Ford and Mabel's Pixie Grove

SUMMARY: Both Mabel and Ford go into the woods to look for pixies, but one pixie seems to be some sort of help.

MAIN CHARACTERS: Mabel Pines and Stanford Pines

Mabel woke up all excited to hang out with her Grunkle Ford, him saying that the two were going to go hunt and study the pixies deep in the woods of Gravity Falls.

As always Mabel got up before Dipper, who always stood up late with his readings, and she gathers clothes to get ready in the bathroom. She picked out a lovely solid purple knitted sweater with a white undershirt and a pair of thick jeans. Mabel then finds a pair of her hunting boots, that way she was comfortable hiking in the wilderness.

When she went downstairs to eat the famous Stancakes that Grunkle Stan was making, Ford was already at the table with their supplies, him already dressed in his usual sweater and brown trench coat. He was making sure everything was in order, once in a while taking a bite of his food. It didn't seem like he was hungry.

Mabel sits down next to him, Stan putting a plate of food in front of her. "Good morning Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford!" she greets them cheerily. She starts shoveling her breakfast down her throat.

"Don't eat too fast, hon," Ford points out. "You'll make yourself sick… we are going to be running around a bit." Mabel slows down a tad, but was still eating too fast to his liking. "Your brother still sleeping?" he asks her, and she replies with a mumbled "Yes." Ford nods in understanding. "I should probably talk to him about staying up and reading… he can't do that during the school week."

"Never stopped him before." Mabel tells him. "He's always done that."

"Probably why his eyesight sucks now." Stan jokes, him sitting across from Mabel and eating his stack of food. He left some on the counter covered in tin foil for Dipper when he woke up. "Also, Ford, y'did that a lot too when we were kids." He then points out.

There was a creak from upstairs.

"Dipper's up." the three Pines said together.

In about a minute later Dipper walks into the kitchen area, taking a seat next to Stan. Some bags were under eyes, his brown hair a complete mess and absent of his hat. He wore a black t-shirt and his pajama pants, him not even bothering to get dressed like his sister had.

"Morning," Dipper yawns, him giving a stretch.

"Your food is on the counter, Dipper." Stan tells him with a mouth full of food.

"Thanks…" Dipper grumbles as he gets up and get his food. He returns to seat and begins to eat slowly.

Ford gives him a worried glance. "Did ya sleep okay, Dipper?" he asks his great nephew.

"I feel like I dreamt of something important… like a memory… but…" Dipper began as he made a face. "But I can't really remember it… it's like the remnants of the dream evaporate as I wake up…"

"Probably not important then," Ford tells him nonchalantly. He glances at his list again.

Dipper insists, "But it is important, Great Uncle Ford! It has to be…"

"I wouldn't worry too much about it, kiddo." Stan tells him. "I can't remember what I have for breakfast half the time, so you not remembering any dreams isn't a big deal."

Ford gives his twin serious glare. "Remind me to make you a doctor's appointment to be tested for dementia and Alzheimer's." he states.

"It's figure of speech, Stanford!" Stan shouts at him in exasperation. "Calm down!" Ford just rolls his eyes as Stan makes his attention go back to Dipper. "So, Dipper, while these two go pixie hunting, you and I are gonna run the Shack! Exciting right?" he gives a big smile.

Dipper drops his fork to his half bare plate with a crash. "Wait… what!?" he exclaims anxiously. "Since when are you two going pixie hunting!?" he asks his sister a grunkle across from him.

Ford and Mabel glance at each other. "We mentioned it yesterday at dinner, weren't you paying attention, Dip Dop?" Mabel says to him. Dipper gives a sheepish smile and a small shrug, confirming he wasn't paying attention. "Well, you and Grunkle Ford always do some monster hunting, I wanna help too! Besides, you and Grunkle Stan will do great running the Shack! Remember when I was the boss and you scammed so many people out of their money?"

Dipper narrows his eyes, his brows furrowed in annoyance. "We said we would never speak of that again." He say lowly, his mouth barley opening.

"WE MADE ONE DOLLAR AND WON THE BET AGAINST STAN!" Mabel cheers loudly, her fists in the air, almost hitting Ford, and it seemed the very room vibrated. "I even got him to the 'Stan is Wrong Song' complete with a dance!" she adds with a sinister smile, her chuckling almost evilly.

"WHERE IS THAT DAMN TAPE SO I CAN BURN IT!?" screams Stan, him frustrated as Ford began chuckling about how he needs to see it.

The Pines family finishes their breakfast, both Stan and Dipper going upstairs so they could get dressed for the day. Ford and Mabel were still downstairs, him explaining to his niece the best tactic to deal with them.

