipper, they're so . . . delicious?" She held up her pretzel so it added a question mark in front of the "delicious" sign and shrugged. They both laughed, but a drop of mustard fell on her sleeve. "Aw, boo! I'll be right back."

"I'll be right here!" he said awkwardly, laughing again. "I love you," he whispered.

"Look at you two, gettin' all romantic at the fair," Mabel said, walking up with two things of cotton candy. Antonio wandered just a little behind her, with some of his own. He just raised an eyebrow, and she went a little red. "This—this isn't romance. Shut up."

"Okay, yeah, but mine is! You're so right! It is! Isn't this amazing?!" he said excitedly. "I just dove in! I said, 'Hey, you wanna hang out at the fair?' And you know what she said?" His mind went back to the romantic response:

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Yeah, I guess so! It totally worked! All your advice about just going for it, it's finally paying off!" The words were flying out of his mouth embarrassingly, but he didn't think about that because he was having a great time and Wendy was awesome and Mabel's advice was kind of awesome too he guessed and oh shoot his brain was one massive run-on sentence at this point.

"When are you going to learn, Dipper? I'm always right about everything," was her reply. "And I'm having a good time too!" She glanced over her shoulder, but Antonio was staring at the dunk tank and chanting for them to get it under his breath. "This is so romantic! I think this is gonna be my big summer romance!" She beamed widely.

Then it abruptly stopped. "Hey, do you smell a gallon of body spray?"

A shadow fell over them. He looked up and glared at the source of said shadow. Robbie. "Hey, either of you dorks seen Wendy around?" he asked.

"Who wants to know?" he asked defensively.

The teen grabbed a chunk of one of Mabel's cotton candies, and she pulled them away. "Yeah, I got some new super tight jeans. Thought she might wanna check 'em out." He flexed his legs and they squeaked. Dipper wrinkled his nose.

"Yeah, you know, I think I saw her in the Bottomless Pit," Dipper said sassily. "You should really go jump in there."

Robbie narrowed his eyes. "Maybe I will, smart guy." He walked behind him, elbowing him on the way, and Dipper wondered just how dumb he was. Antonio was barely five feet away from them, and he was Wendy's best friend. Why wouldn't he just ask him?

"He is such a jerk," Mabel complained.

"Yeah, but he's a jerk with tight pants and a guitar. I need to keep him away from Wendy at all costs."

His sister shrugged. "Well, you know who I'll be with if you need any help." She smiled at him and edged away backwards, towards Antonio.

He rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Antonio," she said. The teen distractedly turned towards her. "Whatcha lookin' at?"

"Ah, just hoping Stan gets dunked. Dunk him, dunk him!" he chanted, but it didn't work. "Shoot. Another whiff. Anyway." He turned to her. "What do you wanna do today? We got the whole fair to ex—"

He froze, a wide smile growing on his face, his eyes caught on something behind her. She spun around to look at it, too. There was a poster taped to a lamppost, and they both grinned simultaneously.

"OH MY GOSH, A PIG!" she screamed, and she was expecting it to be just her, but he'd said it too. They dropped their cotton candy and rushed off to find it, pushing through the crowd and panting. He arrived before she did, and he stuck his tongue out playfully.

"If'n you can guess the critter's weight, you can take the critter home!" the farm guy was saying, and they both shot straight up against the wall eagerly, looking at the various pigs. Her eyes caught on a neat one looking right at her, and both of them stared.

It oinked.

She gasped. "He said 'Mabel'! Either that or 'doorbell'."

"No, no, it was definitely 'Tonio', which is obviously short for my name," Antonio said.

"Okay, well, what did you say?"

They both waited, and he oinked again. Her eyes grew wide, and she knew that she must have that pig. It didn't matter whether he said Mabel or Tonio, he was perfect.

She heard Pacifica saying, "Oh, look, Mabel here found her real twin," from behind her. They both turned around to look at her, and the rich girl went bright red when she saw Antonio, and she hurried her pace.

"Sir, we must have that pig!" Antonio said, whirling around and pointing to the chosen one.

"Ah, old Fifteen-Poundy! So, how much you guessin' he weighs?" He wiggled his cane at them, and they exchanged a look.

"Um, fifteen pounds?" she guessed.

