Crimson Heart

by Starkeeper_Ponyfic

Arc 1, Part 3: The Magic of Friendship Needs More Friends

A few days later, Frisk woke up to find Twilight and Spike obsessing over checklists. Twilight noticed they were awake and grumbled.

“Spike, we forgot Frisk, didn’t we?” she asked.

Spike groaned. “Yeah. Yeah, we did.”

“I can just pretend not to exist,” Frisk said. “If that would help.”

“I’m sorry, that sounded wrong, didn’t it? Just... well, we can pencil them in, right?” she asked Spike. He nodded.

“Figure we can put getting them anything they need right after we return the blackboard to Cheerilee,” Spike suggested.

“That reminds me... You said you were thirteen, right, Frisk?” Twilight asked. Frisk nodded. “So... you’re still in school, correct?” she clarified. Frisk nodded again. “Who’s your teacher?”

“My mom,” Frisk said with a grin.

“So, uh... well, your mom kind of isn’t... you know, here to teach you so... have you asked her about it at all?” Twilight asked, nodding at Frisk’s phone. They shook their head.

“The thought hasn’t actually crossed my mind,” they admitted.

“Well, I’m sure your parents would be mad at me whenever we get you back if I let you slack off on learning,” Twilight chuckled. “I’m not a great teacher, but I think Cheerilee has an open spot in her class if you’d like to join. I saw you talking with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo at Pinkie’s party the other day. They’re in her class.”

“Do I have a real choice?” Frisk asked, laughing. Twilight shook her head in giggles.

“Not really,” she admitted. “Anyway, back to checklists!” she said, turning back to Spike and going over everything for the day. Frisk rolled their eyes and changed into a fresh set of clothes Rarity’d made them. Frisk had found themself amused routinely by Rarity’s eagerness and speed at making them clothes. They never actually asked, but also didn’t want to turn Rarity down.

*You think you look nice, a voice in their head commented.

Oh, hey there, narrator, Frisk thought. What do you think? they continued flirtatiously.

*You look like a dork.

Meanie, Frisk retorted while sticking out their tongue. Haven’t heard from you since I left the Underground. How’ve you been?

*You find out you’re not getting an answer.

Whatever. Talk soon, I guess, Frisk rolled their eyes.

The next few hours were spent running around Ponyvile with Twilight and Spike while Twilight filled out her day’s checklist. Cheerilee was delighted at the prospect of a new student and accepted Frisk into her class. The rest of the checklist went swimmingly... until Twilight realized she hadn’t sent a friendship report to Celestia in the last week.

Frisk kind of tuned her out as she freaked out about magic kindergarten and being tardy until Twilight approached Frisk.

“So... Frisk, any problems, confusions, troubles, anything that I could help you out with as a good friend?” she asked with pleading eyes.

Frisk swallowed nervously and shook their head. “Uh... not that I can think of,” they said.

Narrator, you got anything?

*Nothing comes to mind.

Greaaaat...

“That's! Alright! I can find somepony else to solve a friendship problem for!” Twilight chuckled before racing out the door.

Spike gave a worried glance. “She doesn’t get worked up like this often... I hope she’ll be okay.”

Frisk nodded. “How long does she have?”

“Until sunset,” Spike explained.

“That is entirely unhelpful.”

“Oh. Yeah. Uh... three hours. Three hours for her to go insane and for me to worry about her,” he admitted.

“Why don’t you send Princess Celestia a message?” Frisk suggested. “Maybe if she knows, she can help calm Twilight down.”

“That’s actually a pretty good idea,” Spike said. “Um... what should it say?”

After a bit of debate, Frisk and Spike managed to hammer out a good letter.

Dear Princess Celestia,

This is Spike (and Frisk!) writing. We’re writing to tell you about Twilight. She hasn’t sent a friendship letter this week, and she’s really paranoid that you’re going to send her to magic kindergarten for being tardy. I’m (Spike) worried about her, because she’s really frantic. She’s gotten so worried she’s gone out to search for problems her friends are having. Frisk suggested that I write you a letter. Nopony better to reassure Twilight than the one she’s afraid of disappointing, right?

Please reply soon. We’re really concerned for her mental state.

Yours truly,

Spike & Frisk Dreemurr

“Are you sure it’ll work?” Spike asked as he held the scroll.

“Hey, even if it doesn’t, there can’t be a negative effect I can think of,” Frisk pointed out.

Spike smiled thankfully. “Thanks. For the idea and for reassuring me,” he said before sending the scroll.

Frisk cracked a smile. “You’re not the first reptilian creature with self-confidence issues I’ve helped. The other one was Alphys, who I’ve already told you about,” they explained.

“Huh... Well, since we’ve got a bit before she probably comes back in, wanna play some O&O?” Spike asked.

“Sure. I think we were at the Ruined City Guardian?” Frisk remembered.

“Sounds about right,” Spike agreed as he began pulling out the papers and pieces for the game. They spent an hour playing through the Snowdin Woodland and the Icedin City, where their characters met the Royal Lieutenant and the Kingdom Sentry. As the adventure reached the Snowed Inn, a golden light flashed in the room as Celestia entered.

Frisk and Spike bowed their heads quickly before Celestia said, “I got your letter. Where is Twilight, exac–”

She was interrupted by Twilight bursting through the door. Her mane was frazzled and one of her eyes had a severe twitch. She looked terrified when she noticed Celestia.

