"Maaaaaaaaaaaabeeeeeeeeeeeelll!" Dipper yelled as loud as his lungs would let him for as long as they would let him. Then he took a deep breath and prepared to do it again. "Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—"

"Wait, what's that?" Candy said, nudging Dipper violently in the side to get him to shut up. The air left his lungs in an oomph!

Dipper couldn't hear anything, since he was concerned with catching his breath, but apparently Candy could. "Over there!" She pointed off the path, towards a cluster of bushes. Dipper followed her finger, expecting a bunny to hop out of it like in the cartoons when people thought there was a monster.

Instead, Mabel emerged from the undergrowth.

"Dipper! I found you!" she exclaimed, running towards him and giving him a hug.

"Uh, hi, Mabes," Dipper said, a little shocked. "Are you okay?" If she was hugging him so tightly, maybe something scary happened.

Mabel pulled away, beaming at her brother. "Everything is fine, now that I've found you! What were you doing out here in the forest?"

"Looking for you," Dipper replied. He could see Greyson and Candy watching him and his sister, the former looking surprised and the latter snickering behind her hand. Dipper took a step back from Mabel. "Mabel, these are my new friends, Greyson and Candy." Now that he was a little further away, he realized that Mabel's white shirt had a dark blue star on it, rather than a pine tree. Did Mabel have any other white-and-blue shirts? Dipper thought she only had the pine tree one.

"Hi." Mabel gave Candy and Greyson a cheery wave, then turned back to Dipper. "Listen, we gotta get out of here." Her voice took on a sudden tone of urgency.

"Uh, why?"

"We have to get away from someone. I'll explain later." She started tugging on his sleeve.

"Wait, get away from someone? Is Pacifica out here?"

"No, she's not out here. Come on." Mabel gripped Dipper's wrist and started pulling him along behind her.

"Mabel! Mabel, wait! Who are we running from?"

"Dipper, look out!"

In the same moment that Candy yelled his name, another figure burst from the tree line and tackled Dipper from the side. He felt his wrist tear away from Mabel's grasp right before he hit the ground, tumbling over and over. Wow, he was getting beat up today. First by Candy, now by this mystery attacker. He rolled over and propped himself up with his elbows as his assailant moved off of him. "Get away from her!" they demanded.

Wait.

That was Mabel's voice.

Dipper looked up to see Mabel scowling down at him. What the heck? She had been pulling on his wrist, not jumping on him from the trees! Vaguely, he realized that the symbol on her shirt had changed: Now, the star was upside-down.

"Why would you do that! He didn't deserve that!"

"He totally did — and even if he didn't, I had to get him away from you."

Dipper looked past Mabel to see. . . another Mabel?

Two Mabels, one with a star on her shirt and the other with an upside-down star, were arguing with each other in the middle of the path.

Dipper glanced over to Greyson and Candy, who looked as shocked and confused as he felt. So he wasn't the only one seeing this? What had happened to his sister?

Star Mabel ran over to help Dipper to his feet, shoving Upside-Down Star Mabel away as she tried to stop her. "Get off me! You know I'm going to win!" she shouted over her shoulder as she held out her hand for Dipper.

He didn't take it. His mouth hung open as the other Mabel retorted, "No, you're not! Dipper is way too annoying to deserve our love!"

Dipper's jaw snapped shut. Well, that was rude.

"Don't say that! Dipper is our brother, and we love him!"

"You do!"

Dipper jumped to his feet. "Shut up!"

The Mabels fell silent. Dipper rarely told Mabel to shut up, unless in jest. But as far as he was concerned, neither of these Mabels was his sister.

Dipper stalked up to the pair of them. "Who are you and where is my sister?" he demanded.

"We are your sister!" Star Mabel replied. "And I promise I'm stronger than her; we really do love you!"

"No, I'm stronger, and we don't."

Dipper pointed at Upside-Down Star Mabel. "Okay, you're mean. I want to talk to the other Mabel."

Star Mabel shot UDS Mabel a satisfied smirk.

