Crushing in College

by Freybli

Flight of Folly

After a few seconds of galloping down the empty halls of the school, Draco caught up to Professor Qibli in short order. The sand-colored dragon was taking his time exiting the school grounds, admiring the cultivated hedges and magnificent statues that adorned the ground. Upon hearing Draco’s hooves clattering on the stone pathway that led out of the school, Professor Qibli turned around to greet Draco with a pearly-white smile.

“Oh, I just love the decorations in this place! Such lovely statues! Such lovely horticultural expertise!” The dragon spun in a wide circle, taking in everything around him. After completing his rotation, Professor Qibli turned again to look at Draco, his face lit up with unrestrained joy. “Isn’t this amazing scenery just lovely?”

“Uh, I suppose it is, yes,” Draco said, a small frown marring his face. “It’s just not as special to me. I mean, I have been teaching here for five years now. You get used to it after that long.”

Professor Qibli gasped in fake horror. “Me? Get tired of these works of art? Perish the thought! I could never tire of the beauty of this school’s courtyard. The audacity of such a thought, really!”

Draco stared blankly at Professor Qibli as he tried to process the dragon’s heart filled defense of the appearance of the school grounds. “...right. Anyways, Professor Qibli, if we want to get lunch, we’ll need to hurry up before the best seats are taken.”

“Oh, please, just call me Qibli. We’re colleagues after all.” The dragon slipped up to Draco’s side and threw an arm around the pony’s shoulder. “We’re friends, right? And the rule of friendship is that true friends don’t use titles. I insist, just call me Qibli, alright?” Qibli winked at Draco as if he was trying to convince him of something else other of just calling each other by first names.

Draco shrugged. “Sure, why not. So, Qibli, we need to hurry up and get into town before we lose any chance of getting a seat.” Draco turned away from the dragon and started walking towards the front gate. “Shall we be going?”

“Walking?” Qibli asked, frowning all the while. “Oh, no no no. Walking would take way too long, my dear Draco. We must-”

Draco shook his head, blinking in confusion. “Wait, what did you just call me? It sounded like you said dear-”

“Like I was saying before I was interrupted by a certain unicorn, we must fly to make it on time!” As he said this, Qibli’s wings snapped open, revealing them to the open sunlight. Draco inspected his wings, noting that there were no tears in the thin membrane, indicating that Qibli took very good care of them. That did not, however, make Draco any more ready to fly on the dragon’s back.

“While I certainly appreciate your kind offer, Qibli, it’s really not necessary to fly to our destination.” Draco used his magic to pull a pocket watch out of his coat, looking at it inquisitively. “Judging by this, we still have plenty of time to make it. What’s the rush?”

“Well, there’s no rush, really. I just thought that you might have wanted to see how the city looks from the sky.” Qibli shrugged, sighing as he turned away from Draco. “After all, you must not get to see very much since you’re so… short.”

“What?!” Draco cried out. “I’m not short! I’m taller than most stallions my age, thank you very much!” Just what does he think he’s getting at by calling me short? Draco thought to himself. It’s not the fact that I’m short. It’s just that he’s… really tall.

“Really?” Qibli asked, disbelief clear in his voice. “You don’t look like it. I’ve seen at least four other ponies taller than you. Are you sure that you’re not just really short?”

Draco huffed in annoyance, scraping his hoof against the ground in irritation. “I. Am. Not. Short! What part of that do you not understand?”

“Well, you’ll always be short in my eyes, at least.” He flashed a cheeky grin at the pony, showing off his rows of white teeth. “That has to count for something right?”

“Whatever,” replied Draco as he walked away from the smiling dragon. “Call me whatever you want. Let’s just hurry up, alright?” Draco paused to look at the time again. “Oh, great. Now we are running late, thanks to your antics.” He fixed the dragon with a piercing glare. “Any ideas on how to get there on time now?”

Somehow, the Qibli’s smile got even wider as the displayed his massive wings again. He crouched low to the ground, stretching a leg out towards Draco. “Hop on! You’re up for some flying from an expert aviator, right?”

“Oh, goodness,” Draco sighed. He had to face the facts. If they still wanted to make it to lunch on time, flying on the Qibli's back was the only way to do so. Draco reluctantly began making his way up the makeshift ramp of Qibli’s foreleg, noting the smooth texture of his scales. He settled himself on the dragon’s back, trying to make himself as comfortable as possible before the dreaded flight. As he got still, Draco felt Qibli push himself up from his crouching position.

“All set back there?” Qibli asked as he swiveled his neck to face the pony. Draco gave a quick nod to signal his confirmation. “All right, here we go!” With a flap of his wings and a might jump, Qibli took off into the evening sky, veering towards the city of Canterlot.

