When Drafting, Never Forget the Summary · 11:28pm Apr 9th, 2017
I have about twenty stories going at once, but I'm grading this weekend. The semester's nearly over, however, so I'm probably going to publish a bunch of stories at roughly the same time. In all likelihood, I'll start doing this in a week or two, so be patient. 
That said, I have a little mystery to solve. 
The cake is not a lie!
I've discovered a story in my stash for which I have absolutely no idea what the plot was intended to be. 
All I know is that it was written for the "The Darkest Hour" Writeoff, but I ended up not completing it (or any entries for the contest) so I never submitted it. This was during the electroconvulsive therapy, so I the message of the story and how I intended to convey it are probably no longer physically inside my brainpan.
The story was titled Eclipsed 1089, so it clearly takes place in 1089 Anno Solequus, but I'm not sure who the characters are supposed to be or what caused the Sisters to make (I presume) an eclipse. Also, it must have been a short story I believed was squishable into the 2000-8000 word range.
If I figure it out, and it's good, I'll complete it someday. Until then, enjoy the random detritus which no longer exists within my noggin. 
Eclipsed 1089 (incomplete)
Apart from a brief scowl when he stumbled upon his shackles, the young unicorn showed no signs of emotion while being led out of the office. The cerebrist waited until a few moments after the door had closed.
"Conduct disorder," she said, plain as an order of hay.
The father shrugged, squirming in a chair made for ponies half his overbearing size. "Well, obviously the boy has issues with conduct. What's that got to do with his lessons?"
Then he turned to look at his wife, and visibly paled beneath his black pelt. Her face was apoplectic with rage. Her lower lip twitched like a quivering soap bubble on the edge of bursting. The Queen was known to have a short fuse, but in two decades of marital fidelity he'd never seen her quite like this.
The cerebrist was remarkably calm, by comparison. King Kruos deduced this was a vital part of her job description. He briefly admired her patience as his wife simmered in her own uncomfortable office chair.
"I know damn well what it means," hissed the Queen. "I shall not accept the sort."
The other mare took in a deep breath before speaking. "If you know what it means, then you know it isn't a sorting I apply lightly," she said. "Particularly given your station, my Queen. It would be a disservice to ignore how perilous the situation with the Prince has become."
Queen Cora Cedonia shook her head. "It's the Sisters. They did this to us," she whispered. "That damnable event is the cause of all of it."
Her husband coughed. "Now, dear, we can't blame everything on the Heavens, can we?"
"The King is wise," said the cerebrist, choosing her words expertly—another necessary virtue for her station, he realized. "There were one-hundred thirteen registered births during the Eclipse. Of these, the Prince is the second with such a diagnosis. This is well within probabilistic expectations given random—"
"I did not fail my son!" shouted the Queen, and the King turned his head to the side to hide a disturbed grimace. There's no way the boy hadn't heard that one, but at least it wouldn't bother him. Nothing did, after all.
"Under no circumstance does this sorting suggest you failed the Prince. This condition is not learned," said the cerebrist.
"Inherited, then? My side of the family, I'm sure," said the Queen, bitterly.
King Kruos held his tongue. He was well-practiced.
"Not directly, no. The causes are not fully understood—"
"Now, pardon me," said Kruos, interrupting with uncharacteristic politeness for a stallion of his bearing. "I am not a foal, and so by context I gather that this 'conduct disorder' is a very bad thing. However, I do not have the extensive education of my wife. Do you follow?"
The Queen hung her head low, and the professional nodded and spoke. "It is a simple, but terrible thing. Your son is barely capable of experiencing empathy, if at all," she said softly.
"And this explains the stealing and the fighting?"
"And the manipulation," whispered the Queen. Her mane covered her lowered face, and she made a sniffling sound as she rubbed an ankle up into the mass. "And the lack of friends. He will never know the joy of friendship."
"But he has friends," the King protested. "Of a sort..."
The cerebrist shook her head. "Not really, no. The prince has ponies he has manipulated into doing things for him. It is virtually assured he feels nothing for them, nor understands why other ponies act with compassion toward one another," she explained. "He probably thinks everypony else has some sort of weakness he was born without. That would be the logical conclusion to come to, were we unfortunate enough to be in his horseshoes."
Your guess is as good as mine! 
But it's definitely my hoofwriting. Don't you think?
Ideas are cheap. Writing is not. I'm sure you can come up with something to fit what you have if you feel up to it.
This is very good! I hope the muse for this comes back to you. It really sounds terrific and very interesting.
Nice. I've used Sol Solis to try to convey the same thing, but my Latin is as good as Google Translate.
