Sunset Shimmer looked out in awe at what was in front of her. an inconceivably huge room, outfitted with the most absurd training course she had ever seen, fictional or otherwise. It was so much she didn't even know where to begin. Instead, she turned and faced the Headmaster.

"...why?"

"Only for the best for our agents." The Headmaster replied drily. Not even taking a moment to look away from whatever monstrosity that inhabited this den.

"You're insane."

"We're CIA and this is a time critical mission. We are not insane, we are competent." Now she turned to look at Sunset. There was a certain cold calculating look in her gaze. Sunset smiled inwardly at the challenge imposed.

"Well, it is what it is, I guess." Sunset chuckled humourlessly and made her way to the entrance. Made out of some hard transparent fiber, it made visibility from the outside quite easy. No doubt perfect for the Headmaster to witness her failures. The thought nearly made her grin. She wasn't a vigilante for nothing. "So, how does this work?"

"First you need to, uh, get into your suit." It was Dry this time. He stammered as he produced a flexible but bland looking training outfit. "The changing rooms are over there." There was a small blush as he pointed to a doorway near the entrance of the beast. Sunset gave him her thanks and hurried over.

The interior wasn't much to comment on. It was just as bland as the suit. Sunset chuckled as she imagined a horrified face of a particular fashionista. Without thinking too much, Sunset undressed and then deftly pulled on her outfit. It hugged her figure, but not in a revealing way. It was quite comfortable, it breathed pretty well too. What Sunset appreciated the most, however, was that the fabric did not chafe. Not bad, not bad at all.

She marched out with a confident gait. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the Headmaster's eyes narrowed slightly. A devilish idea popped into her head. She paused before entering the enormity and turned to face the tall woman. With grace and precision, Sunset swept her left leg back, placed her right hand over her heart and bowed low. She held that position for a moment, before sweeping back up and marched right into the jaws without waiting for anybody.

She breathed in, then out.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

Time to face the music.

The first obstacle looked simple enough. Monkey bars that shifted or vibrated erratically. Below lay a pit of water. From her vantage point, Sunset could see mini icebergs floating about. She scoffed, this was nothing. Without much effort, she cleared it. It wasn't even entertaining enough to give it a second thought.

The second room looked like a small boss arena. It was clear for the moment, but if Sunset had anything to say about it, and she did, she knew exactly how this was going to play out. Glancing around quickly, she doubled checked that there was nothing else of importance, just a circle and a locked door. She grinned and took a leisurely stance. An outsider would not think much but a trained martial artist would notice how her legs were tense and she was balanced on the balls of her feet. This allowed her to react to anything without much trouble.

Then with a clack, a hatch opened up from the ceiling and a burly man dropped down. The man was as generic as one could be. Gray colors, complemented by his normal suit and tie, complete with shades of course. Sunset let her head loll to the side, never taking her eyes off of him.

With a grunt, the man pushed himself forwards and came swinging. Sunset let her body drop before sliding off the side with controlled movements. The man, trained as he was, didn't topple over and instead swiveled and attacked her again with more force than the previous one. Sunset closed the distance, registered the surprised look on the man's face, grabbed his tie and pulled downwards. While his head went downwards, she brought her knee up. The two made a soft cracking noise and the man slumped to the floor. Sunset sifted through his pockets and came up with a key. Without any other obstacles, she hopped across the arena and unlocked the door.

The third room was one of those military training yards you see in movies. Sunset chuckled once she saw the laser and the timer next to it. Taking a few calming breaths, Sunset then bounced on her toes to warm up the right muscles, then bolted forwards. She was already 15 steps away when the timer hit one second.

She bounced over the tire hopscotch, sprinted a little bit faster to gain the right momentum, then slid underneath the low hanging barbed wire, Sunset then threw herself up to her feet without pausing. The next one was a five meter high climbing wall, complete with rope. Sunset disregarded that and sprinted harder. Right before smacking into the wall, she planted her right foot into the sand and drove up her knee, launching her upwards. The next step was on the wall and the force pushed her up even more. The third step was weaker but was enough to get her to the four meter mark, it was there she grabbed the rope. Without much effort, she used her momentum and her grip on the rope to haul herself up before dropping over to the other side.

