The Immortal Game liveblog 4: Chapter 5 · 6:40pm Oct 7th, 2015
Because of a combination of life refusing to go away and let me do pony things and having to prepare for actual pony things (UK PonyCon), I've had little time to read long stories recently. So, rather than make you all wait a ridiculous length of time, I've decided to make a post relating to just chapter 5, "The Plan". Past this point, there will be lots of spoilers, so don't say you weren't warned!
Things are really starting to get into gear now. There's a little too much exposition with Nihilus at the start, but after that this chapter becomes quite good reading. The main exception, once again, is the poor-quality Royal Canterlot Grammar: there's a lot of Luna in this chapter, so it's a bit of a trial getting through stuff like "I need thou to findest". Oddly, there's one paragraph where Luna completely forgets herself and uses modern English throughout; I can't decide whether that was cleverness or forgetfulness on the author's part.
So, it seems that for Nihilus to get what she wants, the Bearers will have to betray their Elements -- Fluttershy will need to be unkind, Applejack dishonest, and so on. This is very reminiscent of what happened with Discord in "The Return of Harmony", but at least AestheticB openly lampshades that (via Twilight), which reassures me a bit that it's not just going to be a complete rehash. (Before I forget, I agree with Twilight that "cuffle" is a silly word. The OED says it's an obsolete version of "scuffle", while Urban Dictionary... er, well, read it yourself if you like. But don't come crying to me afterwards.)
As usual, we get some little nuggets of world-building, most notably in Terra's creation of a fortress for Nihilus and the comment that she (Terra) is "Titan's puppet". From the battle training the main ponies are undergoing, we also discover that Applejack heals astonishingly quickly -- but that Pinkie Pie doesn't, despite being an earth pony. The news about AJ doesn't really startle me, but the titbit about Pinkie is much more interesting, to my mind. Perhaps she has some other quality to balance that out, hmm...?
And we end the chapter with our remaining heroes hiding out in Cloudsdale, ready for their rescue mission. Which is clearly going to fail, since this is only chapter five! The question is how it's going to fail. Will they underestimate Nihilus, will some external force intervene -- or will one of the heroes be "turned" as Rainbow has? My money would be on that last one. The predictable choice would be Fluttershy, but I'd be disappointed in the story if it went for that easy answer. Rarity would be the hardest, so maybe her.
Finally, Monopony is a thing. This also dates the story, since there's a definite echo of those old "Returned Luna tries to deal with the modern world" fics in that scene.
Right; that's all for now! Chapter six is called, rather ominously, "The Battle of Cloudsdale", so perhaps Rarity (and Luna?) are about to use their blades in anger. At some point, hopefully before the next ice age, we shall see!
Cuffle is a very silly word. I'm so glad it never comes up again later in the story after current situation in Cloudsdale plays out.
3454174 Hmm. That's either a reassuring minor spoiler or a fiendish trick. I wait to see which!