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“I’m not flying with you ever again.”

“Come on. It wasn’t that bad. You’re just over-exaggerating. The flight went perfectly fine. I mean, we made it, didn’t we?”

“You almost crashed into a building.”

“Hey! That building almost crashed into me!

“Not to mention the fact that you didn’t even bother asking for directions.”

“In my defense, it’s really your fault that you didn’t tell me beforehand. So, hah! Score one for Qibli!”

Draco dragged a hoof down his face as he tried to retain his patience. “Ok, fine. It’s my fault. Can we just get going before we lose any chance we have of getting a good seat?”

“Certainly.” Qibli bowed low with dramatic flair and gestured with a claw for Draco to take the lead. “After you, my good pony professor. Lunch awaits us!”

“Of course it does. Just follow me and don’t get lost, alright? Canterlot is a pretty big city, you know.” Draco began walking down the road that they had landed in, making his way towards the restaurant that he had in mind for their lunch. As they saw the huge dragon following behind Draco, ponies both left and right got out of the way of the duo. Draco noticed that they all seemed surprised at the sight of Draco’s draconic companion, but overall showed no fear in the presence of a dragon.

In a short amount of time, the pony and dragon reached Draco’s desired restaurant. It was a medium-sized building with a brick exterior, large enough to hold a plethora of hungry ponies. The savory scent of oven-baked pizza drifted from inside as Draco and Qibli approached the door, making their mouths water in anticipation of freshly-made pizza. Sadly, there was just one problem…

“Uh, I hate to burst your bubble, Draco, but it doesn’t look like this place is dragon-sized.” Qibli tried to stick his head through the door to look inside the establishment, but was stopped by the door suddenly swinging open. A pony with a red delivery outfit and a box of pizza placed on his back stepped out of the restaurant. He jumped in shock as he almost ran straight into Qibli’s snout. He muttered an apology and ran off to take care of his business.

“Huh.” Qibli stared at the delivery-pony as he hurried along down the road. “You ponies aren’t fazed by anything, are you?”

“We’ve had a lot of practice. When you’ve had as many love-stealing and chaos-bringing villains as we’ve had, a dragon is nothing to flinch at.” Draco checked the door to see if anypony was exiting the building before walking forward. “You may not be able to fit inside, but I think an outside table will do just fine, right?”

“Sounds good to me,” Qibli replied. “Ooh, try to get one of the fancy tables with umbrellas, eh? I love those kinds of tables.”

“Uh, yeah. I’ll definitely try. I’ll be back in a moment, so just wait here okay?”

Qibli waved off the pony’s concern. “Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine. Just go and get one of those umbrella tables for us. I’ll be waiting out here, I promise.” To add to the effect, Qibli put on his best set of baby-doll eyes, even bringing his claws together at his chest. “You do trust me, don’t you, Draco?”

“Fine, yes, I trust you. Just… stop with the weird looks.” The pony opened the door of the pizzeria and walked in. “Honestly, those eyes are sorta unnerving…” he muttered under his breath.

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“Now that is what I call a delicious pizza!” Qibli declared. Ever since he had left the pizzeria with Draco, all he had been doing was going on about how great their meal was. Draco didn’t mind the excessive praise too much, but he was starting to get worn out. Not just from Qibli, but also from the work he had to do at the School from earlier in the day. Needless to say, he was ready to go home and get some much-deserved rest.

“Well, Qibli, this is where we part for today,” Draco stated. “I assume that Celestia- I mean, Princess Celestia has given you some sort of accommodations for tonight?”

“Oh, of course! Here, she gave me this scroll with the address of my living quarters.” He handed the scroll over to Draco for him to read. It had Celestia’s royal seal, confirming its legitimacy. Qibli looked at Draco expectantly. “You wouldn’t happen to know where this is, would you?”

“Of course I would!” Draco proclaimed proudly. “This is where I’ve lived all my life. Let’s see here… it says here that you’ll be staying at…”

Draco dropped the scroll in shock.

“Huh? What’s the matter?” Qibli asked. “Are you alright? You don’t look so good.”

“You- you’re… you’re staying…” Draco tried to stop stuttering over his words, but he just couldn’t believe what he had read on the scroll. Even though he tried to deny it, Draco knew that what was written on the scroll was true.

“What is it, Draco?” Qibli shook the pony to try and bring him out of his stupor. “I’m not being sent to live in dungeon, am I? Personally, I think that would be quite mean of her.”

“You’re not being sent to the dungeon.” Draco took in a deep breath as he readied himself mentally to say those words, those four words that would seal his fate with this dragon that he’s only known for one day now. He mustered up his will, looked calmly at Qibli, and said:

“You’re staying with me.”

Author's Note:

Let me know if you see any mistakes