Next up, monkey bars. Sunset had no difficulty with these, even going as far as going three by three the entire length. She dropped on the other side and judo rolled to keep her momentum. The final obstacle was a single rope that led up to a platform up above. Sunset couldn't rely on tricks for this one, so she had some difficulty with it, but ultimately made it to the platform with minimal burns and her stomach felt like it was on fire. Her time stopped at 7:32 minutes.

The next room seemed to be the last room, which set a slightly out of breath Sunset at ease. It was relatively big with three stereotypical ruined houses placed next to each other, slightly askew. In front of her lay a table with a pistol and three extra magazines. This looked quite familiar, another situation she's seen in video games. Sunset snatched them up without a second thought. The gun rested in her right hand while the three magazines were held in her left.

The timer started and several human shaped targets popped up around the three houses. Sunset charged forwards, completely disregarding the pistol's function and chucked it as hard as she could to a target. The right arm shattered and the target fell down. On to the next, there, inside of a window. Sunset threw a mag, same result.

There were a scattering of noises, reminiscent of a gun, without thinking, Sunset dove to the side, rolled and continued running. She threw her remaining mags, both hitting targets. Without stopping, she reached down and grabbed pieces of rubble and finally entered a house. It was in there, she relied on melee. The first target was behind a counter, Sunset delivered a decisive kick. A flick behind her announced the arrival of another target, she flicked her fist backwards and another target down. She cleared the first house with deft ease, arriving at the third floor. From there, she sniped the remaining targets from a window using the pieces of rubble she had picked up earlier.

Her time was 11 minutes and 41 seconds.

Sunset stood up and admired her handiwork. She brushed off some dust before admitting herself to the exit. There, Dry Clean and the Headmaster were waiting for her. She grinned at their shocked expression. It didn't even take her half an hour to sweep the course.

"H...how?" Dry finally stammered out, his nervous energy had evaporated, almost as if it was never there in the first place.

The Headmaster merely scrutinized her, her eyebrows pinched in the most fascinating way. Reminded Sunset of Principal Celestia, definitely not Princess Celestia.

"So. Am I in?"

There was a pause.

"Yes, you're in." The Headmaster turned on a dime and swished away, only to call back, "Dry, get miss Shimmer here to the Floor and tell her the details on the way."

"Yes ma'am!" Dry answered quickly and stiffly before reverting back to his nervous energy. "So, ehe, shall we?"

The two walked through the long winding hallways, climbing and descending stairs and elevators. Sunset didn't bother to ask why the trip back was thrice the length than the way there.

"Right. So, like I said before, you are to infiltrate the Rainbooms' concert alongside me. We then scope him out during the concert, bug him, and then out job is done!" Dry beamed and looked at her as if expecting a treat.

"Hold on, Dry. You never mentioned that you were coming too." Sunset narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, right." Dry chuckled. "Silly me, forgetting an important detail like that. Sorry I failed to mention it earlier. Yeah, you're my backup basically."

"...uh huh. So they need two people for this job then?"

"Well...ideally five, but because of that, uhhh, the documents that Money Bags has makes it kind of hard to do that."

"Right. Except, shouldn't you be on that list too?" Sunset tilted her head, her face betraying nothing.

"About that..." Dry rubbed his neck and shuffled his feet a little before answering. "I'm, uhhh, I'm a trainee. I just started. The Headmaster said that this'll be great practice for me for real missions."

"Right." Sunset nodded slightly. "Makes sense."

"Glad you think so!" Dry beamed again. "Now, let us just turn left through this doorway here...and voila. Back at the Floor."

The two sauntered into the large room before navigating the hazardous tables. Sunset could've sworn she'd seen this in a movie somewhere. The people working were all testing various things, some of them even look like they came straight out of a sci-fi movie. Sunset made sure to be on her guard. Then promptly bumped into somebody.

