//------------------------------//
// Rewind 
// Story: Flash Memory 
// by SilverNotes 
//------------------------------//

It was our first summer as friends.

The four of them had gotten their usual table, right by the window, and Flash Sentry sipped at his sparkling apple juice as he looked out at the pegasus, and occasional griffon, who flew or trotted by.

Genna and Deluge used to butt heads. Not just the joking, but some real tension. He wasn't used to anypony being bigger than him, and Genna was big even for a chick her age. They'd dare each other to do things, trying to decide who was stronger or braver.

Thunderhead and Deluge were doing most of the talking, Thunderhead's voice regularly growing louder in excitement before he realized what he was doing and lowered it again. He'd talk with his wings, and Genna ended up giving him a shove once when he smacked her with one of them.

We thought this place looked shady. There were rumours that the owners were criminals trying to lay low. So Deluge dared Genna. They'd eat there together, and prove that it was nothing to be afraid of.

They'd shown up during a rush, and it was taking a while for someone to bring them their food order. He watched the two waitresses, who he'd eventually learned were twin sisters, doing their best to balance on hind hooves as talons passed out plates and glasses onto cloud tables.

It was the first time any of us had seen hippogriffs.

"And then the pink one actually dipped a hoof in and tasted it." Thunderhead mimed dipping a hoof into his soda.

Deluge nodded. "Her face turned five different colours."

Laughter broke out around the table, and Genna shook her head a bit in disbelief. "Wish I'd been here to see that one. Figures I'd be half-way to Las Pegasus during the Best Young Flyer Competition that year."

Flash eyed the bag slung over Genna's shoulder, displaying the symbol of the Equestrian Mail Service. "How is that courier job treating you?"

Genna tensed, talons wrapping around her milkshake and wings going still as she stared at him with golden eyes. Then she shrugged her shoulders and it was like the tension had never been there. "S'fine. If there's one thing us griffons are good for, it's endurance flying. I can cover more distance before handing things over to the next mailcreature in the relay." She paused to take a sip, and she licked the strawberry milkshake off her beak once she'd pulled it out of the glass again. "There's been some buzz around lately about mail-delivery spells putting us outta work, but I think they're just fearmongering."

Thunderhead spread open a wing, making a valiant effort to wrap it around her wide shoulders. "Don't worry, Genna. If you get run out of a job by a bunch of unicorns, you can always work at the factory with us."

Deluge grinned and nodded his head. "Yeah, you can work security and make sure no other ponies try to taste the rainbows."

Genna gave a sharp squawk of a laugh. "Typical ponies." She shrugged off Thunderhead's wing, then forced him to duck as she spread her own. "Only wanting me around because I can scare other ponies for you." She folded her wings again and she focused in on Flash, leaning toward him. "But enough about us. What about you, guardstallion? You've gotta have some real good stories." Her eyes glinted with mischief. "Staying so long out of Cloudsdale... I bet there's a mare, huh?"

Flash's eyes widened. "W-what?"

Thunderhead instantly pounced on the opportunity. "Yeah! You always had a thing for unicorns."

Deluge's grin looked like it should be straining his cheeks. "Or..."

"Or?" Flash repeated, more dread than he'd ever felt infusing the word. I should have taken down that poster when they first came over. One unicorn pop idol and they've never let it go.

"What about an alicorn?" He opened his wings and gave them a flap for emphasis. "Horn and wings. Best of both worlds, huh?"

Genna looked like a cat who'd just caught a mouse. "Yeah, you're right, Del. Lot more of those around these days." She pointed a mock-accusing claw at Flash. "That's why you ditched us, you bagged yourself an alicorn!"

Flash, in that instant, wished that he was a unicorn, so that he could teleport away from this conversation, or barring that, fall through the cloud floor. "I... You three..." He made a desperate grasp toward sanity. "The alicorns I spend most of my time around, one's married and the other is her yearling daughter!"

Genna huffed. "So? There's more 'corns than them."

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are older than the nation."

"Yeah, but they sure don't look it." Thunderhead whistled for emphasis.

Deluge nudged Genna. "Hey, what about Twilight Sparkle? With her brother leading the Crystal Guard, bet loverstallion's gotten to meet her."

Genna lit up at that. "Oh yeah! She's a real catch. I've seen pictures." She puffed out her chest. "If I were into ponies, I'd try my luck. She's got a real nice wingspan."

With no sudden transformation into a unicorn coming, Flash settled for laying his head on the table and covering it with his wings. "You're all crazy."

"Okay, okay, not Sparkle," Thunderhead said with a wave of his wing. "What about--"

His words were cut off when one of the waitresses arrived, and the mint green hippogriff expertly laid out the spread of food they'd ordered. Appetite, mercifully, won out over their enjoyment of tormenting him, and the three tucked in as Flash slowly lifted his head again.

