I felt my surroundings before anything else.
As consciousness returned to me, the softness beneath me bearing my weight was the first feeling to make itself known, and it wasn't something I was comfortable with. Having slept in gutters and on cobblestone paths all my life, the giving softness was foreign and the first sign that something was wrong, even if I wasn't fully awake yet. As my mental faculties returned to me, I began noticing other things. It started with something soft covering me, some sort of blanket that rubbed against my coat in time with my breathing.
The first thing I made sure to note was that I wasn't dead, dead ponies don't breathe. The next was that although my eyelids were closed I could tell there was some sort of bright light shining onto them, and a warm feeling on my face. Sunlight, I figured it was, which raised the question: if I'm in the sun, then where am I? I wasn't in Dark Canterlot, there was no sunlight there on even the brightest of days, and the softness beneath me seemed to be consistent, so it wasn't an especially soft patch of grass or mud. I slowly got my bearings as all my remaining senses returned to me; soft, muted voices, loud but distant birdsong, a breeze ruffling fabric.
I slowly opened one eye, to immediate regret. The picture I saw before me was relatively plain: a mattress, blanket, two visible walls, a ceiling, and an open window. I was inside someone's house, one of the few places I didn't want to be. Living on the streets you realise that you don't mess around with others unless you're looking to stir up trouble, and those who cause trouble disappear. I'd done my best to stay out of the way, but waking to find myself in someone else's bed was about as alarming a thing as I'd ever experienced outside of immediately life-threatening situations. I kept my eyes shut and hoped that I was seeing things, waiting in silence for something to change. Each time a set of hooves walked down the corridor outside I could feel the anticipation, only for it to dissipate as they continued on.
Time passed especially slowly as I lay there, trying to not let myself fall back asleep. I'd forgotten what it was like to have the sun on my face, and it's warmth was more inviting than I cared to admit. Somepony eventually saved me from the brink of sleep when they entered the room. I heard their hooves on the tiled floor as they made their way around the bed behind me. There was a few taps, and some scribbling before they grew apparently disinterested and left.
Turning to face my unseen visitor's interest, I found some poles, hanging bags, tubes, and some sort of boxed with lights, graphs, and numbers on it. I'd seen these sorts of setups in books, they were meant to be in hospitals. My mind raced as I analysed the situation anew. Hospitals didn't work for free, even I knew that. Why was I in a hospital, had somepony brought me here? Did they treat me... which injuries? I didn't have anything to pay with, much less hospital bill amounts... though that would depend on what they had--
I should have noticed it sooner, but having lived with pain for so long I just grew numb to it, so I hadn't realised at first but now I was sure. There wasn't any pain coming from anywhere. I quickly went through my body, checking my limbs and muscles by giving them a few brief flexes. Forelegs, back legs, chest, back, neck, hooves, flank, shoulders, jaw... most of them weren't causing me any pain, even as I tried to bring it forth doing everything I knew caused the agony to flare up.
My inner musings were disrupted by another set of hooves coming down the hallway that stopped to open the door to my room. I attempted to return to my previous position as best I could without ruffling the sheets too much to prevent the noise from reaching the entrants. There were two sets of hooves this time, one much louder than the other, carrying much more weight, and with a longer stride judging by the gait, presumably larger than the other one.
There was some whispering shared between the two that I couldn't make out- both of them too far away for me to hear clearly. The larger one moved closer, coming to a stop beside the bed, though I couldn't tell which side. There was a weight on the blanket, as though somepony placed their hoof upon it.
"Are you awake, little one?"
The voice was soft, feminine, and held a certain grace to it, nothing at all like anything I could have expected, not that I knew what to expect. It didn't sound like it could become aggressive or be malicious in nature, and my instincts weren't being set off, though a deep-seated, uncomfortable, fuzzy feeling began to grow in the pit of my stomach. The hoof was taken off the blanket and moved, as the voice went to speak again. Before the first syllable came from their mouth I felt the increasing pressure on the blanket over my shoulder, indicating the touch of their incoming hoof, and reacted with all the vigilance I could muster.
I recoiled and twisted under the sheets into a better position before making my plans known as I dashed from under the covers at the end of the bed for the door, pivoting to the side before I bolted down the corridor. This place wasn't one I knew, it wasn't one I was comfortable with, and as far as I was concerned, that was good enough reason for me to leave as fast as I could. Exclamations from the room came from behind me as I barrelled onwards, unsure of my destination.
I could hear both of the ponies that had been with me following after, the larger one clearly in pursuit with an increased gait and likely gaining on me. I skidded on the tile floor as I came to a stop in front of a corridor on my right, leaping through the center of a cart being pushed around by a pony I left behind too quick to identify. Several ponies in the hall let out a small shriek as I passed them by, going to make a left turn into another hallway as one of my back legs gave out, causing be to slip before picking myself up and thundering on despite the pain. I saw a set of doors at the end of the hall. Either they'd lead me out and I'd have to run for my life in the open, or I continue this in the maze of rooms within the hospital and potentially be caught at a dead-end.
Outside it is.
I barged through the door shoulder first as I ran outside, quickly taking in the semi-circle grassy courtyard. I continued down the path I was on, before realising I'd made one monumental miscalculation; an error in judgement that lead to me skidding to a halt right in front of the railing I had until now entirely missed. I peeked over the edge... the fall wasn't guaranteed to be fatal, but it'd certainly cost me a few broken bones. My time was up, however, as the doors slammed open again behind me. I turned to face my pursuer, a great white winged unicorn more than twice my height with a pastel mane and tail too long to be of any sort of convenience. She came to a stop some distance from me, studying me with her cool magenta eyes. Several other hospital staff followed her out of the building a few moments later.
"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."
Her eyes weren't wild, as if my sprint for the exit was just an afternoon jog. Her breathing was slightly heavier, but not laboured, and she controlled her vocal mannerisms well for someone who'd just done a 100-yard dash. Probably somepony with a noble background, family, or ties. Not someone to mess with.
"My name is Celestia, what's yours?"
She was obviously trying to open some sort of dialogue, but I kept my mouth metaphorically shut. I wasn't the type of pony to share my life story the moment a chance for conversation came up, and my heavy breaths prevented me from literally keeping my mouth shut. She took a step closer, and I took one back. Worst case scenario, I make a jump for it and hope those wings on her back were just for show.
"Easy, easy... I'm not here to hurt you, I just want to help."
My move for the edge had triggered a reaction in everyone before me, and although she hid it well I noticed the tensing of her wings when I took a step back. Looks like the wings are real; so much for that plan.
She took another step towards me, and I was finding myself without much of an alternative. Couldn't go forward or the hospital goons would catch me, couldn't go sideways or they'd just tighten the noose, and backwards was a no-go with the big white pony around. Another few tentative steps and she was right in front of me.
"Come here," she said as she wrapped a wing around me, moving to stand at my side and sitting beside me, "come here... "
The hospital staff seemed relieved that the situation was resolved and some started moving away.
"There we go. I'm not going to hurt you, see? ... It's a bit cold out here; how about we get you a warm blanket?"
She nodded gently towards one of the nurses who presumably left to fetch the blanket. Now that the adrenaline was wearing thin I began noticing the chill in the air, not that I was really noticing it with the white unicorn's wing around me, as soft and warm as it was, like receiving a warm hug made of sunlight. Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a few moments...