[It's with a quiet nod of thanks that Rip picks up the napkins, wiping away at the smudges now staining his cheek. He'd been having quite a nice wallow before Sunburst came along, made Rip consider the state of himself. Funny how he keeps finding people--in a metaphorical sense of the word--that bring out that side of him. Ones who refuse to merely let him flounder in his misery, but rather insist that he be better in ways both big and small.

He'll likely never stop finding it odd.

Rip takes a long breath in, seeing the mistake even as Sunburst makes it. Perfectly reasonable, really--and perhaps letting the pony in on more of his sad life story would at last leave Rip with someone who understands why he's acting as he is, rather than running to Peggy, insisting then and there that they talk.]

It's--more complicated than that, I'm afraid. My family was murdered some time ago. [Over three years, when he adds up both the time spent in Wonderland and in his home. He looks down at the table, napkin crumbled in his hand. Swallows, before her continues on.] Despite every effort I took to save them, I couldn't--and not a day goes by where I don't regret that.

[Chief among so many things Rip has done that stand worthy of his guilt.]

Knowing that pain, that anguish--I cannot stand in the way of Peggy's happiness and still claim to care for her. Even if her path no longer runs parallel to my own, she deserves the opportunity to take it all the same.

And a lack of interference from me while she decides.