History Fanfic / BackgroundPony

->''My name is Lyra Heartstrings, and you will not remember me. You won't even remember this conversation. Just like with everypony else I've ever met, everything I do or say will be forgotten...''

Lyra isn't a normal pony. She went to Ponyville to celebrate the Summer Sun Celebration with her foal-hood friend, but instead found herself living a cursed life. Upon her arrival, Nightmare Moon did.... ''something'' to the unicorn. Everypony forgets about her within minutes of meeting her. Nopony can read her writing. Any evidence of her existence disappears or is dismissed. Any attempts to leave town cause her to collapse underneath the most painful cold imaginable...

Now trapped in a world where she has as much presence as a half-remembered melody, Lyra must find a way to undo her curse. Her only clue is a series of enchanted songs that keep running through her head....

* IllGirl: Melodia Braids

%%* CryCute: [[spoiler:Twilight]]

* AdultFear: Being forgotten by all, as the world and everyone that mattered to you goes on without a care.

* {{Diary}}: Everything that happens is told through Lyra's diary, or that of [[spoiler: Alabaster Comethoof]].

* ActionSurvivor: Lyra.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:She dies without ever removing her curse, but she chooses not to let her defeat of Discord and everything else she's done be erased.]]

* BrokenBird: [[spoiler: Moondancer]]

* CryCute: [[spoiler:Twilight]]

* ForgottenFallenFriend: Lyra is this to Twilight

* TheRockStar: Vinyl Scratch

* {{Adorkable}}: Twilight, Lyra comments on her regularly.

Now in the process of being adapted into [[http://dream0rdie.deviantart.com/art/Background-Pony-Page-1-341706379 comic form.]]

** [[spoiler: "His face contorted, like a soul giving birth, giving birth to himself and dying all at once, a glorious collapse of an omnipotent accident that didn't realize that it was still fractured until that very second. “Stop it!” He clutched his antlers and bent over, curling into himself like a convulsing serpent. “No! [[BrownNote I don't want to hear it!]]” he yelled, sending thunder and lighting branching across the penultimate graveyard of the firmaments. “Stop!...I don't want to hear it!” [[VillainousBreakdown He was screaming, shouting, pleading, transforming.]] “[[RepressedMemories I don't want to remember!]]”” [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Lyra doesn't just "punch out" Discord...]][[DrivenToSuicide SHE RIPS OUT HIS]] [[TakenForGranite WILL TO LIVE.]]]]

->''My name is [[color:green:Lyra Heartstrings]], and you will not remember me. You won't even remember this conversation. Just like with everypony else I've ever met, everything I do or say will be forgotten...''

[[color:green:Lyra]] isn't a normal pony. She went to Ponyville to celebrate the Summer Sun Celebration with her foal-hood friend, but instead found herself living a cursed life. Upon her arrival, Nightmare Moon did.... ''something'' to the unicorn. Everypony forgets about her within minutes of meeting her. Nopony can read her writing. Any evidence of her existence disappears or is dismissed. Any attempts to leave town cause her to collapse underneath the most painful cold imaginable...

Now trapped in a world where she has as much presence as a half-remembered melody, [[color:green:Lyra]] must find a way to undo her curse. Her only clue is a series of enchanted songs that keep running through her head....

* ActionSurvivor: [[color:green: Lyra.]]
* {{Adorkable}}: Twilight, [[color:green: Lyra]] comments on her regularly.

* AlternateUniverseFic: A somewhat frustrating example: [[spoiler: the royal wedding and the Changeling invasion happens during the last chapter, but Lyra's canonical involvement in those events as one of Cadance's bridesmaids is ignored for the sake of the DownerEnding.]]
* AmnesiacHero: Inverted – [[color:green: Lyra]] cannot be remembered by anypony she encounters.

* BittersweetEnding[=/=]DownerEnding: Depending on how generous you want to be - [[spoiler:Downer in that she dies without ever removing her curse, Bittersweet in that she chooses not to let her defeat of Discord and everything else she's done be erased.]]

* BreatherEpisode: Chapter X - which comes right after one chapter with some of the saddest and scariest moments in the story, and precedes another with a lengthy and heartbreaking InfoDump from Dr. [[color:dodgerblue:Comethoof]]'s [[ApocalypticLog diary]] - is pretty much [[color:green:Lyra]] hanging out with Pinkie Pie for about 70 pages, and is about as random and funny as that suggests.

