The spirit of the land resided on a simple farmer, who was sleeping peacefully in his house, completely unaware of what history had prepared for him.
Even though he would accomplish great things that would transcend through time, his name wasn't remembered. The only clue we have as to who was he really are his actions and a little bit of his appearance.
He was green coloured, had the normal size of pony even though his strenght was larger than what a pony could normally muster and had a yellow mane and tail. His cutie mark is unknown as well, further research on him is required to get any more details. For now, let me tell you his story.
It takes place quite some decades before the three races of ponies united to work together in peace.
As he slept through the night, his dreams became nightmares who spoke directly to him, causing him to be constantly moving from one side to another of his bed while asleep, troubled by his visions.
Pictures were shown to him one by one on his mind, showing all kinds of ponies in mysery, hunger, devastation and eventual death. How his race would become extinct in the blink of an eye.
However, inmediatly after them, other pictures were shown to him, this ones showing peace, happiness, and glory, how instead of becoming extinct they would became an object of jealousy for their prosperity to other races.
There was only one diference in each set of visions.
The one who foretold mysery and tears had shown only one kind of pony on each picture while the one who foretold glory and smiles had every kind of ponies mixed together.
It didn't stop there though, he heard voices, they echoed through his mind and spoke in his own language.
You are... The starter of a new era... You must play your part... And let the next generations finish the rest...
The farmer woke up and screamed, followed by heavy breathing. What had he seen and heard? A vision? Just a dream? He couldn't tell.
He looked at his window and saw that the sun was already rising. He let the dream slide, it surely wasn't anything important, just a very weird dream.
He did his everyday activities of bucking apples and storing them for later consumption for the hungry masses of Ponyville, the largest earth pony settlement, not minding what he had seen the previous night at all.
When he went to bed though, he wouldn't forget it anymore.
The dream showed something different this time. Instead of decadency, it showed war. War against griffin, against dragons and how each pony race would be erased from the face of the planet. One by one the three greatest settlements fell to the claws of the invaders who didn't leave anything else than scorched earth or sky. Canterlot, Cloudscale and Ponyville, all pillaged and set on fire.
After those flashes, it showed diplomacy, how the ponies made peace with the other races after years of struggles and battles, saving, once again, Ponykind.
It is your destiny... Nopony will do it for you... Your actions... Will shape the future itself...
He woke up again, he wasn't scared nor disturbed this time though, but more important, he knew that the dream wasn't a coincidence. Coincidences don't happen twice.
His job was clear, he had to unite Ponykind, and the first step was to convince the earth ponies that they had to unite with the rest. Unfortunately, the earth ponies were known for being stubborn and having too much pride. Convincing his brethren to make an alliance would prove difficult, but Ponykind depended on it.
The farmer walked to the town hall. It had a big bell, used only when a very important meeting would take place.
The bell could be used by anypony at anytime, that ensured that any problem would be solved faster. And so the green stallion walked up the stairs and with all his might he made the bell sound like it had never done before.
The bell could be heard dozens of miles away, scaring birds in the Everfree and making the near skies free of clouds.
All the ponies were soon in front of the building, awaiting for our hero to come out and speak his mind.
"Brethren!" He shouted.
"I have had a very disturbing dream. It showed me images of our future, and they looked dire."
Although everypony was listening to him, they didn't believe that the bell had to be rang for that motive.
"It showed hunger, despair, wars that would destroy us, death. The very end of our race!"
Most of them only stayed only because law depicted that if somepony rang the bell, he or she had to be listened to the end of their speech, there was a mare, though, who looked concerned.
"But do not fear, for it also showed prosperity, glory and joy for ourselves. There was just a difference between those prophesies. When we died, I saw us like we are now, alone, separated from the rest of ponies, but when we achieved glory and prosperity, we were united as one."
He paused before continuing.
"We must make an alliance with the pegasi and the unicorns! That way we will be saved from the mysery that awaits us!"