"Hey, watch it!" There was a pause while Sunset rubbed her head. "Wait a minute...Sunset Shimmer."

She finally looked up and noticed two familiar faces. She cracked a grin. "Bon Bon. Lyra. How are you two doing?"

"We're doing great! Wow, imagine seeing you here." Lyra grinned as well, pushed past a very confused Dry and went in for a big hug. Sunset chuckled and hugged her back.

"Well, I'm not surprised you two are in here."

"Why's that, Sunset?" Bon Bon asked, an eyebrow raised. Sunset peeled herself off of Lyra before answering.

"Well, you were already a spy, were you not? In High School, I mean." There was a stunned silence which was almost immediately broken by a horrendous gasp.

"Bo...Bonnie? Bonnie, what does she mean." Lyra turned and looked her friend dead in the eye. As for Bon Bon, she gave Sunset the most terrified and the most hateful face imaginable before started babbling about how she was under oath and how it was for her safety. Sunset, for the record, gave a very sincere guilty look as she was dragged past the bickering two by Dry Clean. When they were out of earshot, Dry asked the inevitable question.

"How do you know those two?"

"Like I said, High School."

"..." Dry opened his mouth, then closed it again. He looked down at his feet, then glanced back up at the still impassive Sunset, then back down. He opened his mouth, then decided better.

"Cough it up."

"Wha...what?"

"Cough it up."

"Oh...uhhh, well, Agent Sweetie Drops and Agent Heartstrings, those two are maybe the two best agents the CIA has. They're like living legends with how much they've accomplished!" Dry was gushing at this point, hearts in his eyes and everything. Really selling the obsessed fan look. "All aspiring agents want to be like them. You heard about that Mob Boss in Itaily who was about to take down the government?"

"The news said the local militia took care of it, but I'm guessing those two had a hand in it?"

"You're absolutely right! They did it without backup too! So incredible." Dry drifted off somewhere before Sunset had to smack him over the head. "Wha! What was that for!?"

"We're here for something, don't forget that."

"Oh, right right. We're nearly there. The person we're going to, he's got some of the best stuff. Personally outfits Sweetie Drops and Heartstrings himself, you know."

"Wow."

"Riiiight!" Dry coughed awkwardly. "Anyway, he'll be able to outfit us too. Since...you know, all of our operatives and agents have been exposed, he doesn't really have much of a choice."

"Doesn't really matter to me." Sunset said, truthfully. She's always been handy with her fists and her own abilities.

***

After a very uninspiring outfit, the two found themselves back at the Headmaster's office. Sunset just couldn't get her head around the fact that the equipping stage was so bland! Her inspiration for everything in this world had always come from movies, video games, and the general internet, yet they had lied about the gear up stage! Sunset was so pissed, she was so close to going back to the Floor to give that useless outfitter a piece of her mind. Like, seriously! What was all those random tests for? All those experiments and absurd amount of all sorts of professions. All that and they just gave her a dinky handgun, a taser in the shape of a lipstick, and a watch that held 20 meters of ultra thin wire. Stupid.

"MISS SHIMMER!" Sunset immediately snapped back to reality and noticed that there was a livid Headmaster staring at her. "Continue with that behavior and consider yourself fired."

"..." Sunset stared blankly, not really following the logic. So, instead, she shrugged. "As you say, ma'am."

"Of course I say!" The Headmaster harrumphed before coughing and moved on. "So, unfortunately, due to our exposure, the government hasn't been able to provide us necessary funds for this mission, you're going to have to provide for your own tickets to the concert."

Again, Sunset was stumped. This was a concert, not some crazy high end art show where only the rich can enter! Even being paid minimum wage, one can buy a ticket. She tsked. She had no idea what to make of these CIA folks, but so far, from what she's seen, it hasn't been all to great. So, instead, she pulled out her phone and opened up her downloads to reveal two VIP tickets, complete with a Backstage Pass, to the Rainbooms concert.

"Here."

Author's Note

How was my writing regarding the training course? Did it capture everything? I'm not entirely confidant in it, but I tried my best. Ah well.