Author's Note

Forewarning is that not every chapter will feature ponies. After all, Season 0 is going to do more then just clean up the continuity; it's also going to provide as much background as possible for this fic to really drive home the "rewriting fate" aspect of the whole thing.

Season 0 Prologue - The Truth behind the Opening

Several Hours Before Sunset woke up from the "nightmare" she witnessed...

A lone female moogle began to open her eyes, as she was drifting in what seemed like complete nothingness.

"Seems like things didn't really work out for you, huh?" A male voice cut through the silence that surrounded the moogle before a purple pig-like thing with wings appeared.

"Uh...did I die, kupo?" The moogle asked.

"Well, aren't you observant? Yes, you died and no, this isn't a dream." The winged pig-thing said.

"Then where exactly am I?" The Moogle asked.

"See, here's the thing about your death: It wasn't supposed to happen. Under normal circumstances, a death is a death and not even Furio undoes deaths. Thing is though, you weren't supposed to die. At least, not like that." The pig-thing said.

"Huh? What do you mean, kupo?" The Moogle asked.

"What I mean is that while every mortal dies eventually, your death caught Furio by surprise since you needed to live so that that Behemoth isn't able to basically destroy everything." The pig-thing said.

"Wouldn't that be chocked up to the whims of fate, kupo?" The moogle asked.

"In this specific case, no. This was not the fate that you were supposed to have. It's very rare when this happens, but there are times when something that isn't supposed to happen happens anyways, and it causes a lot of mess to clean up." The pig-thing said. "But with your situation, the solution is very easy: Your entire planet is getting a complete re-do. And you get to go back knowing that some creature is going to kill you in the future. That way, you can start making plans when you're an adult so you can prevent your own death."

"Is there a catch to this, kupo?" The moogle asked.

"The catch is that in exchange, when you do die from old age like you're supposed to, you'll have to work for me." The pig-thing said. "The name's Shallor, I'm the Shadow Lord; and your future boss."

"I suppose, given the circumstances, it's nice to meet you too, kupo." The moogle said. "The name's Rose."

"Huh...that's funny..." Shallor said.

"What's funny, kupo?" Rose asked.

"Oh, nothing you need to concern yourself with. In-joke you won't be getting for a long time. Anyways, Furio is just about done re-winding your planet's timeline to the point where you were just about to be born. You won't be hearing from me after this, nor will you be hearing from Furio. And neither of us can help you once I send you back into the womb." Shallor said.

"T-then what am I supposed to do, kupo?" Rose asked.

"Like I said, you're going to be re-starting your life with the knowledge that someone is going to kill you in the future and that's all the help Furio and I can reasonably give you. We're already bending over backwards giving you this do-over to begin with, and frankly, you should appreciate that." Shallor said. "If this was just any other death that would mess things up, Furio would have said 'screw it, destroy the universe and start over with it', but your skills as a sniping flintlock piqued my interest. So, you better be appreciative."

"R-right. I suppose I'll have to prevent my own death naturally then...just unsure how right now." Rose said.

"How you go about preventing your own death is up to you. How your death gets prevented doesn't matter; what matters is making sure it doesn't happen." Shallor said. "Seems we've run out of time. Furio's all done, so it's time to send you back."

"Wait, I still have more--" But Rose didn't get to finish before everything went white.