"They're not as frustrating as unicorns," Ford states as he gestures to his drawing of a pixie. Despite not having his journals anymore because of Bill destroying them, he still remembered a lot of his research by memory and was able to recreate most of his work. He the drawing of the pixie down, he just didn't remember the actual research he put into it, thus why the two were going out on their little expedition. "Dealing with pixies is a lot more pleasant than those damned horned horses."

Mabel gives a smile, looking at his artwork of the pixie. It was drawn much bigger to see the details, the little thing with an upturned nose, translucent wings, a bob haircut, and a long flowing dress. "I'm really excited, Grunkle Ford!" she tells him. "I can't wait to see these!"

"From what I remember they are attracted to positive energy," Ford comments, giving her a smile. "Thus why you are the perfect helper, I couldn't ask for a better assistant for this." He then ruffles Mabel's brown hair, which was starting to grow a little longer now.

The two packed their backpacks and waited at the bottom of the stairs. Mabel was bouncing form foot to foot, she could barely contain her excitement. Ford was calmer, him looking over his notes once again for what seemed like the millionth time that morning. She gives a small smile, noticing that once again they are wearing some kind of sweater.

While she wore a solid purple sweater her grunkle was actually wearing a navy blue one with the design of star constellations in it. She had designed him many sweaters, and he wore them all the time, often asking her to make new ones with design ideas himself, although half of them were something science related she had Dipper to help her with that part.

"You're older than Grunkle Stan right?" Mabel asks Ford.

Ford looks up from his notes. "About seven minutes, why?" he confirms.

"I'm older than Dipper by five minutes." Mabel states, pointing to herself with her thumb, proudly. "And do you know what that means?"

He gives her a smile. "No I do not, dear, what does it mean?"

"We are the Alpha Twins with our Sweater Swag!" Mabel cheers.

Ford replied with a question, his voice filled with confusion at the term, "What's 'swag'?" he cocked his head to the side slightly.

"It means we are awesome, Grunkle Ford." Mabel tells him, a huge smile on her face, him making an "ah" sound in understanding.

"Well you two may have your 'Sweater Swag'," Grunkle Stan's voice bellows from the top of the stairs. The Alpha twins glance up, seeing Grunkle Stan and Dipper standing at the top of the stairs. "But we Pines men look damn well good in suits!" he then adjusts his tie, giving a big smile. Dipper just stayed in his solemn position next to Stan, his face a little pale.

Mabel looks at her twin brother with a worried glance, her heart feeling heavy. She didn't like the way he was looking, thinking that he must feel ill or his thoughts were going back to his dream. "Hey, Sir Dipping Sauce… you okay?" she asks him gently.

Dipper snaps out of his trance. "Huh?" he barely whispered.

"Dipper, are you okay?" Ford was the one who asked, raising a gray eyebrow. It looked like the boy was going to be sick, causing him to worry a little.

Dipper then goes back to his normal upbeat attitude. "What? Oh, yeah, Grunkle Ford, I'm perfectly fine!" he gives smile, a real smile, almost like what was haunting his thoughts before disappeared. He claps his hands together in excitement. "You two have fun, we're gonna have a blast here practically stealing money from people!" Dipper then adjusts his own tie, similar to Stan. "Catch a pixie for me, sis!" he then waved at Mabel. His smile seemed so pure…

Mabel returns the wave, although not as excitedly. "Yeah… I'll catch you one, Dip'n Dot." She softly says as she and Ford gathered their gear and walked out the door.

Their feet crunched on the earthy floor, them heading to the woods. Mabel's heart was suddenly not into the pixie hunt, her chest feeling as heavy as lead. She glances behind her, seeing the Shack getting farther and farther away. Because of her distraction, she runs into Ford after he had stopped.

"Omph!" she grumbles.

"Mabel, are you okay?" Ford asks her, him adjusting his glasses.

Mabel sighs. "Well… I'm just worried about Dipper, that's all…" she admits to him. "It's like he's remembering things from what happened before… and I'm scared. Sometimes he wakes up and he's freaking out but he doesn't know what happened to him… and… and… I'm scared that one day he'll remember and hurt himself…" tears sprang to her eyes, her words becoming hitched. "I don't know what I would do if I ever lost my twin brother again…!" she then begins uncontrollably sobbing, the tears flowing down her normally rosy cheeks.

Ford kneeled down and hugs her close to him, rubbing her back gently to try to calm her. She wraps her arms around him, burying her face against him, her body trembling as she gasps for air.

