The Immortal Game liveblog 3: Chapters 3 & 4 · 12:06am Sep 24th, 2015
Apologies for this taking longer than I was expecting -- I've had a very busy couple of weeks. Anyway, on we go with my liveblog of AestheticB's The Immortal Game. This post will cover the next two chapters, "A Beautiful Morning" and "The Beginning", though at somewhat less length than last time! Anyway, as before, spoilers everywhere past the break, so no whinging. 
We learn quite a lot in these two chapters, notably that Rarity has a blade of her own, thanks to her upbringing as a "military brat" (aside: I do find that a particularly unattractive term) and her training by her unpleasant father. Later, though, we get a lot of "handy dream/vision" type exposition from Luna, explaining what her childhood (and Celestia's) was like. I can't help noticing the parallels with Rarity's fillyhood, and given the blade as well I'd be surprised if this didn't become significant at some point.
There's not a lot to enjoy about these chapters, as things are getting darker by the hour, but you have to cheer at Applejack's demolition job (with a bit of help from Big Mac) on the posse of puppets sent to get her. I even forgot to be irritated by her Ah-speak most of the time, which was nice! As for Fluttershy, she manages to defeat one by giving it a Stare and then -- of course -- feels horrible about it until she's (more or less) convinced that the things aren't really alive. Animals becoming scared of her, though... 
Rainbow Dash's new existence continues to be pretty bleak; I doubt the Dash fans among you are going to have a very pretty time as we go on. I'm guessing that "Blackblitz" will turn out to be one of her distant, but probably direct, ancestors. As for Twilight, it's very handy (and very story-convenient, frankly) that she can somehow read Nihilus's mind without N being able to read her mind back. I wonder whether that's actually true, or whether it'll be revealed later that Nihilus is in fact capable of doing it, and was just bluffing?
This story does show its age a bit at the start of chapter 4, with Rarity being obsessed with not getting dirty; she's calmed down a bit on that front these days. I also noticed that the Royal Canterlot Grammar dipped in quality quite a bit in this chapter, which is a shame as it's used extensively. It's hard to read something like "Thou misseth" or "I shalt" without your teeth being set on edge. Still, according to the narrative Luna is only "over a hundred years old" -- which is bizarre to say the least, though I suppose 1,000 > 100!
Skipping lightly over the fact that there's a pony called Blooper in the flashbacks (seriously, that makes Pinkie Pie seem like a serious-minded name), two things that have really stuck in my mind. First, that a blade can only be wielded for a cause -- but that cause can be the fight itself, which seems to make it rather a pointless criterion. Second, all the stuff about the Shard of Darkness. Wild guess: Twilight, having managed to read Titan's mind to find his weak spot, will eventually use that to kill Titan himself.
I'm glad we didn't endure Pinkie Pie being beaten up, but I wonder whether things may get ugly now that the four Element-Bearers need to capture Rainbow so that Luna can disenchant her. We all remember how Dash reacted to that sort of thing while she was Discorded, and that was with a fully-capable Twilight available to do the magical honours. The story itself? Well, it's keeping me reading. It's nowhere near "Wow, this is amazing!" so far, but that may come if all the strands come together in later chapters.
I didn't even remember there were parallels between Luna and Rarity's growing up. Not that it means much since it's almost exactly two years since I read it myself. I mostly remember the broad strokes and a few snapshots here and there. Might need to read the story again for the two year anniversary of the first read.
As for wielding the blades, I think it was more of a general purpose not a takes a purpose each time you use it. You need a cause to have and use a blade, but not specifically each time you pull it out. Or at least that's what my brain remembers in vague probably memory-edited terms.