His eyes widened. "Are you some kind of witch?"

"Nope, but I know one," Antonio said cheerfully, grinning at her. "Now gimme our pig!" He groped for him, and soon they had a pig between the two of them. They both had on massive grins. "So, what're we gonna name him?"

"Hmm." She thought intensely.

Antonio wiggled the piggy, and he waddled back and forth. She gasped at the idea, but he said, "You know, I think we should name him Doorbell. Since you seem to think he said that."

"What? No," she said, shaking her head. "No, we should call him Waddles."

He gasped in awe, and Waddles became the pig's name.

"Everything is different now," she whispered.

Dipper walked with Wendy, a smile perpetually frozen on his face. He'd tried to knock it off, since he guessed it looked kind of cheesy, but it had came right back. He had an infinite supply of happiness right now.

"Whoa! Check it out!" she exclaimed. She pointed to one of the 'knock the bottle down' games or, more specifically, at the prizes. "I don't know if it's a duck or a panda, but I want one!"

They both ran up. "My uncle taught me the secret to these games," Dipper informed her, and he conspiratorially added, "You aim for the carny's head and take the prize when he's unconscious."

She laughed. "Nice."

He pulled out a fair ticket and said, "One ball, please."

The carny handed it to him and warned, "You only get one chance." He grabbed the ball and looked at Wendy, who smiled widely.

"And a one, and a two, and a . . ." He grunted as he threw it, but it hit the edge of the table and shot right back, nailing Wendy right in the eye. She yelped, and he gaped, freaking out. "Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh! Wendy, are you okay?!"

She sighed. "Does it look swollen?" It was bright purple.

He did a double take, absolutely horrified at what he'd done. "Everything's gonna be fine! Don't worry! I'll . . ." He looked around frantically. "I'll go get some ice!" He ran to the porch and grabbed a bag, running back. "Where is she? Where is she?" he murmured frantically, but in his rush, he ran right into some dude. The ice went flying, and he scrambled to put it all back in.

He glared at the guy he'd bumped into. "Hey, watch where you're going, man!"

The guy just grabbed a tape measure off the ground and ran off, panting.

He would've rolled his eyes, but there was no time for that. He got it all back in and ran off, but there was a hole dropping cubes. Not that it mattered. He froze to a stop when he saw Wendy.

Being comforted by Robbie.

"Yeah, I was just here at the right place at the right time," he said off-handedly. Dipper clutched the emptying ice bag, upset. "You know, I've been meanin' to ask you . . . we've been spendin' a lot of time together and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out with me?"

He clutched it tighter, whimpering.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Sweet!"

The last bit of the ice fell on the floor as he stared in utter horror at the newly made couple.

Mabel walked up, though he wasn't looking. "Look, Dipper! Antonio and I won a pet pig! His name is Waddles. I call him that because he waddles! Waddles!" She jiggled the pig.

His eyes were all wide, and he murmured, "Everything is different now."

"What are ya lookin' at?" He pointed, and they both watched as Robbie and Wendy ran to the Tunnel of Love and Corndogs ride, held hands, and got in. "Oh . . ." she said in realization, and he heard her wince.

Dipper had been in a funk the whole rest of the day. Mabel and Antonio spent the entire time trying to cheer him up, but it was to no avail. Not even her best jokes helped. He'd just groan and sadly stare up at the sky.

"Mabel, Antonio, do you ever wish you could go back and undo just one mistake?" he asked.

"Nope! I do everything right all the time," she said honestly, playing with Waddles. Antonio shot her a look, and she belatedly realized that had been the exact wrong thing to say.

"Oh, yeah," Antonio said, then he grinned. "I'm in the process of fixin' a mistake right now."

"I mean, Wendy only went out with Robbie because he was there with the ice, and she only needed ice because of the baseball, and I would've had the ice if it wasn't for . . ." He gasped, and both of the others shot to alertness. "That guy!" It was some weird guy in a gray suit. "Hey, you! Tool belt! You ruined my life!"

"Huh?" the guy said, spinning around.

"Don't 'huh' me! I've seen you before!" he accused. Mabel, Antonio, and Waddles stepped up to watch the brewing conflict. (Antonio's face seemed caught somewhere between 'this is bad' and 'fight! fight! fight!') "What's your deal? Are you following us around?"

