The entire circus tent shook as the cannon fired in a mighty kaboom, blanketing the area in a cloud of glittering purple smoke. Dipper and Mabel held onto each other for dear life as they were shot out of the colorful cannon at blinding speeds, leaving a dark violet streak behind them. They tore a hole through the tent as they shot off over the far horizon, vanishing from the crowd's view with a bright purple twinkle in the sky as their screams faded into the night.

The twins were still holding on to each other like their lives depended on it as they rocketed far above the treetops like a comet.

"This is the most amazing thing ever!" yelled Mabel once she and Dipper had stopped screaming. "Also, I think I'm having a heart attack!"

"Same here on that second part!" shouted Dipper, who was trying to keep his eyes shut, but he kept opening them for a split second and seeing that they were soaring far above the trees, and it seemed like they hadn't even started to arc downwards yet.

"Well, on the bright side, we lived through the blast, though it did kinda hurt more than usual!" shouted Mabel. "Now we just gotta work on the landing! I'll handle it!"

Dipper kept his eyes shut. A few seconds later, Dipper could feel that their trajectory was starting to curve downwards. Suddenly, he could no longer feel Mabel holding onto him, and he started falling faster. Soon, he landed somewhere wet with a splash.

Opening his eyes, he saw that he had landed in a body of water in the middle of the vast forest. Sure, landing in the water wasn't comfortable, and it was pretty chilly at night time, but Dipper supposed that it was better than landing on one of the nearby jagged rocks. He had just started to wonder where Mabel had landed when he heard a loud thunk a few dozen yards in front of him.

Running forwards, he soon found Mabel. She was currently sideways, due to the horns of her helmet getting stuck in the trunk of a tree. She had definitely taken the brunt of the cannon fire, as she was covered from head to toe in soot and singe marks, while Dipper only had a couple.

"Oh, hey Dipper." she said nonchalantly. "Have a nice flight?"

Dipper laughed nervously and said "Well, my life kinda flashed before my eyes quite a bit there."

"Eh, that's normal." said Mabel, prying herself from the tree, which had a large crack in it from the impact. She managed to free herself, though her helmet was still lodged in the bark.

Dipper took some deep breaths and waited for his heart to stop rapidly thumping as Mabel tried to pry her helmet out of the tree bark.

"Thanks for giving me a soft landing. Well, softer than it could've been, at least." said Dipper.

"No problem." said Mabel. She managed to pull her helmet out of the bark, cracking the tree even more. "And I'd like to thank Mr. Tree over here for giving me a landing target better than a rock." She said, giving the tree a pat.

Apparently, the tree had already taken too much damage, as that small pat was enough to crack it apart and send it crashing down.

"Whoops. Heh heh, sorry about that, Mr. Tree." said Mabel sheepishly. She gave the stump a pat and solemnly said "You're in a better place now."

Dipper wringed some of the water out of his clothes as he said "Alright, we're alive, which is better than I was expecting. Are you alright?"

Mabel put her helmet back on her head as she walked over to Dipper. "I'm fine." she said. "I mean, I'm in a lotta pain, but I'm fine."

"Me too." said Dipper. "Okay, so now that's out of the way, on to the next problem. Where are we?"

"Hmm." said Mabel, looking around. "I guess we got blown pretty far from the circus. We're probably at least a couple miles away from it." She laughed nervously and said "Guess that pixie dust was some pretty powerful stuff."

Dipper sighed and said "Alright. We're gonna need to be quick if we want to get back to the circus, 'cause it's already late out. Any ideas for how to get there fast?"

Mabel brushed some dirt out of her long brown hair and said "Well, if we could find another cann-"

"Guess we'll be walking." said Dipper.

The twins set off through the forest in the direction they had flown from. The forest was both calming and eerie during that time of night. Mabel hummed cheerfully as they made their way through the trees while Dipper looked behind them every once in a while to make sure they weren't being followed.

"So." said Mabel. "What did you think of the act?"

"Terrifying." said Dipper. "My ears are still ringing."

"Pfft, ears ringing is just a normal part of life." said Mabel.

There was a pause before Dipper said "Uh, Mabel, do your ears ring like, all the time?"

Mabel smiled and said "Yep!"

There was another pause before Dipper said "I'm starting to think your act isn't the healthiest choice of profession."

"Eh." said Mabel with a shrug.

Soon, the two came across a flowing blue river. Dipper knelt down to take a closer look at it. "Something about this water seems off. It seems a bit... fizzier than most water."

The water in the river was indeed fizzy and bubbly. Mabel reached down to taste it, and her eyes lit up.

"It's not water." said Mabel. "It's soda! Blue raspberry soda!"

Mabel quickly took her helmet off and dunked it into the river, filling it with soda. She then lifted the helmet full of pop above her head and happily poured it out into her mouth.

"Mabel, I don't think you should be drinking that." said Dipper. "For all we know, it could turn you into a weird sugar fairy, or curse you to work in the sugar mines for all eternity, or dissolve your body into soda and mix you into-"

"Relax, Dip," said Mabel, who finished drinking from her helmet and put it back onto her head. "It's just soda. In a forest. Forest soda."

She sniffed and said "Ooh, let's follow the river. Something smells really good upstream!"

Mabel happily headed up the stream, and Dipper followed behind her, figuring that they were at least heading in the general direction of the circus. As they followed the soda river, the air seemed to smell more and more of freshly baked cookies, the trees began to resemble giant chocolate bars, and some of the nearby animals seemed to be giant living cookies. The twins soon came across a clearing. A large, multi-storied gingerbread house, decorated with all kinds of candy, sat on a hill made of brownie.

"Wow!" cried Mabel. "That looks amazing. And delicious! Let's go check it out!"

"Sorry, but we don't have time." said Dipper, heading for the other end of the clearing.

"Come on Dipper, aren't you interested in this kinda stuff? Don't you wanna find out how this gingerbread house thing works, and how it got here?"

Dipper thought about it for a moment. He supposed that it might be interesting to check the place out, and it could serve as a place to spend the night if they really needed to. Plus, he wasn't sure if he would be able to find it again after they got back home.

"Alright, I guess we can take a look around." said Dipper.

Mabel flashed a wide grin and giggled with glee.

"Okay, you investigate, while I explore." said Mabel, as they headed towards the house. "That way, we'll get it done faster!"