I poured myself a cup of milk, and made some pancakes for breakfast. Just as I was finishing them, I heard a knock on my door.
"Rise and shine, training time!" Bonbon chirped.
I groaned. "Ugh, again?"
"You know you have to be perfect, Roseluck. Your whole life depends on it. I also don't think Celestia likes slaughtering her own ponies," Bonbon said. "Today, we're going to be focusing on your strengths, the physical ones this time. Celestia said that you've got a month to train up. I know it's not enough, that's why we've got to work extra hard."
I sighed. "Alright, fine. Where are we training?"
"In the Everfree Forest," Bonbon replied.
"WHAT?! Bonbon, you do know that the Everfree Forest is completely dangerous! There are things lurking around there," I said. I've heard rumors of the things in the Everfree Forest before.The only ponies who have ever went in unharmed, are Twilight and her friends, and Zecora. Zecora even lives in that forest. I always wonder how she manages to survive. I always thought it was a zebra thing.
"The environment there is prefect for a spy in training like you. There are going to be a lot of extremely dangerous places you have to visit when you become a spy, trust me," Bonbon said. We began our trek to the the forest.
...
"Bonbon, are you sure this is safe?" I asked once we got there.
"It's perfectly fine," Bonbon said. "Well, it is when you are fully trained, or have me around."
"Well, that is comforting to know," I said with a sarcastic tone.
"Just relax, you'll be fine. After all, Twilight and her friends went into the Everfree Forest, and made it back out alive, didn't they? And the didn't even have any spy training," Bonbon said.
"You mean the only ponies who ever made it back alive?" I asked.
Bonbon ignored what I said as we trotted further down into the forest. The branches were gnarly, and looked like they were ready to grab you at any minute. It was quiet and spooky. "Okay, for the first lesson we have to test your strengths," Bonbon walked over to a large tree. It looked like the scariest of them all, and I could even make out a creepy face that had sharp teeth in an evil grin. I mentally shuddered at that.
"What exactly am I going to do?" I asked.
Bonbon snapped a large branch that could've looked like a tree itself before saying, "you have to lift this branch."
"That's easy, it's just a little twig," I said, walking over to it. But when I tried lifting it with my hooves, it wouldn't budge. I tried again, but it was still the same. "This is so hard! How can you even do this, Bonbon?"
"It took ten years for me to practice lifting heavy objects like that. We're going to be here all day, so you better get a start on it," Bonbon said, causing me to mentally groan.
Two hours later...
"I... I did it! I did it Bonbon, did you see that?!" I said.
Bonbon smiled at me. "Great job, Roseluck. I'm surprised you were actually able to do that, but we don't really have much much time to train as a proper agent would. It is said that earth ponies have a greater amount of strength than unicorns and pegasi."
"Bonbon," I began. "What did you do when you were an agent?"
"Well..." Bonbon began. "In training, Princess Celestia had us do an obstacle course. The only thing scary about it, was that it all was real. There were actual rings of fire,real bombs, and all sorts of other dangerous things. I was lucky to escape alive. But there was an amount who didn't. They didn't have the strength to pass through, and a lot of them were new recruits. It was an actual career option to join the agency. They did seem a little weak to me, but I personally believe they only joined just to look cool. All of them were severely injured, most on the verge of death."
"Wow... That really happened?" I asked in amazement. It seemed like a secret agent's life was pretty tough to me. Then a sudden thought made me scared. "Am I going to have to do all that?"
"Sorry to break it to you Roseluck, but yes, you have to. Since you're only an amateur, Celestia will put you in high training, which can take up to years as it did to me," Bonbon informed. "But don't worry, I'm sure you'll pass with flying colors. I had little faith in myself, but I made it out alive."
Bonbon started to walk even further into the forest. "Where are we going? I thought training was over," I asked.
"Oh, it isn't even close to being over. You're going to be coming here for most of your days, from the early morning, to mostly midnight until it's time," Bonbon answered.
"What? But what about my sleep?" I asked fearfully.
"A good spy needs to learn to stay alert, and to stay up without a good night's sleep," Bonbon responded.
Being a spy is tough. I'm beginning to wish I never went into Bonbon's house in the first place.
"Now we're going to be increasing all of your abilities of being a pony. First off, we're going to be lifting more trees, and other sorts of heavy objects to increase your strength. Next, we're going to increase your flexibility. You're going to be doing a lot of stunts in your job. After that, we're going to be increasing your intelligence. Your going to studying a lot. Most of the subjects we'll be focusing on, is math. This is the most unusual of the spy training, but Princess Celestia wants her agents to be smart, and she says that you could never know when they might be useful..." Bonbon droned on about the other things I need to do.
I groaned out loud again. I hate math.