Most of the crowd started to laugh at his words, thinking he was just crazy. The mare, though, looked fairly concerned with his words and looked with disgust at the crowd who was laughing.
After some time the laugh died down and somepony answered to his words.
"So a dream? Is that all your proof that we have to make them our allies in order to survive?"
More laugh came after that statement.
"I thought it was irrelevant as well at first, but I had the very same dream the next day!"
"So what? A dream is just a dream no matter how much times you dream it."
"I'll die before making friends with those arrogant unicorns or those stupid pegasi." Said another pony in the crowd. Followed by a massive "Yeah!"
But then, unexpectedly, a mare walked past everypony and stood alongside our main character. She was hazel coloured, with an unidentified mane colour, some legends say that it was black and some others say that it was brown. No one really nows for sure.
"Well, I believe him!"
Everypony there gasped after hearing her words and one of them questioned.
"Why do you believe in his words? Have you lost your mind as well?"
She took almost no time to answer.
"Because it is obvious that we are going to die soon if we stay like this."
"And why is that?"
"Haven't you felt it these past few days? Rain is coming less, between longer periods of time, making it harder for us to make food! The sun and moon are delaying in switching their positions, affecting our rest!"
Nopony could argue with her words, it was true that the situation was getting worse for them. Another pony spoke, now taking the problem seriously.
"But, even if we want to make an alliance, what makes you think that the rest will agree?"
The green stallion spoke this time.
"We will show them the problems we are all going to have, they will accept at some point, when they understand them, or feel them first hoof."
"And how are we going to do it?"
He thought for some time and then answered.
"We will use the horn of the alicorn."
Everypony gasped, even the mare who was on his side, she herself questioned.
"Are you sure? The horn of the alicorn must be used only on the worst of situations."
"This is the worst of situations. The future of our kind depends on this alliance."
"That is true." Replied the mare.
"Then its settled! We shall use it two days from today. When their ambassadors arrive we shall discuss this matter, for the sake of us all."
And so they did. The reunion took place, the pair of the green stallion with the hazel mare were the earth pony's ambassadors, but despite their best efforts, the rest of them rejected their offer, not buying their explanation.
Year after year, the duo kept bringing the ambassadors together in order to make them understand the situation, they even started to develop love for each other and finally get married, but they never managed to tie the three races together, they did though, manage to make them a little more eager to unite every year.
Our happy couple had a foal at some point, he was as strong as his father and as intelligent as his mother. He was raised with all the love in the world and studied to become an ambassador like his parents. When he became twenty one years old, his parents were too old to keep fighting for the union of the ponies so his father called him to visit his rest place, as he was too old and sick to even stand up anymore, his father then said:
"You know why am I so devoted to this union?"
"Because you have been trying to get it for a lot of decades?"
"Wrong. Because the fate of Ponykind depends on it."
He stopped for a brief moment before resuming.
"It is a very long story, but you have the intelligence and the spirit my boy. You must complete what I started, convince those pegasi and unicorns to unite. The sake of our kind depends on it."
"I shall father, I shall..."
And so our first story ends, the green stallion had done his part, his son would have to do the next one. To finally bind them all in the harsh winters to come.
Our next story leads us closer to the time of the bearers of the elements but not by much. In fact, Celestia and Luna hadn't defeated Discord yet.
Last time we didn't name our green stallion so lets just address him as "the beginner."
The beginner has many descendants, most of them have lesser gifts like a little more strenght or perhaps will, there are some of them, though, who earned more complex capabilities. Those, are destined to change the world, and there isn't a more fitting description for the mare whose story I am about to tell.
She had blue fur, a black mane, tail and orange eyes, as bright as fire itself and they could indeed consume somepony's mind with their beauty.
Her name was Cyan Grass, she lived alone in Ponyville, she was the farmer at the moment and Sweet Apple Acres has never seen such good days ever again.
This mare was born for farming, she took care of all of her trees with the love only a mother could give to her foal, and as such, the apples back then were the sweetest, juicy and most expensive of all of Equestria. They were so good, that she even exported them to other cities like Canterlot and Manehattan.
