"Ahh, summer!" Marco said happily once he woke up. "Sleeping in. No school or homework. And best of all--AH, LASER PUPPY! OW!" Marco rubbed his face where the laser puppy had shot him. "Go away! You're cute, but don't shoot me with your weird puppy lasers!" In an effort to get away from the tiny, laser-shooting dogs, Marco stepped sideways, only to trip over another laser puppy. "Wha--YOU GUYS ARE EVERYWHERE!" 

Normally, the teen didn't mind stuff created by Star's magic, but he was not enjoying the puppy lightshow. He walked backwards out of his room, facing the laser puppies.

"NO, DON'T FOLLOW--GO BACK TO BED! C'MON BACK TO--STAAAAIRS!" Marco yelled as he tripped down the stairs. "Owww . . ." He rubbed his head.

"MAAARCOOO!" Star yelled from the kitchen. "You're just in time! I made BREAKFAST!"

Marco got up shakily, hand on his head. "Breakfast? I honestly don't trust anything you might cook," he said as he walked into the kitchen. "Do you even know how to cook?"

"Pfft. I have a MAGIC WAND, remember?" Star waved her wand. 

"I'm not eating anything magical," Marco said bluntly.

"Then make some nachos!" Star said happily.

"You don't eat nachos for breakfast, even though they are great."

"Aw, why not?"

"Because! They're nachos!" Marco walked over to the oven. "I'll make a normal Earth breakfast."

"Hey, where are your parents?" Star asked.

"Probably still sleeping. It's only eight o'clock."

"Why are you up so early, Marco?"

"Laser puppies woke me up. You?"

"A about a week or two ago, I had this weird dream about a 'Nightmare Realm.' That reminds me of something!"

"What is it?"

"We have to save the Earth dimension from a dream monster!"

"What?" Marco furrowed his brow in confusion. "Dream monster?"

"Yup! Apparently he's super smart and evil and wants to destroy Earth!"

"Uh . . . So is it going to be crazy fighting him?"

"Totally! But you like danger, don't ya?" Star joked.

"Yeah, but this sounds really dangerous. Besides, I do not want a repeat of what happened at Ludo's castle."

"Technically it was Toffee's castle because he took control and kicked Ludo out," Star pointed out.

Marco groaned. "Same difference." 

"How can something be same and different?"

Marco facepalmed. "For someone so silly, you can take things way too seriously. Or literally; that would probably be the better word for it."

Star smiled. "Yup! I'm silly and serious!"

Marco facepalmed. After turning on the oven, he grabbed pancake batter. "How about we eat some pancakes before fighting this nightmare thing?"

"YAY! PANCAKES!" Star shouted happily. Marco shook his head and smiled. Minutes later, the pancakes were done, and the two sat down at the table.

"My pancakes need more . . . SPARKLES!" Star zapped her pancakes with her wand, creating many tiny, sparkly narwhal-shaped sprinkles. "YAY! Want some sparkles, Marco?"

Marco shook his head. "Um, I would like my pancakes narwhal-free. But thanks." 

Star frowned. "But narwhals are AWESOME!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dipper Pines laid awake, staring at the ceiling. He was tired. Really, really tired. He closed his eyes, wishing for sleep. He started to drift into darkness when . . .

"HEY, BRO-SEPH!" 

"AHHH!" Dipper nearly fell off his bed and onto his sister. 

Mabel laughed at her brother. "Haha, bro-bro calm . . ." Mabel stared at her brother, noticing the bags under his eyes. "Hey, you get any sleep last night?"

Dipper paused, then mumbled quietly, "No . . . Not after that nightmare . . ."

Mabel's face softened, then she smiled again. "Hey, today will be better! I promise, bro! Mystery Twins?"

Dipper smiled. "Mystery Twins," he said, fist-bumping her twin sister. Dipper followed Mabel out of the attic. "I smell--."

"BACON!" Mabel shrieked. "WHERE'S WADDLES?!"

"Mabel, I'm Grunkle Stan didn't--."

But Mabel ran ahead of him into the kitchen, screaming about her pig.

Dipper couldn't hide his smile. His sister might be the complete opposite of him, but the young Pines twin couldn't imagine life separated from Mabel. 

"STAN! STAN! STAAAAN!" Mabel was practically screaming. 

"What?" her great uncle grunted, not bothering to look up from the newspaper he held in his hand.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO WADDLES?!" 

Stan looked up at his grandniece. "Er . . . The pig? What, did you think I turned him into bacon?" Stan laughed. When Mabel continued to glare at him, Stan shrugged and said, "Check the gift shop." Mabel, with her head held high, stormed out of the kitchen. Sure enough, her pet pig was laying asleep on the gift shop floor. 

"There you are, you crazy pig, you!" Waddles only oinked in response as Mabel picked him up. "I thought Stan turned you into a common breakfast item!"

Dipper was sitting down, eating bacon but avoiding the Stan-cakes. When Mabel walked in and gave his plateful of bacon a glare, the preteen asked with his mouth full, "What? Are you going to officially boycott bacon now?"

"That sounds like a really hard diet," Stan said. "Bacon's awesome."

Mabel sat down on the other side of the table, still holding Waddles. To the three's disgust, the pig leaned forward and ate a piece of Stan's bacon.

"EW . . . ," the twins said in unison.

"Cannibal," Stan grunted.

Mabel sat the pig on the floor. "Okay then. Anybody else agree that Waddles should never eat breakfast ever again?"

"Agreed," Dipper and Stan said.

At that moment, Ford walked in. "I agree, too. Wait, what are we agreeing on?"