Genna always gets their tofu stir fry, with calamari on the side. That was one of the dares to Deluge, for him to eat a calamari ring and if he threw up, she won. Deluge always gets a hayburger and a pile of onion rings, and one of those was a dare back, because she hates onions. Thunderhead gets that huge salad with a few strips of fried tofu on top, and me...

Flash looked down at the thick, creamy potato soup, the bread bowl full nearly to overflowing. He gave a deep inhale, taking in the scent, and suddenly, he was home.

Every Friday, we'd come here after school to celebrate the weekend. Then during the summer, we'd hit their lunch buffet every chance we could.

Genna was usually the one suggesting we go. I still think she had a crush on our usual waitress.

He looked around at the others, chatting amongst themselves. Then he leaned down, taking a sip from the soup and nibble from the bowl's edge, his tongue savouring the potatoes, heavy cream, and a mix of seasonings he'd never tasted before or since.

We went right after graduation. Before I left for Canterlot.

That was the last time.

Together, as if the years had never passed, the four friends ate.





"Remember the Fall Formal?"

"Which one?"

Flash Sentry could hear Thunderhead and Deluge behind him, as his old friends chattered, but as they stepped together into the cloud home, he found himself staring around at the room instead. Deluge was the first to move out, a year before graduation. He never told us exactly why, but I think Thunderhead knew, because he moved in with him not long after. Those two were always basically bothers.

"The one when Midnight Strike and Lightning Dust went head-to-head."

The living room was homey, enchanted paintings adhered to the cloud wall and a couch built out of wall, the careless shape the work of adolescent hooves. He was so proud of that, and then Genna busted part of it when they were wrestling one day. That bit's still lumpy, from her trying to help sculpt it as an apology.

"Oh that one. Yeah, I remember. Still amazed Dust didn't get expelled. Hear Strike got the last laugh, though. She's in the Wonderbolts now."

Flash could smell some spices on the air, coming from the kitchen. Thunder was always a surprisingly good cook. We ate out so much we'd almost forget, then he'd break out something off-the-wall after a long jam session that shocked us with how tasty it was.

"You okay, guardstallion?"

Genna's voice stapped Flash out of his musings, and he looked at her before giving a small nod. "Yeah, I just... It brings back memories."

Genna chuckled. "I bet. We'd practice here all the time." She then looked over at the other two, cutting their reminiscing short with a quick, "Hey Del, you've still got our stuff in the stable, right?"

"Course I do! Just like how you all left it."

"Great!" She threw her foreleg over Flash's withers. "C'mon, let's jam."

"What?" Flash blinked furiously. I haven't touched a guitar in--

"Woo!" Thunder took wing. "Yeah, let's do this!"





Just like I left it.

Guitars for quadrupedal species were tricky, to say the least. Only pegasi could really manage it, by holding up the instrument with their forelegs while their wings handled the strings. Even then, that level of dexterity took practice to master. There were feathers in a pegasus wing that were essentially digits, but their purpose was for making micro-adjustments in the air, not for manipulating objects, and so training them took work.

I begged my parents for it for my birthday. And they agreed on the condition that I practice every day. Thunderhead had to save up his allowance for his bass, and he practiced with me. Even Deluge needed to learn to work with drumsticks, after he got that part-time job to buy the set, because hitting these kinds of drums with your hoof might put your hoof through it.

Genna's the only one who can grab with her forelimbs, but she's our singer. Go figure. But she practiced too. Constantly. Nearly made herself hoarse, a few times. There's notes a griffon can hit that a pony can't, and she worked until she could hit all them.

He was standing in the middle of the cart stable, and the cart in question that occupied it was in pieces. It was one of the ones built to be used in the sky or on the ground, and so Deluge had been replacing the wheels with a better kind of wood, something that could handle a bumpy landing without breaking. It left plenty of room for the instruments, and Flash had been shocked to see his old guitar.

I'd told Del he could keep it, but there's keep and then there's keep. There was barely any dust.

His forelimbs knew where to go, so did his wings. He looked around, and he realized that, when he was absorbed with tuning, Thunderhead had found his shades, Deluge had donned his choker, and Genna was wearing her alligator jacket like it'd never left, even if it did look a bit tighter across her shoulders than it had been.

I was the first to get my instrument, so they decided that meant we should name the band after me, if only to stop the others from bickering over it.

Genna's beak was open in a smile, and she nodded at Deluge. "Alright, count us in, Del."

We were Flash Drive.

The beats were counted, and they played. They'd never needed to discuss what song, because in that instant, all of them knew.

They played the first song they ever had, once instruments had been acquired and Genna had claimed her place with them. It had never been planned, never been written down. It had simply happened, once they'd all been together, the air shimmering with magic. One of those songs that were never crafted, they simply sought out the right creatures to bring them out into the world.

Thunderhead had picked up the bass.

He played the guitar.

Deluge banged on the drums.

Genna sang like a star.

And as they rocked, the light in the garage shone with rainbows.