//------------------------------//
// DODO 
// Story: And It Was a Tiresome Dream, But Only Because She Wished It So 
// by Ditherer the Fussbudget 
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Since that day, an old fear had returned to Sunset, something that hadn’t kept her awake in years. It tormented her, until it had stayed longer than it had been gone. What if this wasn’t real at all?

What if the mirror hadn’t been a portal to another world, but a test or a prison? Who would build a mirror like this and then leave it all on its own, except to trap the kind of people who couldn’t live in their own world? Was she being punished for staying here so long, and not owning up to her mistakes and going back to apologize to the Princess she’d abandoned? 

She wondered if one day the portal would reopen and all the people would come rushing back in. Or if everything she did was being recorded, down to her thoughts, and one day she’d be forced to watch the highlights of her worst behavior with everyone she’d ever known. 

Then again, she realized that she might well be the last human in the world. It was impossible to know for certain, she still tensed up near alleyways, but there was never a sign of someone else. As grass grew and canned food became short, and that journal finally ran out of pages, she knew in the pit of her stomach that no one was coming for her. 

It took calculation and days of setup to make the fire happen, like setting up dominoes. The town alarms lost their voices long ago, and the gasoline was easy to come by. It was tedious, and the ultimate blaze was unrewarding, but there wouldn’t be buildings left afterwards. Or grass. It was proof that she’d been there, that this place had seen Sunset Shimmer even if no one else had. The only reason she liked the idea was that she hadn’t needed to explain it to anybody else. 

She’d packed long ago, and picked her very favorite motorcycle, sleek and red-orange. With smoke in the air, she went on her way, up and out of town for the first time in her life. 

She looked over her shoulder as she dodged through the cars, watching the buildings pump out thick obscuring smoke. Most of it was black, dirty-looking. She didn’t feel anything at that, and sped up to get further away from it. 

Then her motorcycle smashed into an invisible wall. Part of an invisible dome, surrounding the entirety of her little world. If she’d been able to get up, she could’ve investigated it, and found it reached all the way around town, with one road open to Crystal Prep Academy. She might even have recognized that it was magical, and then she might have despaired, or explored, or just given up on the spot. 

The fire continued until there was nothing for it to eat.