Dipper rolled over in his bed and groaned. His head was hurting slightly. He sat up and glanced over. Mabel was bundled up under her own blankets, still asleep. Dipper stretched out his arms and jumped out of bed, strangely he felt a little shorter. Dipper just shrugged, he must be tired. He walked into the bathroom and turned on the light walking towards the sink. He froze as he looked at the mirror. "MABEL!" He yelled.
CHe rushed back into their room, almost tripping over his pants. "Huh?" An old woman sat up in Mabel's bed, rubbing her eyes. "What is it Dipper?"
AThe two looked at each other and both gasped at the same time. "What?!" They said in sync. "Look at yourself!" They said together.
E"What could have happened?" Dipper looked down at himself. He looked like his almost teenage self. Mabel looked like she had aged to an old woman. "Did you eat something weird? What do you think happened?"
S"No idea. I'll call Grunkle Ford." Mabel reached over and picked up her cell phone.
ADipper frowned as they waited for the phone to be answered. After a moment Stan answered. "Hey Mabel, did you need something?"
R"Grunkle Stan is Grunkle Ford there?" Mabel asked.
-3Stan was silent for a moment. "Do you have a cold Mabel? You sound weird."
"I just need to talk to Grunkle Ford."
"I'm not good enough?" Stan laughed. "No I'll go get him. Poindexter is in his lab still. So what do you need him for?"
"Um… Something strange is going on." Dipper said. "Have you noticed anything strange?"
"Like what?" Stan stopped speaking suddenly. "Poindexter?" There was a rustling on the other side of the phone and then it sounded like Stan dropped the phone.
"Grunkle Stan?" Dipper yelled out.
"Dipper?" A slightly squeaky voice said. "Is that you?"
"Grunkle Ford?" Mabel and Dipper said together.
"Something tells me we need to get together." An hour later the four of them sat in the living room of Ford's and Stan's house. Stan was the only one who looked normal. Ford was just as old as Dipper. They almost looked like they were twins in fact.
"So.. um… Any ideas anyone?" Mabel coughed slightly.
"I have no idea." Ford folded his arms, a strange motion for a twelve year old. "I am curious why Stanley wasn't affected by whatever happened… I'm most curious about the fact that it affect us differently. Or maybe that is how what ever this is works. Women grow older while men grow younger. I'm curious on how this would affect a child or a baby." He began to rub his chin.
"I'm just curious on how we reverse it." Dipper sighed.
"I agree with Dipper." Mabel said, though she looked calm as she knitted a sweater. "I don't really want to stay this old for the rest of my life. It would also make my life shorter, I don't really want this."
"I don't know what we should do." Ford sighed. "I've never seen anything like this before."
"So what do we do?" Stan asked.
Right then Dipper's phone rang. He glanced down at it and then answered. A strange, slightly familiar voice spoke on the other end. "Dipper!"
"Um… yes?" Dipper spoke a little hesitantly.
"Dipper?" The voice spoke again. "Is that you?"
Dipper froze as he realized he recognized something about the voice. "Bree?" He looked at the others. "What's up?"
She was silent for a bit and then sighed. "Something weird is going on… I… I'm not sure what happened. I just woke up and well…"
"You grew older?" Dipper asked, turning the phone to speaker mode and setting it on the table. "Listen we-."
"Older?" Bree sounded confused. "The opposite. I'm young… I would say I'm about eight… or maybe nine." She sighed. "I'm not the only one. All the people on my floor are freaking out. Everyone's age has changed."
"Everyone?" Ford asked.
"Is that Ford?" Bree asked. "Wow how young did you go back?"
"Hi Bree!" Mabel said over the phone.
"Mabel… What… How old are you?"
"This is definitely one of the strangest conversations I've ever had." Stan said.
An hour later the group of them were walking through town together. Dipper kept glancing at Bree. She wore an oversized blue tshirt that fell to her knees, a large belt wrapped around her waist. She kept fiddling with her necklace as she walked. Somewhere she had found flip flops that were only a little bigger than her actual foot size.