"And why are you bald? What's that all about?" she asked.

"And . . . ooh, that's a nice watch . . ." Antonio murmured. She gave him a bewildered look.

The guy screamed. "My watch! Wait." He cleared his throat, then screamed again. "My position has been compromised! Assuming stealth mode! Color match!" He fiddled with the watch, various camouflage scenes popping up, and she guessed Antonio's eyes went all big. "Initiating color match! Come on! Dang it!" Then he tried to fix it with the red screwdriver.

"That's amazing!" she commented, then she gasped. "Are you from the future or something?"

"Uh, no! Who told you that?!" the guy said, visibly sweating. "Memory wipe!"

He threw something at her face, which she pulled off and looked at. "This is a baby wipe." Antonio held out his hand and, confused, she gave it to him.

The time guy sighed, plopping down on a hay bale. "All right, you've cornered me. I'm a time traveler."

"Yeah, it was pretty obvious," Antonio commented.

"So wait a minute," Dipper said, completely ignoring the teen, "if you're from the future, do you have, like, a time machine or something?"

The guy shrugged. "That's kind of how it works."

She could literally watch her brother's eyes slide from the face of the time dude to behind him, where Robbie and Wendy were romantically sitting on the Ferris Wheel, and she didn't even need to look at him to know what he was thinking.

"Could I borrow it?"

"Come on, can I use your time machine just once?" Dipper pleaded.

"Out of the question! This is sensitive, extremely complicated time equipment!" He pulled on it to demonstrate. Dipper peered at it.

He frowned. "It looks like a tape measure."

"You shut your time-mouth!" the guy screamed, taking some weird offense at that. Whoa. Weird, much? Maybe the future had different customs, or something, and what he'd done was a horrible infraction of etiquette.

Or maybe this guy was just weird.

Dipper backed up and looked at his sister and her crush. "This makin' any sense to you?" he asked them softly.

"I think he's just crazy," Mabel whispered.

"Oh, I deal with crazy people all the time," Antonio said easily, rolling his eyes. He stepped up to the guy and, in a lower, more official-sounding voice, he said, "Sir, I'd like to see some identification. You could be possessing an illegal time machine, and—"

The guy pulled out an ID. "Blendin Blandin, time anomaly removal crew, year 20-snyeventy-12!"

Antonio took it, nodded, looked all professional, and then chucked it as far as he could. Blendin screamed, and Mabel jumped from next to him. "Well, ID cards are a thing of the 2000s, so I think that you're a counterfeit. Come on, hand it over."

"H-hand what over? Who do you think you are?!"

The teen gave him a flat look. "Who do I look like? A child?" Blendin did an iffy gesture. "Oh, now that's just insulting. My name is Tonitonio Ciffer, year 38-snyeventy-41. Come on. All your gear. You're not allowed to be on the time anomaly removal crew anymore."

Blendin pouted, then took off his watch and the time machine, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff. Dipper just kind of stared.

"Now get out of here. The officers will come to pick you up soon enough. You're not allowed unregulated time travel anymore." He pointed, and Blendin just pouted, walking away.

Both twins just stared at Antonio, and he grinned, handing them the time machine with a wink.

"Are you from the future?" Dipper asked, suddenly not so sure.

"Pssh. No," he laughed. Then he paused. "Well, kind of? I mean, I already went back a couple times, because you two managed to trick him into riding one of the rides."

"Then why . . . ?"

"Well, I may have lost it this time around because it was the first time I actually got Waddles with Mabel . . . Yeah, you were actually the whole reason I came back the first time," he told Mabel, and her eyes went wide. "First time around, I actually didn't go to the fair with you, and it was a huge mistake."

Dipper blinked. "Did Wendy and Robbie still . . . ?"

"Oh, yeah, that still happened. But," Antonio shrugged, "doesn't really matter. You guys wanna have some fun with a time machine?"

Both twins grinned, and so did he. Then Dipper paused. "But why was Blendin here, anyway?"

"Ah, somethin' about a series of time anomalies. It doesn't really matter."

That sounded like that mattered . . .

Six and a half hours back.

Here we go, he thought.

And it was noon again.

