The walk to Riverwood was silent. As the group of eight walked, they came across the guardian stones. Ralof and Hadvar explained to the six that they were three of the thirteen standing stones in all of Skyrim. The six each chose a stone. Twilight chose the mage stone, Pinkie and Applejack went for the warrior stone, and Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy went for the thief stone.
Ralof and Hadvar commented on their choices and they all continued onward. A group of wolves tried to attack them but Fluttershy managed to make them not do that and they left the group alone, much to the shock of the two soldiers.
A few minutes later, they were at Riverwood. "A dragon! I saw a dragon!" a old woman said to a man.
"What is it now mother?" the man said in an annoyed tone.
"I saw a dragon! It flew over the ruins."
"You're imagining things again."
The woman looked to her left and saw the 6 before looking back to the man pointing and saying, "Then how can I be imagining them?" The man turned to look and his jaw dropped. He stood in shock for a few seconds before closing his mouth and walking off, mumbling something to himself.
Hadvar gestured for some of them to follow him to his uncle's forge and Ralof taking the others to the saw mill where his sister worked.
(a few minutes later)
The Mane 6 were following the road to Whiterun after they met Ralof's sister and Hadvar's uncle. They were told to go to Whiterun to have the Jarl send guards to Riverwood. Before they left, they got some armor and weapons. Twilight wore leather armor and had a dagger strapped to her side, Applejack wore full iron armor without the helmet and carried a warhammer on her back, Rarity wore the same as Twilight (though with some complaint) and also had a dagger strapped to her side, Dash wore leather armor but had hide boots and cuffs to replace the leather gauntlets and boots and had both a sword and dagger, Fluttershy just sticked to her original clothes, and Pinkie Pie also kept her clothes but had the lute from before on her back.
The trek to Whiterun was uneventful. They passed an Imperial patrol that gave them strange looks and that was it. When they reached the gates, two guards were standing to sides of it. One of them noticed the group and walked up to them. "Stay where you are. No one is allowed in the city with these dragons about."
Twilight stepped up and said, "We were sent here to talk to the Jarl about having some guards sent to Riverwood."
"Riverwoods in danger too? You lot better hurry to Dragonsreach. It's the big building on the hill. Hard to miss." The guard returned to his spot by the gate and the 6 entered Whiterun.
The city wasn't much of a city, it was too small for that. The place looked nice though. Across the small stone bridge to the right was a forge and blacksmith shop, to the left, perched up on a small hill, was a building with a sign at the bottom of the hill that had a overfilled mug and said, "Drunken Huntsman," a path to the left of the Drunken Huntsman led to more buildings, a bit further down the path ahead of them was a house or two, and the path finally ended at the market place where some stalls and two stores were open, and an inn that had a sign with a horse reared back a bit with a man on its back carrying a banner that said "Bannered Mare."
The city seemed nice but they didn't have the time to admire it as they were here for a reason. Twilight looked up to her left and saw Dragonsreach just over the buildings and began to lead her friends to the keep.
The walk was short and they got a few strange looks from some of the citizens but they didn't say anything. They soon arrived at the keep and entered. They could hear the Jarl talking to someone but before they could go up and speak to him, a dark elf woman spotted them and drew her sword while walking up to them. "Stop right there. I don't know who or what you are but the Jarl isn't receiving visitors right now with all this talk of dragons," the dark elf said in a threatening tone.
Twilight stepped up. "We're here to warn the Jarl that Riverwood could be in trouble."
The dark elf looked surprised. "Then you need to speak to the Jarl right away." She sheathed her sword and walked to the Jarl with the Mane 6 trailing behind. She walked to the Jarl's side, leaned down next to his ear and whispered something to him before straightening up.
The Jarl looked at them with a stern look. If he was surprised to see them, he hid it well. "Irileth told me that you knew something about this dragon. Please tell me everything you know of it," the Jarl said in a kind yet stern voice.
"Well, for starters it attacked Ponyville back where we came from before tracking it here. I was about to be decapitated when it attacked Helgen," Twilight explained.
"I see. I'm sure that you didn't do anything to make the Imperials think that you should be killed, but I feel like there's more to that. Tell me anything else you know."