"Stop looking at me." Bree grumbled under her breath. "This is the only thing that covered and fit."
"That was a problem." Ford nodded as they walked.
Bree glanced at him and grumbled. "I still don't like him." She glanced at Dipper and then back forward. "So what are we looking for anyways? I have no idea."
"Nether do the rest of us." Dipper chuckled.
"And Stan so far is the only one who wasn't affected." Mabel pipped in. "Which is weird."
"He's just an ingman." Ford shrugged. He stopped and looked around at the people. Everyone was freaking out. "This is just strange. The only time I've seen chaos like this…" He trailed off.
Dipper thought of Bill Cipher, the demon who had cause so much trouble for them in the past, before he was destroyed. He was sure that was what Ford was thinking. "So where should we start? If everyone was affected in the whole town…" Dipper paused as he noticed a younger version of Toby running through the streets laughing. "There has to be a point of origin or something."
"The town has grown so much… It's hard to tell where the center of the town is."
"Well it depends on if you include the forest parts around town or not." Bree said thinking. "Let's see... The water tower." Bree started walking. "Come on."
"Are you sure?" Dipper asked jogging up next to her.
"Hold up!" Mabel complained. "I can't keep up with you youngsters." As she said it she laughed.
"Oh come on!" Stan frowned. "Not all old people are slow."
"I do have to say I don't miss that." Ford chuckled.
"Come on." Bree rolled her eyes, but she did slow down a little. "As much as it's fun to be young again I would much rather not be forced to go through puberty again."
Dipper froze. Just thinking about that. "Yeah let's go." He sped up a little. As he glanced over at Bree he noticed her looking down at her necklace. A look of worry and sadness covered her face as she looked at it. Dipper wanted to say something but decided she would probably hurt him if he pried into her feelings.
"Hey Bree!"
She glanced up at him. "What?"
"How did you know that the water tower is the middle of town?"
She looked at him and then spoke, a slight look of relief on her face. "My Grandma has a map of Gravity Falls on her wall… I've stared at it a lot… To the point that I've memorized everything on that map." She smiled. "I'm kind of curious what happened to my Grandma now… I wonder if she got older or younger…"
"You didn't call her?" Dipper asked.
"No…. I didn't want to worry her." Bree smiled. "She's my favorite family member…. Besides I'm sure she's still in bed. She didn't go to bed till late last night. She had a lot of paperwork she had to take care of." She glanced over towards Ford and Stan. "When she realizes everything that has happened she might wake up and then she'll call me. Then I'll find out."
Dipper chuckled. "It is one of the weirdest things to wake up to."
"You don't have to tell me that." Bree chuckled. "I tried on my pj bottoms when I was getting out of bed. Smacked face down into the carpet." She chuckled. "I think I might be switching to shorts instead of pants."
Dipper smiled. A few minutes later they arrived at the water tower. Dipper looked up at it and sighed. I wonder what is doing all this…
"Come on." Bree pointed to the top of the water tower. "We should go up."
"Right. Go ahead." Dipper pointed. Bree put her hands on her hips and frowned. She pointed to her make shift dress. Dipper blushed and quickly started climbing up the water tower. He glanced down to see Ford and then Bree following him. He figured that Stan and Mabel were too old to climb up with them.
Dipper reached the top of the water tower and held out his hand, helping first Ford and then Bree up to the top. Everything seemed normal, just like the time they had been up there with the vampire bats. "Well I think this is a dead end." He looked around. "Now what?"
Bree moved away from him walking along the railing of the water tower. "Something is wrong here…. I'm sure of it."
"I don't see anything." Dipper sighed.
"I do." Ford said. He was crouching down and rubbing his fingers over the ground of the railing. He pulled up his finger a faint lining of dust was on his fingers. "Fairies."
"What?" Both Bree and Dipper said together.
"How'd you know?" A soft voice asked.
Dipper looked up to see a small woman sitting on the railing. She had long pink hair that was filtering down her back. She had bright golden wings fluttering behind her.
