The Prince's Predicament 2: The Princess's Predicament

Cadance was starting to grow frustrated. Shining had left her with an assistant that was handing her notes on some of the more tumultuous cases, but she'd forgotten how aggravating these litigious groups could be when she couldn't just cast a spell to fix it. Granted, she was probably okay to cast her spell, but the fact that Shining had solved these cases before without being able to cast it himself was kind of insulting. He'd done better than her with less power, somehow. She was supposed to be the best at this, and while she was glad that her husband was the one to usurp her, it was still a blow to her ego.

During the break for lunch, she moved to a small room with her assistant. "What else do we have today?" she sighed, exasperated.

The aide looked over her notes. "Well, after lunch, we're going to have to resume the discussion, but we were supposed to work on a land dispute. That's going to have to be pushed back in order to finish this. Then there's a quick one; a noise complaint from downtown. I could handle that one for you, actually; it's very simple. Then there's four different ponies seeking permits onto royal reserves for various purposes, and then a divorce that's proving to be exceptionally cutthroat."

Cadance didn't like the sound of that last one. "Tell me about that noise complaint."

"Well, the claimant is saying that the club next door is too loud at night. And while it probably is, the citizen making the complaint is also in the wrong. He's been offered multiple opportunities to move to another place. His house sits in a commercial district, but it used to be residential. Shining Armor rezoned the area, going through and offering everypony new homes in different parts of the city, and most of them accepted, but this guy refused."

"That doesn't sound simple..."

"We send a guard to his front door tonight with a sound level meter to measure the decibels, and if it's too loud, it'll be an infraction against the club. If not, the case is just dropped, because the guy isn't supposed to be living there."

"So, we're just supposed to kick him out?"

"No, we're going to check his claim against the evidence, and either fine the club that's being too loud, or ignore the problem because the club is doing what it's supposed to do."

Cadance nodded. "I'll let you go about solving that, then..."

The assistant nodded. "I've dealt with him before. It's usually just him being a troublemaker."

"And what about this divorce?"

"That's been settled by a lower court twice, and they just kept appealing. There are a few companies in the mix, but there's also some children to think of."

Cadance's jaw dropped. "I've never heard of a divorce being appealed."

"It's not common practice, but yeah, it can be. Almost any case can be appealed, if there's reasonable doubt. Prince Shining Armor was quite shocked by the fact that they'd asked for an appeal, too, and when he'd heard they'd asked for a second appeal, he had to step in. Highest authority in the land, his ruling; rather, yours, would be unable to be overturned."

"So, he wanted the final say in the matter?"

"He wanted it to stop. If they just kept going, which they could, it would all just go into appeal again and again and again, dragging in countless judges and ministers until it eventually had no choice but to go here, and by the time it came here, they'd have stopped seeing each other as ponies and started seeing each other as just problems to fight against. This case is threatening to destroy lives, and your husband was refusing to let that happen. Before the kids turned into nothing more than leverage."

Cadance swallowed. "Sounds like he should be here for that."

"He might be, ma'am. He didn't tell me what he planned to do in town, merely that it would take a good part of the afternoon."

Cadance nodded and took another bite of her lunch. She didn't know where Shining was, either, nor what he was doing. For all she knew, he'd left town. Probably not, but she wouldn't really blame him. "Then you said a land dispute?"

"Yes, although, that's actually the first one we'll be tackling. Two farmers are arguing over how far a fence is from the property line. The ruling states that any fence is to be no closer than six inches to the line, situated entirely on the owner's land. The dispute is that it's a shared fence, and both are claiming that they actually own six inches of each others' fields."

This was something that Cadance's spell would be able to solve in seconds. It would be a trifle to convince them to see it from their neighbor's perspective, and just have them keep their side clean. It didn't matter who owned the fence; they should both be taking care of their side.

"Is there anything else?"

The assistant flipped through her notes. "Just some permits, ma'am. I'm pretty sure that's it, unless something comes up."

Cadance took a deep breath. "How has my husband been doing?"

"Ma'am?"

"I've been gone for a long time. How has he been?"

"He's been wonderful, ma'am. Very helpful, very kind, very caring. He's been doing a wonderful job."

"I'm glad to hear that, but that's not what I meant."

"What did you mean, ma'am?"

"Did he ever seem... off? Like something was bothering him?"

"Yes, ma'am. Every time you were brought up, he seemed reluctant to weigh in. I think he was broken up about being away from you for so long, ma'am, and mentioning your name reminded him of how long it had been, and how long it was going to be before your return."

"Did you ever see him taking a mare to his bedchambers?"

The assistant blushed. "He told me that you had an arrangement, ma'am. He said that you took no issue with him bringing anypony back to your bedroom, ma'am. Was that not true?"

"It's true," assured Cadance. "Why, were you thinking of sleeping with him?"

Her face turned the deepest shade of beet red Cadance had seen in a long time. Of course she wanted it. "I th-think that would be... inappropriate, m-ma'am..."

Cadance smirked to herself. Perhaps she couldn't have her husband back, yet. But if he wanted to "help" this young mare, she would gladly provide the option.