"I'm worried about him too, Mabel." Ford whispers to her. "But, we have to think positive that the bad memories will stay away… we have to help him remember the good and give him new, happy memories. We will never lose him again…"

The young woman nods, her backing away and wiping the tears off her face with her sleeve. "You're right, Grunkle Ford." She hiccups.

Ford then gives her an encouraging smile. "We won't lose him again, he has his family. We will make sure he stays with us." He insists. "Now… are you ready to continue with the hunt? Stanley and Dipper are just running the Shack, they'll be fine."

Mabel finishes wiping her tears, her nodding. "Yes, Grunkle Ford." She answers.

The two then continued into the woods, the air seemingly like it was shimmering in the sunlight. As they walked the woods opened up into a grove of some kind, revealing what looked like a tiny village within it. The grass was such a lively green, like it had never withered, the trees massive walls around the grove. On the branches was small houses that were rounded with cone roofs in a rainbow of colors.

"Wow…!" Mabel exclaims, her eyes rounding in awe. "This place is beautiful! There is so much glittery stuff!" she takes a step forward, her smile broadening when something small fluttered by her face.

The creature was smaller than Mabel's balled up fist. Its skin was a light green in color, the wings on the back rounded like a butterfly's. It stopped in front of Mabel's eyes, it giving a small wave before flying off towards a home on a branch above Mabel's head.

"Amazing!" Ford gasps excitedly, adjusting his glasses as he opens up a journal. He had a huge smile on his face as he jotted down notes and began drawing the homes. "I've seen some pixies in the woods while with Fiddleford before, but I've never stumbled upon this!"

A small voice, but high pitched voice whispers by Mabel's ear, "We only let humans see us if we think they are worthy…" Mabel turns and sees a pale blue pixie. "You two seem to be very nice… and you two seem to really love your family… who is it you want to protect?"

"My twin brother…" Mabel tells the pixie. "He's been… having bad dreams from his past… and I wish to make sure he will be okay…"

The pixie flutters around her, some dust sprinkling down. "Sometimes bad memories need to be around so you can appreciate the good ones…" she then points at Ford. "Our race remembers a man that looked quite similar to him trying to catch some of us while we were exploring the human world. But… if we didn't remember the bad memory, then we wouldn't have made our precautions to make us safe."

Mabel looks at the pixie with confusion on her face. How could Dipper remembering what he did benefit him? From what she had seen with his nightmares it took a toll on his mind, sometime making him mumble incoherent ramblings of ciphers and speaking backwards.

The pixie notices the girl's confusion. "Don't worry, human, one day you will understand. You can't have the good without the bad… and you can't have the bad without the good. It is all about balance." It then fluttered by Mabel's hand, causing her to hold it out. The pixie then rubbed her fingers together, a fine dust settling into her hand. Once a small pile was made it formed together into a pale blue gemstone, it actually taking the shape of a pine tree.

Dipper's wheel symbol…!

"We understand he helped save this world…" the pixie explains. "He risked his own wellbeing for the people he truly cared about…" it then gestures at the gemstone. "When he feels overwhelmed… please give this to him… he'll still remember, but it will be easier to bare…"

Mabel looks at the pine tree shaped gemstone. "Th-thank you so much!" she stammers, tears threatening.

The pixie gives a small curtsy in the air, glowing its pale blue. She then floated upwards, as it went further away it looked more like a round ball of light. Others began to follow it, glowing like a rainbow of stars into the now darkening sky. As Mabel looked at the small lightshow in awe, Ford stands next to her.

"Well… this was a very nice place to visit…" Ford says.

"Yeah… it was." Mabel agrees.

However, when the two had returned to the Shack, they had seen Dipper in a state of major distress. He was screaming, his hands raised to his face, as if he was seeing something that wasn't there. Because of the suddenness of it all, Mabel had forgotten the pine tree gemstone that the pixies had given her to help him. It was to the point that Dipper had to be sedated and carried to their room, him comatose.

Mabel had watched her brother sleep for a few minutes before realizing that she had the gemstone. With a gasp she looked it, shimmering like the dust that had formed it. She puts the gemstone under his pillow, hoping that the stone would help her brother sleep peacefully.

"Hopefully that helps you a bit, Dipper…" Mabel whispers gently, ruffling his hair softly.

Mabel gets ready for bed, her wearing a light magenta t-shirt with a light blue pair of pajama pants with shooting stars on them. She settles into bed, hearing her brother's gentle snoring.

You can't have the good without the bad…

Mabel frowns to herself, thinking what the pixie could've meant. She falls asleep, her dreams glittering with wings and shimmering dust.

A/N: This was something a little more lighthearted after the last chapter.

Thanks for reading as always!

~Skye Hendersen~