* ChildhoodFriends: Twilight, [[color:green: Lyra]] and Moondancer
* ColdEquation: [[spoiler:[[color:green: Lyra]] must choose between being forgotten forever and being responsible for the deaths of three ponies, the possible destruction of the world, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the nonexistence of a marriage.]]]]

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Ponyville for [[color:green: Lyra]], it’s the same friendly pleasant town from the show, but [[color:green: Lyra]]'s curse prevents her from leaving or she will freeze to death and no one can remember her for longer than a conversation, leaving her alone and homeless with no one to help.

* DeflectorShield: [[color:green:Lyra]] learns a shield spell from Twilight so that she can protect herself from the [[WhatDidIDoLastNight effects]] of ''Threnody of Night''.
* {{Determinator}}: [[color:green:Lyra]]
* DespairEventHorizon: [[color:green:Lyra ]] came close to it in the back-story, but managed to recover [[spoiler: Chapter IX has her come close again, but her experience with Bon Bon manages to pull her back from it]].
* {{Diary}}: Everything that happens is told through [[color:green: Lyra's]] diary, or that of [[spoiler: Alabaster Comethoof]].

* ForgottenFallenFriend: [[color:green: Lyra]] is this to Twilight
* GoodSamaritan: [[spoiler: Bon Bon]], to the point that she continues taking care of a freezing cold [[color:green:Lyra]] even after forgetting that she had brought her inside.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Chapter VI, [[color:green: Lyra ]] rescuing of Scootaloo from a teleporting accident.

* IconicOutfit: [[color:green: Lyra]] almost never seen without her "swell hoodie".
* IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[color:green:Lyra]] falls in love with another pony who reciprocates her feelings, but eventually lets her crush go and sets him up with another pony, since she knows they can't be together.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Sooner or later (and almost always, it'll be sooner), every pony will forget they met [[color:green: Lyra]] ([[spoiler: or any of the other Unsung]]), even if they're still mid-conversation with her. Its possible that something they discussed will stick with them, though they won't know the source of the thing they're thinking about.

* MadnessMantra: [[spoiler: [[color:purple: '''Sing my song and become nothing. Sing my song and become nothing. Sing my song'''...]]]]
* MagicMusic: [[color:purple: Luna's]] elegies have powerful magic effects from instilling paranoia or joy, causing blindness and freezing cold, and seem to be the only key to unlocking [[color:green: Lyra]]'s curse.

* ThePhilosopher: [[color:green: Lyra]]

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: [[color:green:Lyra]] finally snaps and starts screaming at [[spoiler: the Third Alicorn]] after her dozenth failed attempt to [[spoiler: get her to play ''Desolation's Duet'' with her.]]
* RainbowSpeak: Certain words are colored in the story. [[color:green: Lyra]] seems to notice them even if they're spoken.
** [[color:green:Lyra Heartstring]]'s first and last names are colored green.
** Doctor [[color:dodgerblue:Alabaster Comethoof]]'s first and last names are colored blue, as well as [[spoiler:his song, ''Penumbra's Echo'']].

* ShoutOut: Chapter X is loaded with references to pretty much every other popular fanfic staring [[color:green:Lyra]] and FanFic/TheEndOfPonies. [[spoiler: Chapter XVI as well.]]

** [[spoiler: Discord makes a crack at [[color:green: Lyra]] about hands in a presumed reference to {{Fanfic/Anthropology}}, also in Chapter XVI.]]

* SoundStone: The songs playing in [[color:green: Lyra]]'s head, the Nightbringer, and [[spoiler: ''Penubra's Echo'']]. There are items called sound stones in-universe, but they don't actually play any music and are more like [[PlotCoupon Plot Coupons]] for how they're used.

* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: On the first day of her cursed life, [[color:green: Lyra]] goes to the forth story ledge of town hall to jump off, convinced that her life isn't worth living anymore. A passing stallion convinces her not to jump, saying that she's too precious to leave so soon even though he didn't know who she was.

* UnPerson: [[color:green:Lyra]]’s curse has rendered her existence invisible to all other ponies, no one can remember her, and all attempts at communication beyond verbal are invisible.

* WhatDidIDoLastNight: When [[color:green: Lyra]] plays ''Threnody of Night'' for the first time in her cellar, she blacks out and [[color:purple: wakes up in the middle of the woods outside her home with her coat soaked]].

* UnPerson: [[color:green:Lyra]]’s curse has rendered her existence invisibility to all other ponies, no one can remember her and all attempts at communication beyond verbal are invisible.