And his hat was on fire.

The three of them grinned and ran out, pleased at their do-over. Mabel and Antonio headed to the place where they'd won Waddles. "If'n you can guess . . ." the guy was saying, but they'd already heard that, so she just grabbed Waddles.

"Fifteen pounds!" she screamed.

They walked away, but, simultaneously, they stepped back. "And yes, I am a witch," Mabel said at the exact time Antonio said, "And yes, she is a witch."

"Well, time to round up a mob," the guy said from behind them, lighting his torch.

"Hey, Wendy," Dipper called, running over to where the teen was standing.

"There you are," she said with a grin. "Hey, what happened to your hat?"

Oh, right. His hat had caught on fire during the time traveling. He just said, "Uh, nothing." Then he spotted the duck-panda thing she'd wanted last time. "Hey, look! What's that?"

"Whoa! Check it out! I don't know if it's a duck or a panda, but I want one!"

He pulled out a ticket from his pocket (starting to feel the dejá vu right about now) and ordered his ball. "You only get one chance," the carny told him.

"That's what you think," he murmured under his breath. He grabbed the ball, and Wendy gave him a big grin, and he prepared to throw it. "One panda-duck, coming right up! Okay, Dipper, second chance. Don't mess this up," he muttered as an afterthought.

He threw the ball, and it knocked down all the milk bottles. He cheered, but the ball came flying back and hit Wendy in the eye again. She screamed, and he exclaimed, "What?!"

She sighed. "Does it look swollen?"

He spun around. "That's so weird," he mumbled. It was like time itself didn't want to change the outcome.

"Oh, hey, Robbie," Wendy said, and he turned to look. There was Robbie with the snow cone. Dipper felt the knot in his chest grow tighter.

"So anyway, we've been hangin' out a lot, and I've been wondering if, uh, you wanted to go out with me?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Sweet!"

Dipper's eye twitched.

He watched as they walked up to the Tunnel Of Love and Corn Dogs ride holding hands. Mabel and Antonio were playing with Waddles behind him, but he was a little more focused on his own problem. "The exact same thing happened twice! It was spooky!"

"Ooh, maybe it's a time curse!" Mabel gasped. "Waddles, can you say 'time curse'?" He oinked, and she squealed. "Your face is so fat!"

"A curse," Antonio commented, then he grinned. "That sounds like something from an 80s adventure movie."

Dipper ignored both of them. "Is it possible that the forces of time naturally conspire to undo any new outcomes?" he asked, pacing. "No, no. I just need to try again. Third time's the charm."

"How hard can it be?"

All three of them went back in time again, but Dipper didn't miss the concerned look on Antonio's face.

He tried throwing the ball in his other hand.

The same thing.

Mabel and Antonio and Waddles had fun.

He tried switching places with Wendy.

The same thing.

Mabel and Antonio and Waddles had fun.

He asked if she really cared about it, and apparently, she did. So he tried again.

This time, an entire bag of baseballs hit her in the head.

Mabel and Antonio and Waddles had fun.

He was doing the calculations on the popcorn machine. "If I adjust the ball for wind speed . . . factoring cotton candy . . ." he mumbled, writing on the glass with his marker.

"Face it, Dipper, you're obviously fated to have a bad day at the fair," Mabel told him. "Just like we're fated to be with Waddles!" She showed him the sweater she'd knitted for herself with Waddles on it. He sighed and turned back to his math.

"It's like there's one variable missing," he said under his breath.

"What's a variable?" Mabel asked. Her head poked up on the other side, through the glass, right next to his equal sign. The lightbulb went off in his brain. He knew how to do it!

"I figured out a way to win the toss, not hit Wendy, and stop Wendy and Robbie from going out!" he said excitedly.

"Awesome! I'm gonna go win my pig again!" Antonio was walking up, munching on a pretzel.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can't leave," he said, grabbing her. "I need you for my plan."

"But what about Waddles?" Mabel asked.

The teen swallowed his bite and said, "Actually, Dipper, I'll help you. Mabel, you go win Waddles for us, okay?"

"Okay!" And she ran off.

Dipper looked at Antonio. "Uh . . . okay. Sure. Come on."

