Brian jiggled the key to his dorm room, the door fighting back again. He sighed and ran a hand through his shaggy blonde hair. This was the third time in as many days that the lock refused to budge without coaxing. Maintenance had been informed, of course, but wouldn't be around to fix until "a non-committal shrug" of time had passed. He lifted the handle, twisted the key to the left, then back to the right, and the door unlocked, his key snapping in the process.
"Just... Why? Why do you hate fun, door?" he asked the object as he pushed the handle down and pushed the door open fully, only to pause in confusion. The floor was gone, a yawning black void replacing it. His things were also gone, presumably consumed by the void that his floor had become. All of this was processed in his brain in the 0.68 seconds before the pressure differential pushed him over the threshold and into the void.
The next thing Brian's brain could process was intense pain and confusion, a brief period of clarity where he saw too-bright roses and glossy leaves crushed underneath the remains of his once passably-comfortable bed. A shape moved towards him and covered him in shadow, to which he apologized around missing teeth and a broken jaw, "Sorry about the roses."
Of course, what actually came out of his mouth was blood and incoherent gurgling. There were of course the broken bones to consider, the brain damage, and of course, the brain damage. After that, his body and brain shut down all but emergency services and he passed into the realm of the nearly dead.
Whispers haunted him as he struggled through the blackness. Time passed in fits and starts, moments seeming like centuries sometimes as the young man clawed his way back to the world of the living. His addled mind conjured daemons and visions alike. Eventually the whispers turned to muffled voices. Terse statements, questions, explanations, and then nothing again for what seemed like ages.
Finally, he managed to hear something clearly for the first time in what felt like several millennia, "I think it's coming around," a male voice said quietly.
"Is the translator spell in place? Can it understand us?" came a regal, feminine voice that hid excitement and wonder behind calm royal demeanor.
"The spell has been in place since its brain waves became more active a week ago. I'm still amazed it survived its injuries," the male replied, sheets of paper ruffling, "Most of its bones broken, bleeding in the brain, punctured internal organs... If its arrival had not included anatomy books, there would have been nothing I could do."
Obviously the male was a doctor of some sort but the words still confused Brian. He tried to open his eyes but found only further blackness. Reflexively he twitched his fingers and groaned as the sensation of pain returned to him. It had been something that, in his coma, he was blissfully ignorant of. As his body realized that the brain was awake again, it began to send signals once more, all of them pain and worry.
He tried to make noises of distress but his throat was dry and he couldn't move his jaw. The pain proved too much and he lapsed back into unconsciousness as the doctor began to fret. He caught snippets of a discussion on pain relief before all returned to quiet.
He was unsure of how much time had passed before he next experienced what he could of the waking world. This time, there was far less pain, and again, those same two voices.
"Its coming around again. I've upped the dosage of the pain medication, he should be lucid enough though."
This time, he found himself able to form words, "W-where am I?"
The queen, as she'd been dubbed by his mind, replied, "You're in a hospital. You were severely injured in an... incident."
"Thirsty..." was all he managed to get out. Moments later he found a straw at his lips, which he sucked on greedily. Cool, shockingly delicious water, entered his mouth and he swallowed as much as he could before it was pulled away.
"Easy, too much might make you sick," said the male voice.
"Wh-what happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us," the woman said, "I'd like to have Doctor Sable remove the bandages around your head, would that be okay?"
Brian tried to nod, but his neck spiked with pain so he settled for a whispered yes. In preparation, he closed his eyes against the impending light.
He felt the bandages being removed slowly, and the light began to filter through his eyelids. There were many layers of gauze cradling his head and he must have been drugged heavily because he never felt hands grasping the substance or lowering his head carefully back to the pillow after raising it to undo the wrappings.
He slowly opened his eyes. The light above him blindingly bright and what seemed to be a second radiance to his right where the female voice was coming from. Gradually, the room he was in came into focus, his eyes adjusting to the glare from the illumination around him.
He could see the ceiling and at the periphery of his vision, sets of medical monitoring equipment. He wondered if it was a trick of the light, his head injury, or the pain medication that made everything look brightly colored and almost like a cartoon. Brian giggled a little at that as the other two occupants of the room moved into his field of view. To his left, a small, brown coated pony with a horn on its forehead and short cropped blue mane with grey eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses. To his right, a radiant goddess who seemed to glow with the light of the sun itself, only muted so as not to incinerate a mere mortal such as himself. Her rainbow mane flowed in some invisible wind and she bore a longer horn than the pony to his left as well as a pair of wings held tightly to her side.
The human tried to smile, but given how chapped his lips were, it hurt a bit to even smirk, "These are some really good pain killers, Doc. I'm seeing pastel unicorns with wings."
The two glanced at each other and the Doctor raised an eyebrow.
"I can assure, that is how I really look. My name is Princess Celestia of Equestria."
"Oh cool, I guess that void lead somewhere new. My name is Brian. I'd shake your hand but I can't move."
"You were severely injured in your... fall," the brown pony said, "If it hadn't been for the books that fell with you, I don't think we could have saved you."
"Well at least my biology textbook was useful to somebody... I'm going to pass out now..." Brian said, a wave of exhaustion sweeping over him like a tsunami as he fell asleep once more.