The Riddle by silverspawn

At the moment this review is made there are 35k words puplsihed and I read all of them.

Foreword:
The author and I had a long conversation about his story, which you can see in the comments section of his story about stuff I had question about or found a problem with in this story. I have to say it was a pleasure to have an author who politely discuss things with me for a change. Anyhow, it turned out we have very different viewpoints about social standarts and logic in general. So I say, even if I have a lot of stuff on my cons list, still, some of these points are depending on your personal view on things and musn't count for everyone.
Also I like to add that this author has reasons mostly for his possible errors in the story. It isn't like he simple ignores them most of the time, instead he had made thoughts for most of it, even if I find a lot of the explanation still unfitting.

So keep in mind this review is based on my personal opinions.

Pros:
An entertaining opening by using letters like in the show as startpoint.
Great chapter division.
A comfortable flow in which the story make progress.
Interesting side ideas for littel side stuff that happens besides the main events.
The interaction with Peewee is nicely written and though out.
Celestia is in opposite to the early show more a character then a godess.
The worldbuilding in general is amazing.
Dry humour that fits.
Clever little display of Twilights thoughts in chatper 16.
Interaction with Peewee is still entertaining in later chapters.
The racism dialog, priceless.
It get tense later on in the story by a certain chapter, that was a good surprise.
The lore about griffons and dragons.
The flight scene and the description of pegasi and the will to fly is beautifull in its own way.
The atmosphere of the story is getting better and better.
The goal of being a mystery story is archived.

Cons:
Celestias doesn't sound like Celestia from the show in the way she talks.
The appearence of Luna in the letters is something that truly need more work to fit.
Chapter 7-9 are unrealistic and/or going in the wrong way plotwise.
The characters drifting away more and more from the show version as further the story proceeds.
Twilight risks her own dead and later that of her friends too, just for curiousity and without good reasons, also they and one certain other character is tottaly ok with it without complaining or arguing.
Rarity is implied to be more smart in this story, which makes her dialogs questionable sometimes since she seem to be normal inteligence wise considering her dialogs very often.
The character Amethist is very unrealistic displayed and adjusted to the authors liking instead of realism. Also the whole chapter 15 is plotwise crap.
A little bit more show then tell sometimes would have been nice.
The repeating of words to get a feeling for the situation across to the reader becomes annoying real quick.
Accusing Rainbow Dash for being not brave enough by Twilight seems unlikely and rude considering what they went trough just the chapters before 18.
If twilight is able to link the connection to somepony else, or surely somecreature/thing else why not do so instaed of risk her own life?
Some unrealistic side dialogs.
Huge logic errors later on, exspecial that characters ignore something because it would screw the scene/plot. (The author has some explanation for this, we simple doesn't agree on them)
The story doesn't have the AU tag, but the latest chapter along with some other situations request it for sure.

Summary:
This story again is split in two halfs. On the one side you have a story that really drags you forward to read on, with nice pacing, interesting plot and side events to fluff it up. Also the goal of beeing a mystery story is archived very well, constantly new questions rise up and you get curious yourself what will happen.
On the other side, the characters act very unrealistc sometimes, the inner logic is screwed in a few chapters and we have this 'do it for the plot' moments too.
So this story is torn apart between beautiful moments when you sit there reading and can feel the tension, what will happen next? Some cute moments with Peewee and how ponies treat him. Also a great amount of fluff like with Pinky beeing Pinky and such that simple entertains and, on the other side, some actions by the character that simple let you shake your head in disbelieve, logic errors large enough to throw a mountain through them (the author fixed the mountain one after I pointed it out) and very questionable directions the plot goes in.

I say I like the story nontheless for it entertains and offers you a mystery as promissed. Even the errors are dissapointing and annoying during the reading, the main idea for the story and the way the events take place is good enough to make you want to read on.

Rating:
Story Idea: 9.5/10
Writing Style 8/10 (Can't judge gramma still, but the way the authors wrote the letters for example mostly fits)
Character realism: 4/10 (In general the story works, but if you look on the details and reasons for the characters actions... )
Entertainment factor: 8.5/10
Inner Logic: Here we have the tricky one, depends on your viewpoint I guess, for me 2.5/10
-> 6.5 but I also have to take into consideration that this author still have reasons mostly, there is very rare a, let me quote him: Magic! Duh as explanation when I asked him about stuff in his story.
Again I may advise that one read through the comment section of his story to get a better understanding.

For all what we had discussed in his story and also that I consider the entertaining factor as important along with the purpose of beeing a mystery story is archived greatly, I give +1 on the rating in general.

TOTAL 7.5

It was an interesting conversation indeed. Thank you very much :-)

We already hashed out our disagreements at length, so I’ll only add a few more notes here

The characters drifting away more and more from the show version as further the story proceeds.

Very true and intended!

Celestias doesn't sound like Celestia from the show in the way she talks.

This is probably also true! and not intended.

I remain unconvinced that there are any plotholes – or rather, there probably are but I dno’t think it’s any of the things we talked about. The only way to find out is to read the story yourself

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I agree, I recommend to read this story and encourage possible readers to comment with their thoughts on this story and challenge the authors logic too.