"Now, where is Mabel?"

"Dipper, I'm Mabel."

"Well, there's another one, right? The real Mabel. Where is she?" He was quickly losing his patience.

"Can't tell you," Star Mabel replied, sounding slightly apologetic. "Not until one of us wins."

"Wins what?" Dipper asked.

"I love you because you're my brother and you're a great kid."

"Um, thanks," Dipper said. That didn't answer his question.

"But she," Star Mabel continued, glaring at UDS Mabel, "thinks you're the most annoying kid on the planet. Which you're totally not."

"Which you totally are."

Star Mabel shoved at UDS Mabel. "And whichever one of us is stronger," she finished, "is the one who lives on in the Original Mabel."

Dipper noticed Candy and Greyson edging closer to him and the Mabels in his periphery. Candy looked pretty mad. "'Lives on in the Original Mabel'?" Dipper repeated. "What does that mean? Where's my sister?"

"Look, Dipper, for the rest of the day, we are your sister, got it?" said UDS Mabel. "So shut up about it."

"Seriously, quit talking to me," Dipper replied. He'd been made fun of before, but few people were flat-out rude to him, least of all Mabel. He didn't like the sound of those words in her voice, even if UDS Mabel wasn't his real sister.

"You know what?" He turned to Greyson and Candy. "I came out here to find my sister, and I haven't done that yet. So our quest isn't over, friends; let's go!"

"Good idea," Greyson said with a nervous glance at the Mabels. Candy was too busy having a glare showdown with UDS Mabel to respond. Dipper started marching down the path away from the Mabels; Greyson and Candy followed close behind.

"Dipper! Get back here!"

"Dipper, I promise I won't be mean to you! We can get rid of her together!"

"Do you hear something, Candy?" Dipper asked loudly. "'Cause I sure don't!"

"Me neither!" Candy yelled back. Dipper couldn't help but smile when she immediately picked up on his vibe. (She didn't seem like one to use the silent treatment often — unless it was silent like ninjas were silent — so he wasn't sure if she'd catch on.)

"Dipper, come back, please!"

"Well, don't just stand there, you idiot, go after him!"

"But if he doesn't want me around. . ."

The voices of the bickering Mabels faded into the distance as Dipper, Candy, and Greyson picked up speed to get away from them.

"Okay, that was seriously creepy," Greyson said as soon as they turned a bend and the Mabels were out of sight. "What the heck just happened?"

"I told you these woods were unnatural!" Candy hissed. Dipper shot her a surprised glance; she seemed rather spooked. He wouldn't have expected that.

"Oh, yeah, Mabel and I have found all sorts of stuff in these woods!" As soon as the words left his mouth, Dipper realized that all they'd found so far were some fairies, the Journal, a psychotic tween, and a cool cave. Well. . . it felt like all sorts of stuff. "Let me tell you, don't mess with the fairies around here. Mabel and I went to go find them once, and they totally attacked us. Didn't really hurt, but they said they could hurt us worse if they wanted to. They may have been lying, but they were magical."

Candy and Greyson shared a look. "You really met fairies?" Greyson asked in awe.

"Yep! Just for a bit, 'cause Mabel got us out of there before anything bad happened. But they were pretty cool."

Candy was unimpressed. "So, were those girls back there some kind of trick from the fairies?" she asked with eyebrows raised.

"No, I think they're some kind of clones of my sister," Dipper replied. "Which means the real Mabel is still out here somewhere."

"How would your sister make clones of herself?" Candy pointed out.

"I have no idea. I don't think she did it on purpose, based on the way those clones were acting. She could be in trouble."

"So, where is she?"

"Good question. We gotta find her, just like before."

"Yeah," Candy agreed, "but we probably shouldn't go screaming our lungs out or we might attract those clones again. Or something else."

"You think there are more clones?" Greyson asked.

"Maybe. Or other creepy creatures."

"So how do we find Mabel?" Dipper looked over at Candy for suggestions.

She grinned. It was a bit unnerving. "My way."