And she was strong willed too, for taking care of so many trees to fill more than three cities wasn't an easy task. As weird as it may be, she didn't have a cutie mark. It was a mystery to her and everypony who knew about her brilliant work with the red fruit. She would have lived happily for the rest of her days in the farm, but unfortunately, destiny had other things planned for her.
On a disastrous day, an unscheduled storm attacked Ponyville. Its powerful lightning stroke down every single tree in the orchard, and the barn itself, only for a miracle the blue mare managed to survive, for the roof that should have fallen on her instead burned out. Such was the ferocity of the lightning.
Of course she woke up in the night, but she stood still in her bed, too scared to move a muscle.
She spent the rest of her night like that, only when the morning arrived the storm stopped hitting her trees and dissipated and she decided to move.
Cyan walked outside of her house with extreme care and slow pace and what she saw outside made her stand still, for it was very shocking.
All of her trees had caught fire, there wasn't a single one still standing on its place. The fields had been scorched, rendering them unable to grow anything else. The only way to restore something was with unthinkable amounts of money and time.
If it was for her she would have done everything herself, but she couldn't pay it. True she was very successful and had lots of money, but not even her savings could pay for anything, for it was all overpriced in the past.
A meter of land could cost you around twenty bits, having it restored from massive damage, forty bits if you were lucky. A tree could be easily sold for ten bits each and repairing a barn completely? Let's just say it was too much.
The farmer stared at her former farm, passed down to her after generations, completely destroyed, with no salvation.
She had some money saved, a travel to another city to buy a house and find another job could prove useful, so she decided to pack everything and leave the very next day, using what was left of the house for refuge and the small amount of stored apples as food.
However, during her sleep, the voice spoke to her as it did with her ancestor.
This events were... Planned... Find who did it... By going to the north... Until you find... An ice mountain... With a temple.
She shot her eyes opened and stared blankly at the morning sky for some time. She had never experienced such kind of dream, and yet, she had a feeling like she had to listen and do as told.
And so her journey began. Cyan left Ponyville without telling anypony. She packed some food and water, and headed to the north, hoping that she would reach that place that was described to her in her dream at some point.
As the days passed by she ran out of food and water, but she wasn't a fool, she knew about all kinds of berries and edible plants and had some rivers located thanks to her geography studies when she was in school.
She kept walking north. The days became weeks, weeks... Well, you know the rest, its not like I am the first one saying this.
For two years she walked, refilling water whether she could and eating what she could find. It was a really tough travel, she had walked over mountains, crossed deserts, avoided dangerous creatures, blended with unknown crowds in markets from Civilizations still undiscovered by the equestrians. Until one day, she saw how snow started to appear in her hooves, slowly becoming a tundra. She was close.
It took her some more days but she managed to arrive at a gigantic mountain, covered in snow and with some kind of structure that could be seen from below.
Cyan had little strenght left, she hadn't eaten properly the last few days and she was starving, you could clearly see her ribs. But she had to do it, she had to see the one who caused the disaster, because her gut said so.
It was stupid to follow her gut for nothing but discover who dis it but that wasn't the time to think about the past, it was the time for action. With her godlike will she climbed that mountain, striving against snow storms, hunger and cold.
"I could definitely use a dragon now to heat myself up. Then again, there is the posibility that it eats me under these conditions."
She fought all odds and managed to reach the temple alive, her strenght was at its limit, it was only her spirit what made her walk to the front door.
She knocked twice, with a huge pause between each knock and fell unconscious.
When she opened her eyes she wasn't outside anymore, she was laying in a bed.
She slowly rose and saw a plate with some fruits in the bedside table. Immediately afterwards she was eating without stop, trying to satisfy her hunger which had almost killed her.
Some time after a white unicorn entered the room and spoke calmly.
"You must be Cyan right?"
She was puzzled by the fact that this strange unicorn knew her name.
"How do you know my name?"
