For Rainbow Dash, it had been an agonizing month since the last letter "Aoi" had sent, and with the Gala coming up soon, she wouldn't be able to get it until the week afterwards. She scanned her letterbox every hour, sometimes the visits to the post cut into her nap time, which she treasured highly.

She became more and more worried. Why did he have his friends send the letters instead of writing them himself? Moreover, why did they have weird messages? One such read, "Aoi gives you hugs and kisses." She nearly gagged at that one. She knew Aoi, or so she thought, and he wasn't one for giving brief messages. She had once written a letter, wanting to know where they were so she could fly over and visit, but the reply came much later with the message, "No visit, please, Aoi has the feather flu". Aoi wasn't even a pegasus, not to mention not having wings, so how would he even catch feather flu?

She started to think that maybe... Aoi might have lost interest in her and maybe even see her as an annoyance with all the letters she had been sending. So, she decided to stop writing, and continue life like normal: doze off, manage the weather, maybe see what egghead stuff Twilight was doing occasionally.

It was all going well, with a growing thought asking why she had been obsessed with Aoi in the first place. It had been so long since the gala, she was having a hard time remembering what he even looked like. What did he even look like? As much as she hated to admit it, she needed some... advice.

She trotted over to Rarity's boutique, the place utterly teeming with business and the mare running it frazzled with orders stacking up left and right.

"Be right with you, darling," she called across the crowd. "What? Oh yes, so that's a few few of the 'Lagoon Warrior' for you sir, and a 'Red Geisha' for you, madam..." It took a bit over a half hour before the customer's emptied with ticket stubs in hoof. Rarity plopped into her "working chair", mane drooping in unsightly waves, and sighed.

"I must say, with the Gala coming up again I've been getting orders left and right for the same outfits you and that Aoi fellow wore to the Gala. In fact I've even gotten some orders from Gem Fido about Aoi's clothes. What on Equus did you two do to rack up so much attention?"

"I 'unno," Dash mumbled. It was a bit of a lie to both Rarity and herself. She knew damn well that Aoi still meant something to her, but after so long though, she was beginning to forget what. Time changes people; she knew this fact very well.

"Now then," Rarity huffed, pushing her clipboard of orders into a drawer. "I take it you wanted to talk to me about something?"

"Oh uh, well um," She stammered.

"Oh please don't tell me that you are looking for a dress as well. Not that I mind giving you a new look, but I've been completely overstretched with all these orders." She glanced at Rainbow, thinking over designs and curls and ribbons that would match her scheme perfectly.

"You'll be happy to know I don't need one of your fancy shmancy dresses. It's kinda... personal." Dash shifted her eyes. "We're alone aren't we?"

"I can leave if you want." A call is heard from upstairs, the voice reminiscent of a feathery Captain she once ogled over.

"Very much, Please," Rarity shouted with a slightly irritated tone.

"Kay, I'll be around." A flap of wings is heard before silence blanketed the room.

"So, what is it that you wanted to speak to me about, dear?"

"Well, it's about Aoi."

"Oh?"

"I kinda get the feeling... he's not interested in me anymore." To this Rarity tried to hide a twinkling in her eyes.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, it's been a few months since his last letter back, and I've been sending a lot of letters."

"Maybe he's been afflicted with something."

"You don't get afflicted with something for 8 months... do you?"

"Now I'm not a Medical Mare, but think about it this way, with Griffin here, Aoi's probably busy, working his tail off."

"Even then... why have his friends lie about it?"

"Tsk Tsk Tsk. Fighting gruesome battles probably has him muddied up more than one of Apple Jack's pig sties. A wolf as refined as he must be absolutely ashamed to show his face." Rainbow Dash held back a snicker.

"As 'refined' as he is, I don't think he's not writing because he's messy." The pegasus trotted towards the window to look towards the far mountains. "Hay, I'd visit him myself if I knew where he lived."

"The real question is: 'Do I really want to?'"

Rarity sighed. "That's always the problem with long distance relation ships: there's so little contact between you two that it's near impossible to keep things... well... fresh."

"Fresh?"

"You two need a get together. Something to... rekindle your interests."

"Like what?"

