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.