"Waddles just ate a piece of bacon," Dipper said with a cocked eyebrow.

"So we're never letting Waddles ever eat breakfast with us," said Mabel.

"Pig's a cannibal," Stan said.

"I don't know what's weirder, Gravity Falls or you guys." Ford sat down. "Pass the pancakes, will you?"

Dipper and Mabel glanced at each other. Ford didn't know what was in Stan-cakes, and, even though Ford was Dipper's idol, the twins decided to have some fun after last night. So, Dipper slid the plate of pancakes towards his great uncle. Ford got one, bit into it, and immediately gagged.

"What's even in these?!" he demanded, coughing.

"Oh, right," Stan said. "They're Stan-cakes. They're like pancakes, but probably with some of my hair in them."

Ford gave Stan a glare, and Dipper and Mabel burst out laughing. Ford then gave the twins a glare.

"I-I'm sorry, Ford," Dipper said between laughs. "Just couldn't resist."

"Rule one of living here: never eat Stan's pancakes," Mabel said seriously.

Ford started smiling. "That would've been nice to know before breakfast."

They ate the rest of breakfast, smiling and laughing. When Dipper was done, he yawned and said something about going upstairs and the journal. His sister finished soon afterwards, and went upstairs after her brother.

"Bro-bro?" she asked, walking inside their shared attic. To her surprise, her twin was putting stuff into a backpack. "Hey, whatcha doin'?" 

Dipper didn't bother to look up. "Remembered something from  my weird dream."

"What was it?" 

"Some weird, glowing orb. There was something inside of it, I think, But I can't remember what."

"Can I come?" Mabel asked hopefully. Lately her brother had been hanging out with Ford more than her. Mabel never said it, but it kinda hurt.

There was a pause. The Dipper broke the silence. "No."

"What? Why?"

"Just . . . I don't know."

Mabel crossed her arms. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I . . . Don't know, Mabel." Dipper rubbed his arm awkwardly. "It's just--."

"Just what?" Mabel interrupted. "That you enjoy hanging out with Grunkle Ford than me?!"

Dipper was shocked. "No! Why the heck would you think that?" he said, feeling guilty for some unknown reason. Do I enjoy hanging out with Grunkle Ford that Mabel . . . ?

"Because you keep hanging out with him and don't really talk to me anymore!" Mabel said. She tried to keep tears out of her eyes, and luckily she was succeeding.

"I . . ." Dipper felt guilt hit him harder. 

"Okay, fine, go on your mystery thing with Grunkle Ford without me!" Mabel almost ripped the door off the hinges when she swung the door open.

"Mabel . . . ," Dipper said, but when his sister turned away from him, he felt anger flare. "Okay, if that's what you want!" He grabbed his backpack and walked down the stairs. Once he was outside, he paused, then continued walking forward.

"This is pointless," he mumbled. He stopped and went to reach for the journal. Except it was missing. "Ugh, stupid, I left it at the Shack!" He slung the backpack back on his shoulders and turned around to go back. "Wait, this part seems familiar . . ."

"DIPPER, HELP, PLEASE!" Mabel's voice shouted. "HURRY! PLEASE! DON'T LET HIM HURT ME!"

Dipper shook his head, trying to distract himself from the small glimpse of his recent nightmare. That was one of the few parts he could remember. "Hold on . . ." He tried focusing on his nightmare. "I think I went this way . . ." Dipper turned to his left, following some sort of dream-route. "I guess you would call it a 'dream-route . . . ,'" Dipper said thoughtfully. 

Ahead of the twelve-year-old was the mouth of a cave. Dipper thought of the Multi-Bear's lair. The Multi-Bear was nice; his lair wasn't. Taking a deep breath, he walked inside. It didn't take long for him to be surrounded by darkness. In fact, it seemed too dark too soon. Dipper shivered. Something wasn't right. He turned on his flashlight, but the light sputtered and died. 

"Aw, c'mon!" Dipper said unhappily. 

Dipper stretched his right hand to the side and felt a wall. He started walking again with his hand touching the wall. Nervously, Dipper wondered if he'd get lost down here. Finally, there was light.

"Yes!" Dipper said happily. He ran towards it, which was very stupid, because he tripped on a rock, and the tunnel suddenly went down at a very sharp angle. "WHOA!" He screamed as he slid down a tunnel he couldn't see. Suddenly, he was face-first on the ground. "Ow . . ."

Dipper got up to see a pulsing, white orb of light. He slowly walked towards it and stopped in front of it to stare at it. Carefully, Dipper reached out to touch it. Then a pine tree appeared on the orb, and Dipper drew his hand back quickly. Pine tree meant Bill. And Bill meant something not good. At the same time, Dipper felt like he had to touch it. And he did. He braced for some big explosion or something. The orb just popped, and out fell a pair of scissors.

"Scissors. Scissors. This is what I fell down a hole for?! SCISSORS?!" Dipper picked them up and chopped at the air with the scissors. "I mean, seriously?! I have a totally messed up nightmare that I can't even fully remember, and it takes me to scissors?!" Dipper looked up, then sucked in a breath.

In front of him, was a portal.

"Er . . . Portal . . . ?" Dipper's eyes widened. "Oh gosh, I bet that leads to another dimension!" He looked down at the scissors. "So, does that make these . . . dimensional scissors . . . ?" Dipper put them into his vest, then turned around. "Wait, I guess I can't exactly climb through that tunnel I slid down . . . Great. Just great. Now what am I supposed to do?! How am I supposed to get out?!" 

During the Pines twin's ranting, something stepped through the portal. The last thing Dipper remembered before everything went black, was going through the portal.