"I know lots of things, in fact, I brought you here,"
"What? I don't understand? Were you the voice in my head?"
"More or less, come please."
The white unicorn walked outside and gestured Cyan to follow him, which she did.
The inside of the temple was divine, the floor was made of pure ice, the walls were painted in blue and there were banners with unicorns charging their horns around a clock.
After some minutes, they reached a big entrance with two massive doors closing it, which the unicorn opened with his magic.
Some kind of throne room was after them, an enormous room, completely empty except for some more banners and a throne made of ice, a frozen throne.
"My name has been lost in time, I am a time shaper, but I am getting too old for my work,"
That fact surprised Cyan, the stallion didn't look old at all, in fact, she could say that she is older than him, and she was thirty six!
"What do you mean with old?"
"Keeping a balance in time takes great precision and coordination. I became sloppy with the pass of time and I have been warned of your arrival,"
Cyan was still confused, if she wished to understand anything she would have to ask for the full story.
"Could you explain everything from the very beginning?"
"This will be a long one so put yourself comfortable,"
The unicorn then sat in the throne and started to explain.
"Time is a very complicated thing. The past already happened, the present immediately becomes past and..."
"The future is nonexistent right?" Interrupted Cyan.
"Wrong. Please, let me explain. The future does exist, the only thing is that most ponies don't know what does it hold for them. You see, actions have consequences and the right actions can lead to desired consequences. These actions can be also defined by energies, since every movement you do, every action, needs energy to be done successfully. Time shapers like me base our actions in the butterfly effect, where a tiny movement of air can lead to a cyclone somewhere else. That is why we operate from here, we use our energies to prevent undesired events that will happen. All of my kind have always been unicorns since we can create the energies we desire with our horns and we can feel disturbances throught them as well, but apparently its not mandatory to be like that. You have been called after all,"
"Called?"
"When one of us is no longer effective in its job the voice you heard calls for the next pony made to replace it. How or why, I don't know. Only that it works. And as such, you must shape time from now on,"
"But how? What must I do?"
"Your job will be to ensure that there is minimal chaos in the land, you don't have a horn to directly interact but you have your own magic: Strenght. And it is linked to the mother nature since you are an earth pony. Use your body as a horn, feel the energies of the outside and counter the bad ones."
The unicorn then raised a hoof and pointed it at her. She felt a weird sensation in her mind, an energy emanated from the unicorn's hoof and she sensed it.
Then she was pushed back with great force, making she fall backwards.
"Ouch!"
"You sensed it didn't you?"
The mare took her time to recover herself and then answered.
"I did, but what was I supposed to do?"
"You must counter it, make it disappear by using your own energy in the opposite direction."
The unicorn raised his hoof again and the mare sensed it again. But this time, she punched the air with all of her might.
Two streams of air colided in the middle of the room, she had done it, she used her energy to stop a not desired future.
"That is how you must act from now on, you must learn what actions have what consquenses for every creature and natural event. A storm? Push it somewhere else. A fight? Make them tired. With time you will learn what to do for each situation. Predict the future and shape it for the sake of this planet and its inhabitants,"
"One last question,"
"Yes?"
"Why did you destroy my farm and how do you know my name?"
"I failed to protect your farm, I didn't want it to be destroyed. And I know your name because the same voice you heard talked to me as well, telling me you were coming. I made sure you could survive your trip here."
When the unicorn finished he walked past her and got out of the temple, leaving her to fulfill her destiny.
Cyan walked to the throne and sat, she felt the first bad energy of her life and she acted accordingly. She touched the ground with her right hoof and pressed it for a brief moment.
The energy expanded from there and it helped the land in many ways. The energies of an earth pony helped trees grow, the fields to be more productive, but it also prevented some from growing and dooming the land back in Equestria.
After that, Cyan's cutie mark appeared, it was a clock with two hooves on each side, and from that moment on, she shaped time, saving countless lives by just pushing some air in the right direction. She was now a time shaper.
