Author's Notes:

Kinda rushed, maybe, but I wrote most of this after I wrote part 1 and was thinking about making this its own thing or something, but I don't think I've got it in me to do that. Try and enjoy, and the rest of the rewrite will be along fairly soon. My editor is having some problems and I want to wait for him to get back to a steady place before I shove more work on top of him.

“If it doesn't work, if it hurts, I swear, I'll be sorry til the day I die. But please, I want you to try.” Pete Powell stood in his room, Ruby on the bed. “Celestia didn't make our sun, it's a natural thing here. You said that it's Celestia's counter magic that causes the sun to burn you because you were blessed by Nightmare Moon.”

Ruby looked to the side, afraid. “I know, but … I just don't know if I want to risk it.”

Pete stepped over to the bed and gently pushed Ruby down, placing his lips on hers in a passionate kiss. She didn't resist, rather she joined enthusiastically, wrapping her wings around the human and her forelegs around his neck. Pete slipped his hands under her and trailed down her back gently, stopping at her tail and breaking the kiss.

“I love you, Ruby,” he murmured, “I want you to have everything that was taken from you. Even the light.”

The vampony bit her lip gently, averting her eyes. Pete didn't try and keep her attention, instead he gently stroked her face and chest. Finally, Ruby looked back to him and nodded. He responded with a smile and another kiss before getting up and putting his hand on the doorknob.

“Just stand over here with me, when I open the door the light will pour in, but we won't be in it. Then you can just put a hoof in the light, if it burns I'll slam the door and we'll never try again. I'll go out, today, and buy something thick to cover those doors. Get them removed if I have to.”

Ruby nodded and gently moved into position next to Pete. The human slowly turned the knob and pulled the door open, letting light burst into the room. The mare next to him recoiled slightly, letting out a low gasp. Pete placed a hand on her back, trying to sooth her under his touch. Ruby took a deep breath and gingerly raised her right hoof toward the light. The couple stared at the hoof as it crossed the threshold into the shine. A moment passed, and nothing happened.

Ruby's breathing sped up and she pushed her whole foreleg into the light. Nothing. Wide eyed, surprised, amazed, overwhelmed, she jumped into the light. Despite her eyes stinging from having spent two hundred years in darkness, nothing happened. She leapt back out of the light and onto Pete, causing him to stumbled backwards into the wall gently. Her forehooves around his neck she kissed him passionately, which he returned with very willing gusto.

When the kiss completed, Pete stepped out into the main room of the loft, mare still around his neck. Ruby lifted a wing to shield her eyes, but giggled softly. The man laid down on the couch in the middle of the room, mare on his chest with the sunlight behind her. He basked in her sunlit features, how her washed pink hair was some how brighter in the light, the way her fur seemed to become almost white, but most of all her bright red eyes locked on his.

“Two hundred years ago,” Pete said slowly in a low tone, “A filly was taken from her home. She was beaten, tormented, and changed. I'm going to spend the rest of my life showing you how little that actually mattered.”

Ruby half purred and nibbled his neck, “It did matter though. If it weren't for the change I wouldn't have been sent here, and we wouldn't be together like this.”

Pete laughed and ran a hand through Ruby's mane. “True, though I wonder how you'll feel when this heat cycle passes.”

With a small grin, Ruby whispered in Pete's ear, “It passed two days ago.”

“It … what?”

“Hahaha, it passed two days ago. These are my genuine feelings, my silly blood banquet.”

Pete wrapped his arms around Ruby into a firm hug, and buried his face into her neck. The pink maned mare hugged back and gave an affectionate nuzzle to her new mate. Pete had acted like a pure gentlecolt the entire time Ruby had been there, until her cycle hit. She had expected him to make a romantic move on her sooner, but he'd waited until she wanted it, despite his obvious want of her. Looking back, Ruby found that she enjoyed much of the time she'd spent with him. Movies, internet, books, music, they were all very different in this world, and all of the time they'd been together the past month she had enjoyed.

And then she heard it. With her head against his neck she could feel it. The beating of his heart against the still one in her chest. He ticked away into an eventual demise, like everyone she'd ever known.

“I wish there was a way...” she muttered.

“For what?”

Ruby blushed, out of Pete's view, and said, “Nothing, just thinking out loud.”

Pete waited a moment, then ran a hand down her back, gently rubbing the spot between her wings, “You can tell me anything. I'm supposed to help you survive here.”

There was another long pause, followed by a sigh from the vampony.

“You'll die one day, but I won't.”

“I'm aware,” Pete replied, almost resolutely.

“I don't want you to. At least, I don't think I do.”

“Maybe we'll figure something out, maybe we won't. Until then we just have to enjoy our time together.” Pete took a breath, and let out a chuckle, “Enjoy the moment.”

The thought was stuck on Ruby's mind for a while, but eventually she settled into a new life. For two hundred years she'd been made to avoid the sun, but now she was free. The pair found ways to enjoy the light that came in through the doors, or from being on the roof. It was one night in particular that the thought returned though, as she laid snuggled close to Pete and could hear his heart once again.

Pete was the only being she'd ever met that accepted her at face value. That hadn't been afraid, or angry, but rather had opened up. Even her parents, when she'd tried to return home after being changed, chased her away, sent the guard after her. She believed they could work, she and Pete, but he would die one day. Ruby couldn't stand that thought. She spat a silent curse at the royal sisters for ruining her immortal life even through dimensions.

“Maybe I should have taken up worshiping Nightmare Moon like the other vamponies,” Ruby whispered irritatedly.

Moments later though there was a small surge of magic, which put Ruby on high alert, and voices came from the living room.

“Twilight,” Celestia's voice clearly rang out, “Where are we?”