Probably something about Celestia and Luna creating an eclipse on the day this (I'm assuming foreign) prince guy was born, and his Queen mom thinks that is what caused him to have "conduct disorder" (or based on the description, he's a psychopath). All I can get from context clues, no idea where the mystery is supposed to come in.
The only other thought I had is that it is Celestia and Luna's fault, sort of, because the eclipse was caused by Nightmare Moon, and Celestia using the Elements by herself on her sister and fellow bearer had some sort of magical impact on this kid. And then extrapolating from that idea the royal family is that of the Crystal Empire and that kid is Sombra and the reason he was affected was because he's especially susceptible to "Harmony/Friendship/Sparkly-Rainbow" magic because crystals and the only way he can feel anything is by exerting dominance over the crystals or something (That just occurred to me as I was writing this out. Apologies for the run-on sentence). Problem: That isn't really a mystery (a thriller, maybe, or some dark thing, but not a mystery). Also, there's the fact that Luna was there with Celestia for Sombra's first defeat, canonically. Which means diddly-squat when it comes to fanfic, but still.
IDK. Sorry, this couldn't be more helpful. Just thought I'd share.
4490371
I've used that in a few of my works so far. I believe Recycled was the first story where it took center stage.
It definitely looks like a Trixie story!
Origin story for King Sombra? Maybe his name comes from the fact that he was born during the Eclipse.
4490416
4490591
Yes, I'm fairly certain the foal is Sombra. But then what would the 1089 refer to? Even though the cerebrist sounds rather modern, there is no context to place the time period, and I'd probably have included that.
Perhaps it takes place in the past (as one would expect) and the 1089 refers to something else entirely. It's 33 squared and a common Magician's Choice number. Maybe it's a time span rather than a year, or even Sombra's age (this might make sense given the eclipse being a part of the story).
Or maybe it takes place in the future and there's time travel involved? Or it takes place in the past but the vignette is a prelude to something that will happen in the future?
Hmm.
4490425
Hmm. Not "Anno Solequi", if you're going for the Latin (and don't want to break it up into something like "Anno Equi Solis")?
(Sorry, I know it's already in use so it's a bit late to say anything, but…
)
4491214
I could always retcon it, but I'm not convinced of the proper treatment in Latin yet. (I did initially consider Anno Equi Solus! But that ends in 'us' too, does it not?)
4491289
You probably want to run it by some others for other opinions if you're going to do anything, but:
I'm confident that "solequus" in that position is not Latin-ly correct if you're basing it on the noun "equus" and mirroring "Anno Domini". The "year of X" construction puts X in the genitive case, and the genitive of the second-declension "equus" is "equi".
(Separately, I am uncertain how well "Solequus" reads aesthetically, specifically whether it's plausible as a compound in a world where the Sun Horse both is so iconic and already has a name; if it were up to me, I would guess that since it's an epithet and not Princess Celestia's personal name, the words would tend to stay separated, but [trails off awkwardly]. 
)
"sol" is third declension, so the genitive form is "solis": "of the sun" (sort of), which attaches to the second noun in the tripartite form: "Anno Equi Solis" = "in the year of the horse of the sun". ("solus" is an entirely different adjective which, if it were declined in a way that fit together with either of the other words, would mean "alone" and uh. I wonder if miswriting the third word as "Solius" (thus "… of the solitary horse") could be a rather rude way to refer to another Princess entirely.
(… I almost want to try to write that story, now…))
(Also, if you want to assume that Equestrian Latin would be less inclined to use the masculine "equus"/"equi" as a neutral form, you could instead go for "equae", genitive of "equa" = "mare" specifically. That might get you weird looks from Earth scholars, I don't know.
)
Also: not that you have to care about any of this if you don't want to. Fiction is for making stuff up, after all.
4491797
Yeah, it's not supposed to be modeling Domini directly, but you have a point about the declension. The main reason I went with Solequus is that it's fun to say, and immediately obvious what it means.
Although Solasinus was notably tempting.
The prince made me think of Blueblood, which I suppose is possible--we don't know who his parents are, do we? I quite like what you've got, but it doesn't tell us whose story the story is. If it's really sociopathy as we know it, then it would be difficult to make it the prince's story, because he can't change. It has been done--see Dexter--but standard story arcs make it turn dishonest about sociopathy--see Dexter. Best example I know is I am Not a Serial Killer. Don't tackle the subject without studying it first.
4556804
I have some familiarity due to my psych degree, fortunately. But you're right, whatever I had planned (probably a Sombra back in time story, or a Sombra II, or something) the protagonist wasn't going to be the crux of the story. Rather, it would focus on the effects around him.
Unless I'd planned to make it not entirely psychopathy, in which case it would be a difficult (but fun!) write.