"I've met with fairies once before." Ford said standing up.
"I've never seen you before." The fairy woman frowned.
"I was… older… Did you do this?" He looked around. "To the town?"
"The queen ordered it." The fairy looked out over the town. "I don't know why… She's been acting strange all day yesterday and today… She told us to change all the ages in town… She didn't explain why."
"We need to talk to her." Ford said. "Please take us."
The little fairy looked at them and then clapped her hands. Dipper felt like he was falling and then he was standing in a field of flowers. "What the?!" He spun around.
Bree was doing the same, but Ford seemed alright. "Where are we?" Bree asked.
"The fairy's home dimension." Ford looked around. "Where is the Queen?"
The little fairy, now as tall as them, wearing a golden colored dress pointed towards a grove of trees. "You'll find her in there."
"Let's go." Ford started walking. Bree and Dipper looked at each other and then started walking together. Ford led the way as if he had been there thousands of times before. After a short hike they found a woman curled up against a tree. She had long golden blond hair that had specks of glitter in her hair. Two matching golden wing fluttered behind her back. She looked up slowly and frowned.
"Stanford Pines…" She whispered. "You have returned… I thought I told you not to return to our home?"
"I had to… Why did you order all the fairies to turn us into younger versions of ourselves?"
The queen looked away. "I had to… It was the only way… I have to…. He orders it…" She curled up into a tighter bundle. "Leave, you aren't needed here."
It was only then that Dipper saw the other body. A young boy, no older than ten, was cradled in the queen's arm. The boy looked like her, only he was missing the wings. His body was stained with blood.
"What happened?" It was Bree who moved forward towards the queen. "THat boy?"
"Don't touch him!" The queen cried out and cradled the boy closer to her. "You humans.. All you do is hurt us… I will not let you touch us any more…" As she moved a jangale of bones around her neck sounded.
"Wait!" Dipper moved forward. He held up his hands as the queen glared. "Let me take that off." He moved closer. "You are controled by that aren't you?"
The queen looked at him and then started to cry. Dipper walked closer and slowly slipped the necklace of bones off her. It looked just like the ones that had been on the bats. The queen broke down and held the boy close. "Leave... " She sobbed. "Tell Lily to reverse it… I don't care any more…"
Bree and Dipper looked at each other and then slowly backed away. Ford went to say something but stopped as both them looked at. The three walked back towards the original fairy, Lily. They looked over.
"How is she?" Lily looked down. "Is she still holding onto the prince?"
"The prince?" Bree stopped and looked over her shoulder. "Is that… her son? What happened?"
Lily looked down. "She was… She was crazed… She… she ripped off the prince's wings… She left him to die…. Then she came back… She ordered us to… to torment the humans… and she collapsed and held him to her chest…."
"She was forced to." Dipper frowned and gripped the bone collar. "She told you that you can reverse what you did."
Lily nodded. "I see…" She waved a hand and suddenly they were standing on the top of the water tower again, and Dipper was older again.
"Bree!" He turned to look at her and found her hiding behind Ford, a blush on her checks.
"Don't look." Dipper turned to look away. Ford and Bree had changed back. "You either old man!"
Ford chuckled. His belt had popped off and his pants fit normally. The same couldn't be said for his shirt. Dipper glanced down to see that Mabel had turned back to normal as well. "Hey Grunkle Stan can we borrow your shirt? Bree needs a new shirt."
"Sounds good." Stan started to take his shirt off. "But I do want it back."
"Thanks Dipper." Bree said.
"Thank you."
Dipper spun and found the fairy Lily standing there. "Um.. You're welcome…"
"Our queen is still grieving but she will get better… She knows now that it wasn't her fault. As thanks I want to give you something." She held up a piece of stone. "It came to us long ago… We don't know what it is but our queen has always said it is important. So here."
Dipper took the stone and froze. It was a stone tablet piece that he had been looking for. "Thank you." He looked at Lily and she nodded and then disappeared. Dipper looked down at the stone piece and smiled. "This is great…."
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