John something or other: change title.

The store was closing, thus marking the end of an otherwise uneventful work day. Just the way john liked them, perfectly boring, he liked his job working the counter at Walmart, it gave him a lot of time to think and to contemplate. He had no cares nor responsibilities and for that he was grateful, it was funny that most would despise such a low paid and under-skilled job, but not john. He adored it, the simplicity of it all and the lack of stress.

"Oh shit!" well almost in any case. The sound of tins impacting the floor made john grimace as one of his co-workers accidentally walked backwards into a stack of them. John had saw what was about to happen a mere moment too late as he glanced up from his phone. Across from the counter stood one of his co-workers, some guy named Mark. Bit of a clumsy bloke in johns opinion. The young man was cradling his hands in his face as he seemingly tried to muster up the energy to clean up the mess he made. John briefly pondered how he could offer help to the guy, he hesitated  thinking about the awkward silence that would take place while picking up the cans due to johns quiet nature. Then he realized he had to do the decent thing, he asked "um... need any help?"

The man dropped his hands and looked up, still frustrated at the prospect of staying behind for longer then need be. He sighed, "oh shut up john, I can fix my own problems". He promptly turned around and began picking up cans.

John sighed in relief and went back to his phone to finish his game of Tetris, glad his help as not needed. In retrospect he mused, he was also kinda glad the teenager had been so rude about it as for starters he did not need to help, and secondly he wouldn't feel bad for him. It was also the fact that there'd be an awkward silence while picking up the cans, john hated those. The fact that he'd been told to shut up had never really registered, or rather it had. But john thought about why Mark would have acted that way, besides being a teenager the guy had been late multiple times to his part time job. The manager had told him he was fired if he didn't get his act together. Now John felt bad for the guy 'oh well, live and learn I suppose'.

Still in his employee uniform he started making his way to the doors, the complex was empty save for the people that worked there. Upon spotting an attractive co-worker, Susan, john felt his adrenaline spike. He never really talked to her and knew for a fact she'd never considered him boyfriend material, he was fine with that and resigned to being polite towards her in an attempt to garner a meager friendship, if not only so that there'd be less awkward moments. He was sure he'd eventually built up the courage to befriend her, but for now he'd just ride his moped home.

The walk towards the door was excruciating for john, as the female employee was finishing up work in the till closest to the door, he could see she was texting somebody on her phone, john forced himself to look up and off to the side, the paranoia of being caught looking at her body getting to him, besides he berated himself for what he perceived to disrespectful (or at least that's the excuse he made up, in actual fact his shyness and meekness had given him such poor luck with the opposite sex that him to give up on pursuing a relationship, he knew that if you didn't try you couldn't fail and crash horribly. Of course john never had to admit this to himself). He knew he was going to have to politely say goodnight to her, he thought back to all the times he had to psych himself up in similar situations when ordering food at the local fish and chips shop, the hot woman attending the counter had caused him to make a fool of himself. He resolved not to repeat the mistake.

Only 5 meters from the door now, his heart rate was rising and he was building up quite a sweat. Social anxiety was getting to him, it was now or never. John took a deep breath, steeled himself and slowed down when approaching her till but didn't stop, he half heatedly opened his mouth and pointed his head in her general direction but not fully facing her, instead focused on the off yellow support beam that stood to the right of the door. He let loose an empty breath but kept on walking without saying a word. He couldn't tell but he desperately hoped Susan did not notice. He sighed in relief upon stepping outside into the cool, refreshing nights breeze, glad the ordeal was over and looking forward to the night of microwaved pizza and video-games that awaited him. Maybe he'd lurk a few websites or chat on Facebook for a while. Life was good.

The facebook chat bar pinged signalling a new message:

"Party Pete: Yo john how it hangin man, hows about you come clubbing with us for once, maybe we'll pick up some hot birds and finally get you laid"

John looked at the message somewhat apprehensively, he was enjoying a quiet night in.

"John: Maybe later man, I got some important word that needs doing, y'know how it is"

Another message pinged.

"Party Pete: Raiding the Lich kings lair again I see? Dude, fuck common man, I'm starting to get worried about you, you never come out with us"

John grimaced, he had a minimized tab of world of Warcraft off to the left, he was in fact going to kill the Lich king, he was just using facebook as a way to pass the time while his fellow guild members caught up.

"John: Look man I'm really sorry but I can't, anyway I really have to get back to this. I'll see you later".

john opened another tab and ignored the reply which he would get to later, he figured he'd have just enough time to check his E-mails before claymorel34 turned up from his lunch break. Opening his inbox, there sat one unread message in an otherwise immaculately empty void of E-mails, he briefly wondered why he bothered checking before he remembered the excitement her felt when he received new mail.

Taking a sip of diet coke he rubbed his hands together eagerly and clicked on the message:

Greetings participant:

You have been chosen to go on a once in a lifetime trip to the magical land of equestria, you will experience action and adventure beyond your wildest imaginings. But beware, there may also be a few... perils along with way. Sorry to keep this short but just sign here to show your agreement then return the E-mail to the sender.

____________________________________________________

Good luck, the benefactor.

John stared at the screen blankly, had someone found out he liked MyLittlePony? Was this some joke from his internet friends? Oh god what if it was a trick to name and shame bronies.... 'no that's just silly' he thought to himself. 'it must be someone from equestria daily trolling people or conducting a social experiment after looking up our e-mail addresses'.

But beware, there may also be a few... perils along with way

He briefly paused to reread part of the message and began to consider why anyone would insert a pause into an E-mail like that, was the guy trying to be ominous? Yea it had to be a joke.

He decided to humor it, if they were indeed collecting statistics on bronies fantasy urges to travel into a magical land filled with pastel cartoons then he might was well be honest, whether they were or not . He typed his World of Warcraft username on the page, then everything when black.