“Oh nononononono I could’ve sworn I still had time!” she panicked. “Princess, I’m so sorry, I’m gonna be tardy, please don’t send me back to magic kindergarten!” Twilight bawled out.

Celestia blinked. “Why would I send you to magic kindergarten?” she asked.

Twilight trembled as she looked up. “B-because I’ll be tardy and then you’ll give me a test to prove I really know the magic of friendship and then I might fail and when teachers have failing students they send them back a grade but–”

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Celestia had to interrupt her. “You are not going back to magic kindergarten. You’ve had a perfect attendance and submission record since I first took you on as my student. Why would missing one report make me forget all of that and restart your learning entirely?” she demanded.

Twilight whimpered. “I... I just...”

Celestia sighed and embraced her student gently. “Twilight, it’s okay. You were never going to get in trouble for being a little late with one report. Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted eventually. “I just... it’s been so confusing and complicated lately and– and... I was scared of disappointing you.”

“You would have to actively try to accomplish that,” Celestia reassured her. “And I think you can learn a good lesson from this. It was Frisk and Spike who called me here because they were worried about you.”

“You don’t freak out like this normally,” Spike explained. “I mean, sure, you’re obsessed with timeliness, but... it was kinda scary how you were acting,” he admitted.

Twilight walked over and gave him a hug. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, Spike. I should have realized I was going too far.”

“Hey, at least nothing bad happened, right? Could’ve been a lot worse,” Frisk pointed out. Twilight chuckled.

“With the spiral I was going down, I could have been persuaded that the only solution was to make a friendship problem,” she admitted.

“Twilight, that actually reminds me of an idea I had. Could you bring your friends here?” Celestia asked.

“Yeah, I can do that,” Twilight nodded after smoothing out her mane. She galloped out and returned shortly with all her friends.

“You needed us, Princess?” Rainbow Dash asked. Celestia nodded.

“You may or may not have seen that Twilight Sparkle was very... upset today,” Celestia said.

“She... didn’t seem upset,” Applejack said, “but she was awfully insistent on resolvin’ a problem ‘tween Rainbow an’ I that didn’t exist.”

“She was trying to force herself to find a friendship problem to resolve for her weekly letter and thought I was going to send her back to magic kindergarten if she was late,” Celestia explained.

Applejack snickered a little. “Really, Twi? That’s what you were freakin’ out about?”

Twilight blushed slightly in embarrassment.

Celestia cleared her throat. “In any case, to prevent situations like this in the future, I have a proposal. The point of a friendship is to work together, and it’s rather counterproductive to have only one pony show proof when you’re all learning, isn’t it?”

The ponies, Spike, and Frisk nodded in agreement. “Therefore,” Celestia continued, “I’m altering Twilight’s study plan. Whenever any of you, including Frisk and Spike, learn something new about the magic of friendship, you may write me a letter. You can send three letters in a week or one in three weeks. So long as you send it whenever you learn something new.”

Twilight smiled. “Thanks, Princess,” she sighed.

“Group hug, everypony!” Pinkie giggled, somehow reaching across the room to pull Frisk, Celestia, and Spike in with her.

“How...?” Celestia asked.

“My working theory is that Pinkie operates on another level of reality to the rest of the world,” Frisk quipped, sending the ponies and Spike into cheerful laughter as Celestia drew the sun down to begin the night.

Author's Note:

So, Chara (it is indeed Chara in this story, Frisk just hasn't put that together) is here. I don't really know if they'll play any important role but I wanted to put the option there in case I could think something to do with it later. Might just use them as a means of adding some snarky commentary.

Also, to clarify, I'm not going to be going through every episode of Season 2, just the ones I think Frisk would actually influence. Expect at least Sweet and Elite, Secret of My Excess, It's About Time, and both parts of A Canterlot Wedding but I may or may not add more. Depends on how I can get them set up.

Comments

[Regret12]

Maybe Chara will help Frisk at the wedding. Consider there's a chance Chrysalis won't listen to reason.

[Starkeeper_Ponyfic]

10386985
Hey, I kinda like that idea. Assuming I see this through all the way to season 4 before Frisk gets back home that's definitely going to happen with Tirek but Chrysalis is certainly a good alternative should I decide not to go that far into the show.

[Regret12]

10387049
Well, as the old saying goes, We shall see.

[Alex3410]

another undertale crossover, noice.

[Late_Night]

10387049
ok but what about episodes past season 2
i wanna see frisk's effects on seasons 7-9

[Starkeeper_Ponyfic]

10391753
I didn't say the story would end at any particular season finale, just that I don't know when in the MLP timeline Frisk is gonna find a way home ;)

[Late_Night]

10392301
well, and this may sound selfish of me, i hope they're stuck for a good while yet
a thought arises: what if some other undertale characters end up crossing over? like, say, a certain bony pair?

[Green Greens]

I just realized Frisk made their own Undertale AU

[Starkeeper_Ponyfic]

10865351
I'm gonna be honest, I hadn't even thought about that but you're right

[CORRUPTED-DATA]

Chara does have an important role, she is the narrator, therefore, if she were to somehow come out of Frisk she would technically be in the same notion as Frisk, so unless she's taught to murder, she's not going to be the genocidal child that people know her as.