"When we escaped, we saw fly over the ruins that overlook Riverwood. The people there request your aid."
"Riverwood's in trouble? Irileth," the Jarl said.
"Yes Jarl Balgruuf?"
"Send a detachment of guards to Riverwood at once," Balgruuf commanded.
"Jarl if I may?" a Imperial to the Jarl's right asked.
"What is it Proventus?"
"The Jarl of Falkreath might find this as a-"
"I will not stand idly as a dragon burns my buildings and slaughters my people! Irileth, send that detachment," the Jarl commanded.
Irileth did as she was told and ran past the Mane 6 to carry out her orders while Proventus went up the stairs to the back right to the room. The Jarl thanked them gave them each 50 gold for what they done.
"You know, there is something else you all can help with. Come, let's go see Farengar, my court wizard," Balgruuf said as he stood up and led the Mane 6 to a room to the side of the main room.
Inside was a man in a cloak reading over a book and jotting down some notes. He then went over to a map he had set up with his notes and looked between it and his notes trying to find something. He didn't hear the Jarl and the Mane 6 enter until Balgruuf spoke up.
"Farengar, I some people that can assist you in your research."
The court wizard turned to look at the Jarl and nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise when he saw who all was behind him. He was quick to regain his composure set his notes aside to greet his strange new guests. "Hello. My name is Farengar Secret-Fire. I'm the court wizard to the Jarl and help deal with a magic related problems in the hold."
The Jarl left the Mane 6 to introduce themselves so he could get back to his duties.
Twilight began the introductions. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. This is Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy."
"It's nice to meet you all. Now the Jarl said you could help me. You see, I'm investigating something a friend of mine needs. There's something I lack, however, and that's in a ruin not far from here," Farengar explained. "I'd like for you all to go retrieve an item from there. But I'm pretty much sending you to a deadly for an item that may or may not be there."
Rainbow spoke up, "Just tell us where it is cause either way we're going."
"Straight to the point, I like that. What you're looking for is a object known as the Dragonstone. It resides in Bleak Falls Barrow that overlooks Riverwood. Hard to miss. Now before you go, it might be best to spend some of your gold to prepare for this endeavor. The necessities really, a place to rest if you need to, maybe some food and drink, weapons, armor, and maybe some potions if need be. And if any of you want to learn some magic, I could sell you some spell tomes but they're expensive."
The Mane 6 looked at each other before accepting this quest and heading back into the market. The first thing they did was check out the Bannered Mare. When they got inside, the woman at the bar greeted them as if they were normal people. The tanned woman that was tending to the patrons was not different than the woman.
Twilight and her friends piled their gold together and had Rarity by some cheap food and drink and rent them a room so they be well rested to go explore the ruin. The rest of them sat around the fire where a nord in full iron armor stared at them for a bit before continuing to drink his mead. Rarity came back with their meals, which consisted of some bread and nord mead, and they began to talk about Skyrim.
"This place is rather unique, wouldn't you say girls?" Twilight started.
"Not when you were about to have your head cut off," Dash grumbled.
"I'm sure the Imperial captain wasn't thinking straight. Probably thought that we were part of the Stormcloaks," Rarity said. "Though the clothing these people have could be better."
"Not everyone can afford fancy clothing. Most of Skyrim is just warriors, the damned Imperials, the true sons of Skyrim, and bandits. and the occasional mercenary," the nord next to them explained before receiving another drink from the tan women.
The ponies just stared at him for a few seconds before slowly returning to their conversation. "Whatever the case, we need to find this dragon and deal with it so we can go home," Applejack said as she took a sip of her mead.
They had to agree with Applejack. They want to go home but can't until this threat is dealt with. This dragon, Alduin, could return to Equestria and destroy everything in his path. They continued to chat for a bit after finishing their meals. Later they went to the room Rarity rented for a day to rest.
Back at the bar of the inn was a women, wearing leather armor and a hood, that overheard what the 6 were talking about and wondered if they are worth looking into. A dragon appearing in their land might be worth looking into should she choose to. She paid for her drink and left the inn to go Dragonsreach, to go speak to Farengar.