They started to walk over, and Dipper was going over the parts of the plan in his head. However, something was bothering him. It didn't quite work.

". . . how many times did you go back before you took us, Antonio?" Dipper asked, looking up at the teen.

Antonio froze. "Um, just a couple, you know. Not very many. Like, maybe only . . ." He counted on his fingers, then winced. ". . . thirteen times?"

Dipper stared.

"I mean, at first I was just going back to visit cool times in history, 'cuz, well, I got my hands on a time machine, why wouldn't I? But . . . then I started going to the fair, and whatnot, because I could relive an awesome day again."

He studied the teen's face. That answered a couple questions, but it raised a couple more. "Then why didn't you bring Mabel with you?"

Antonio blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you were having this awesome day with Mabel and Waddles, why wouldn't you bring her back, too? I'm sure it would've been more fun."

The teen looked away. "I . . . come on, it's almost time for you to get that thing for Wendy, right?"

It was, but this conversation had to happen. "Come on," Dipper pressed, "why didn't you take her? It makes the most sense to. So why—"

"Because I didn't come with her to the fair originally!" Antonio finally admitted, glaring at him. "Are you happy? What I originally did was go to the fair with Wendy and you, and she still got hurt, but Robbie didn't come near because I was there. They didn't end up going out, and I won the plushie for her, and you got all jealous because I did it, and you seem to think I'm perfect, or something."

He sighed, and plopped down on a haystack before continuing, albeit a little quieter. "And I didn't want that. You still ended up wanting the time machine, and I came with, and I . . . I took it from you and went back again, without you, basically resetting you, so you wouldn't know." He was silent for a moment, and Dipper found himself in shock.

"I remembered that Mabel wanted to have fun with me, and after time-hopping a little bit, I decided I wanted that more. And I screwed up the timeline because of it. Probably not by much, but . . ." He looked away. "I'm sorry. I didn't tell you, and . . . maybe I should've. I don't know."

Dipper sat down next to him, and he pulled out the time machine and looked at it.

"If you go back without me, I wouldn't blame you," Antonio said, and Dipper was even more surprised to hear his voice shaking. No tears, but . . . still. "I wouldn't blame you at all."

Dipper looked at it again, then put his head down and sighed. And he handed the time machine to Antonio. The teen looked at him in shock. "Take it. Take back Mabel, have a good day with her. Maybe you screwed with the timeline, but . . ." He didn't say it out loud, but he knew that Mabel would've been heartbroken in Antonio's original timeline. She really did love him.

And she deserved to have a happy day.

Antonio took it, looked at him again, and then nodded, and he went to go find Mabel.

Mabel jiggled Waddles in her arms, and she looked up to see Antonio walking over. She brightened up. "How'd it go?"

He smiled somewhat, but she could tell something was wrong. She cocked her head to look at him. "We're . . . changing plans. Dipper wants me to have a good day with you over stopping Wendy and Robbie from going out."

She stopped in her tracks. "What? But he wanted that a lot!"

"But the timeline wouldn't work that way. So, I've got orders to go back with you and have one more good day at the fair."

Oh, part of her wanted to accept. A big chunk of her definitely wanted it. But . . . what?! Dipper was heartbroken when Wendy and Robbie started going out. She'd keep her good memories. She didn't want his to be just horrible.

"No," she said firmly. "No, you help him. I'll keep my good day with you. You should help him out, make him have a good day."

Funnily enough, he smiled at that. "Aww, it's so cute how you two look out for each other. Anyway, come on." She put her hand on the time machine, and they zooped back in time, one more time.

It worked out in the end. Wendy still got hit in the eye, and she didn't get to spend the day with Antonio again, but she got Waddles and Wendy and Robbie didn't start going out (yet. She had a feeling that if time wanted it so badly before, it was going to happen later, anyway.)

Also, that thing that Antonio had said about how Blendin had originally been there because of some time anomalies, or something? Yeah, apparently, when he'd been time-hopping all over the place, he'd caused all them. But the time police showed up and arrested him, and they blasted Stan into the dunk tank. Antonio had cheered loudly at that.

And she ended up siccing Waddles on Robbie, and he backed up into a vat of hot water, which spilled onto him and shrunk his tight pants. Which was fun.

Overall, not too bad a day.