"Well, you two met at the Grand Galloping Gala right?"

"Yeah... but that was about two months go."

"Ah, right you are..." Rarity frowned, looking away, thinking of an idea. "Hold on for a second, I may have an idea." Immediately Rarity went into her mysterious "back room". There were a few hisses, a few strange sounds, the cutting noise of a buzz saw, a loud crash, and then...

"AHA! I knew I had it around here somewhere," exclaimed Rarity as she emerged from the back room holding two small slips of paper in her hooves. "Two free vouchers to Maresu Japonese Spa. I do believe he might be from Japony, so this might be the perfect thing for him."

"Well actually..." Rainbow Dash remembered when Aoi spoke of his origin.

"Yes?" She wasn't sure he would be into this kind of silly stuff. At the very least, though, it wouldn't hurt to try.

"Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea."

"Well of course it's not a bad idea, it's a brilliant idea. Besides, if anything else, it'll be a nice vacation for you. A nice bout of relaxation away from your... usual... bout of relaxation," Rarity finished meekly.

Dash gave a raised eyebrow at her friend before taking the two vouchers in hoof. "Thanks, I guess."

"That's what friends are for. Oh, and if he does happen to be interested in being a model for me, you know for taking measurements and trying out new design ideas for other species, could you be a dear and give him my address?"

A stern face from Dash was enough to tell her off.

"That is, if it isn't inappropriate for you."

Dash was sprawled over her bed sheets, thinking of Aoi, racking up various reasons as to why he wouldn't even take the time to write back himself. Such theories became warped and twisted, some humorously, some morbidly.

She imagined Aoi hung upside down on a pirate's plank somewhere, the captain interrogating him on the location of his non-existent treasure, fondling his photograph of her.

"You'll never get away with this Captain Scourge!" she imagined Aoi defiantly shouting,

"Too cliche," she admitted. "I don't think I even gave him a photo." Her mind forged another theory where Aoi had lost all memories pertaining to her in some freak amnesic incident.

"Rainbow Dash who?" he would question.

"Nah, too sappy, besides, I don't think Forget-Me Flowers actually grow where dragons live, or do they?" She imagined him going off with a she-wolf, getting married and already having kids.

"But what about Rainbow Dash?" The she wolf would ask.

"Rainbow Dash who?"

"ARARRRRGH!" She yelled, attracting the attention of the other weather ponies outside. Just as she screamed, she heard a knock on her door. She opened the door to reveal a tall pegasus who stared at her with an uneasy expression.

"Mail Call?" He said, handing her a letter before nervously tipping his hat and leaving. She closed the door and took a glance at the letter.

"Who could be sending me letters at-" One look at the sender's address told all. She grabbed the envelope in her teeth, ripped off the outside and unfolded the letter inside.

"Dear Rainbow Dash,

I apologize for my friends' "attempts" at replying to your letters, they're not the most eloquent bunch, but they meant well. As for my status, I was in the hospital for an extended amount of time, but thanks to a long rehab period, I'm doing all right now. I know you might be wondering why I didn't visit, and I won't lie to you as to why. Something rather embarrassing happened to me, as such had been kept under wraps for a while. However, that does not excuse me for not visiting. So, without further ado, let me make up for that:

I know it's just a trifle, but it would mean a lot if I could see you again. There's a lot I want to talk to you about, and with all the time I've missed, never got to talk about through letters. Besides, some things I would rather say in person. There's also some things I would like to show in person as well. The reason I'm holding this is well...

... I promised you another dance... didn't I?"

By now, Dash's eyes were welling up, and right when she thought she could read no more, her eyes fell to the bottom of the letter:

"If you look on the back side, there's something for you, just to say..."

She stopped there and flipped the letter over finding a parchment with a painting. It had blotches of what looked like ink and watercolor, and some brush strokes at the bottom left corner...

It was a painting of her. She looked at it for a few minutes, taking in the fact that he painted this for her. It might not have been particularly well done, a far cry from Ponycaso or Rembrand, but it was made for her, and only her. When she finally turned her eyes back to the letter, she finally read the last line in its entirety:

"If you look on the back side, there's something for you, just to say that even after a year apart...

... I still remember how beautiful you are."