It's Been Thirty Years

Chapter 8: A Journey Back

Before setting off, Blendin took Mabel to the time archives where the records of every human that had ever lived were catalogued.

"Why are we here?" she asked.

"To look for your file," replied Blendin, "It should be in the Pines of the year twenty first century section."

"That's a lot of people with the last name Pines," replied Mabel.

"Yes, it is," said Blendin, "We've got Mabal Pines, Maybel Pines, Marble Pines, oh, here we go."

Mabel facepalmed, "That says Mable Pines you idiot. It's spelled M A B E L, Mabel! Not M A B L E!"

"Whoops, my bad," said Blendin, "You'd be amazed how many people get such simple spellings like that wrong."

Soon Blendin found the correct folder.

"Got it," he said, "Mabel Pines, born August 31st, 1999, Piedmont California. Uh, do you want to know the date of your-"

"Uh, no thank you," replied Mabel.

"Oh good, because they don't write that date in these publicly available files," said Blendin, "Just in case some rich dictator shows up demanding to know how long they have until they die. You'd be amazed how often that happens."

Blendin poured through the documents in Mabel's folder and soon came up with enough information that could get Mabel to side with him. With the pull of his time tape, they headed off to the first location.

"Here we are."

Mabel looked around and to her shock, she discovered that they're in her bedroom in Piedmont.

"Where...I mean, when are we?"

"The first morning after you returned home from Gravity Falls after you lost Dipper," replied Blendin.

Mabel watched as her younger self walked into the bedroom, looked at the empty bed where Dipper once was and cried. She tried to reach out to her but Blendin held her back.

"Remember, we can see everything, but they can't see us and we can't interact with anything either in this method of time travel," he said.

"But what do I-"

"Just look."

Mabel watched as younger Mabel cried until Waddles walked into the room and started licking her hand.

"Thanks Waddles," she said, "Huh, I...I can't just sit here all day, can I?"

Waddles oinked.

"But then, mom and dad won't let me go outside other than the backyard and the pool."

"Wait, you guys have a pool?" said Blendin.

"Let's just say that while everyone in Gravity Falls knew me and Dipper were from California, only Grunkle Stan knew exactly where in California we lived."

The two resumed to watching younger Mabel. She looked down at a paintbrush just about sticking out from under her bed. She bent down to grab it.

"Hey, it's my old paint set," she said as she looked out the window. It was slightly overcast.

"You know, it sure is a lovely day...for painting."

The two watched for a little bit longer as Mabel set up her paint set and began painting the view outside.

"You see," said Blendin, "You...you rediscovered your talent of painting that day. The soon to be artist Mabel Pines was born today."

"Blendin, if you're trying to convince me that it took losing Dipper for me to discover my artistic abilities, and using that as a reason to convince me to not let you change the timeline, then you've failed," said Mabel, "I knew that well before that day. And besides, I'd happily trade that off to have Dipper back."