"Alright girls, before we move into Duskwood, there's something I forgot about. Skills."
"You mean like the talent specs? I thought we already did that Pinkie, what gives?" Rainbow dash was really starting to get the hang of the whole 'MMO' thing. It was pretty fun. All the others were doing pretty good as well. AJ still refused to attack things, but party EXP and healing kept her at the same level as her friends. Twilight was having loads of fun with blink, since it was the closest thing to a teleport she had. Raity's voidwalker, Kal'Thur, provided a nice backup tank in case Rainbow got swamped. Gummy, Pinkie's pet crocolisk... well, let's just say he had teeth, unlike his namesake. Fluttershy... yeah, she's legitimately terrifying at this point. When she hit's level 80... dear light. Anyhow, returning to their conversation.
"No Dashie, I mean craftsman skills. Blacksmithing, alchemy, things like that. Now, we need to go back to Goldshire unfourtunately. Everypony, mount up!" Six mounts poofed into existence, though they weren't horses. Pinkie used her pull in a guild with her main to grab them all some mechanostriders, since those are just machines. Anything else might get... weird. So, off they rode to Goldshire atop their mechanical chicken things, prepared to grab their trade skills. Our heroines would soon discover a whole new world of grinding, spending countless hours hunting down resources so they can craft them into a bunch of things they likely will never use, except flying carpets, those select guns that engineers can make, a few epic pieces of gear, and bags. Sweet Celestia the bags. Ohhhh yeahhh. Mm!!Super sexy bags with enough space to store themselves. Don't ask, I don't know either. Oh! And stat gems. Can't forget those. And armor kits, I guess... but nobody really uses those as far as i know. hey, don't look at me like that. I've got one level 90, and he's not even in a guild. Or... not a big one. Look, it's just me, some of my alts, and a few people I know in real life. Don't hate. We've got a guild bank and one character in each profession. It's a good system. Loads of people do it, and besides, I- what? Oh, right. i guess you really don't care huh? Moving on!
"Alright Pinkie, what are these professions? How exactly do they work?" Twilight, ever inquisative, looked over to her pink friend as they rode- er, strode, rather, towards Goldshire.
"Glad you asked Twilight! So, there are two different kinds of profefssion... well, three really, but let's just stick with the two for now. There's gathering, and crafting professions. These all go hoof- hand in hand, and help each other, and in turn you. Gathering professions include herbalism, skinning, and mining. Now, these all have companion production professions. These are blacksmithing, alchemy, jewel crafting, leatherworking, inscription, enchanting, tailoring, and engineering. Mining pairs with jewel crafting, blacksmithing, and engineering. Skinning with leatherworking, and tailoring on occassion. And herbalism with alchemy and inscription. Enchanting is a standalone, where it gathers it's own materials, or 'mats' with DE, disenchanting. There's also the basic professions, cooking, fishing, first aid, and archaeology. nobody really pays much attention to archaeology. Or at least, I don't. The third profession type is a little wonky. There's riding, which you all know about, and there's lockpicking and runeforging. Lockpinking is a rouge only skill, and runeforging is a Death Knight only skill." Fluttershy's ears perked up.
"Death Knight?" She spoke with a voice that you would expect to hear form some sort of ghost. Like there was seven of her. I guess being a shadowpriest does that. "Hmhmhmm, that sounds like fun. How do I get to be one of those? Can I change?"
"Sorry flutters, you can't change your class. And you can't even select Death Knight until you have a character at level 55. But yeah, they're pretty OP. Of course, so are warlocks and Paladins... at least, if you select a Prot pally. Stupid broken OP class. I swear, you can't kill them!"
"Focus Pinkie. What do the different professions do?" Rarity was the one asking questions now.
"Oh, right." Pinkie cleared her throat and went on to explain all of the critical aspects of each profession. What? I'm sure as hell not gonna do it, that would be this entire chapter, and it would bore you all to death. Besides, I'm gonna assume you all have played WoW before, so it's unnecessary. If you haven't played, then infer. Anyways, Pinkie is just about done, so let's get back to the important stuff, yeah? "...so we should each pick a profession that no one else has. I'll pick up... Mining and blacksmithing. Rares?"
"Oh, I suppose tailoring, but I'm not sure what to take for the second one."
"You could go jewel crafting, since you like shiny thins so much. Plus, I already have mining, so I can just give you any jems I don't need."
"Ah! An excellent idea Pinkie Pie. Jewel crafting it is! How about you Twilight?"
"Oh, I'm gonna do enchanting and inscription. Those seem to be the one's that would suit me best. How about you AJ? Got anything yet?"
"Eyup, I'm gonna do this herbalism and alchemy thing. Mah sis likes to tinker with her potions in the barn, and she's taught me a few things. Fluttershy? RD? What've y'all got?"
"I think I'll do skinning and leatherworking. I'll keep you stocked with any specific things you need Rarity."
"Sounds good Fluttershy, but you do know what skinning is, right dear?"
"Oh trust me, I know. I do know animals after all, it's only.. logical."
"Alright then, that just leaves me! So, I'll be an engineer, and a miner as well. Anything Pinkie misses, I'll pick it up. Sound good?"
"Sounds awesome Dashie! Let's go get our skills everyone!" And so our intrepid heroines went off to start their new skills, and spent he remainder of their day grinding out skill points until they had caught up with their levels. By that point, night had fallen, and it was time to settle in and sleep. Duskwood would have to wait. Hehe.. wood would. I'm such a child. Ahem, anyways, let's see what our friends thaught of their first day of skill grinding.
"Jeeze Pinkie, my back hurts from all that mining, and why do I need all of this stuff just to make a stupid bit of dynamite? This is crazy!"
"And why in the world is it so dang hard just to find flowers? I never in mah life thought I'd have trouble gathering plants."
"This is gonna take a while at this level, isn't it? Enemies almost never drop any special loot. We should go do one of those dungeons you talked about Pinkie, I need to level my disenchanting if I'm gonna level my enchanting, and with Applejack having trouble finding plants, insription will...." She goes on like that for another two or three minutes, so I'll spare you the details. But she mentions something about logistics, setting farming patterns, and some other stuff that we all do anyways, so it's fine.
"I quite enjoy my professions. Can we go kill a couple more boars? I'm almost at 50." Fluttershy went ignored for the time being, as now it was Rarity's turn to complain. And we all know how that goes.
"Ugh! This is just absurd Pinkie Pie! I can't express my creative genius, and not to mention I'm almost out of money from having to buy so many materials! And I can't even make anything useful yet. Oh why did I have to pick the ugliest professions! Ohhoho woe is meee!!!" At least there's, no wait, never mind. There's the crying couch. Sheesh... what a drama queen.
"Don't worry girls! It all becomes more useful as time goes on. Dash will even be able to make one of the game's coolest flying mounts, Rarity too. So just tough it out for a bit, once we all hit level 40 or so, everything starts to really have a purpose. For the time being though, let's just settle in for the night. We start Duskwood in the morning." So ended day one of the ponies journey in the world of Azeroth, a day of firsts all around, with many more to come. Even their very next day would not go quite as planned, as the king had heard of these strange newcomers, and he was anxious to meet them. A dark cloud loomed over the valley that night however, and even the king's plans can go awry. You all know where this is going, too. The only place the Horde seem to raid is where our friends have laid down for the night.
"FOR THE HORDE!"