The Best Night Ever (Private)

Paladin sighed and groaned. "God damn it..."

"Paladin..." Celestia glanced at him. She sighed and slumped back into her throne, her face dominated by an expression of weariness. "Penny for your thoughts."

"Those nobles were corrupt... but I was using them to watch out for each other." He groaned and sat down.

"Watch out for each other?" Celestia asked, still tired and weary. "You mean to keep each other in check? I don't know, on that score they weren't doing a particularly good job..."

"Actually, they did a pretty good job Celestia. Not in court... outside it."

"They keep growing their power." Celestia muttered. "And they're always making alliances with each other... they're a lot more difficult to handle nowadays than they were in the past."

"I suppose..." He sighed. "But this is not the way to do it..."

Celestia sighed. "It's clearing out the Court real quick. I think Ician's planning to remove practically everypony from their positions. Because, well, practically everypony is corrupt anyway." She shook her head. "I'm... confused."

"I..." He sighed and rubbed his head.

"So..." Celestia began hesitantly, slumping even further back into her throne. "What now? I mean, the Court will be almost free of corruption soon... but also members. I have to get to appointing new ones." She waved a hoof. "Ician already left a list of recommendations to me."

"I suppose we start again..."

"Ician did give us something else, though." Celestia stared at the doors. "The law for hunting for the spy? It's permanent. All internal records of all departments are now available for me to look through." She gazed at Paladin. "I think he's right. This may be the end of corruption after all."

"I suppose..." He lay down on the cold marble. "Princess? I have a minor question."

"Yeah?" Celestia asked, straightening her posture and stepping off of her throne carefully onto the marble floor. "What is it, Paladin?"

"What should I do?" He chuckled. "It's up to you. Do I love you, or not?"

"Love me?" Celestia blinked. Then she frowned. "Paladin, I can't stop you from loving me if you don't want to. But... I'm sorry, I don't love you back. If that's too painful to bear... well, nopony's stopping you from not loving me."

He growled. "That's not what I asked. I don't know whether to love you or not. I'm asking you to tell me."

"Fine, then." Celestia turned fully to face him. "Stop."

"He blinked and nodded slowly. "As you wish Princess."

"Okay..." She sighed. "With that resolved... I really don't know what to do now. What should I do? The Court's been cleared out, the nation's under martial law..."

"Martial law should no longer be in place." Paladin said, eyebrow raised.

"It actually is." Celestia massaged her aching head. "Because of the spy-hunt. It isn't off until I call it off or until we find the spy. Which means... well, I can call it off any time, really."

"Huh..." He shrugged and lay back down

"That whole thing was... really tiring." Celestia stared at the empty hall. "All of them were so angry, so afraid... it was terrible to see them all like that, even though it's really all their faults."

"True enough..." He whispered. "I hope they get what's coming to them."