The sound of heavy footsteps and the whirring of servos took their place against the silence as the sounds echoed down the vaulted ceilings of the hallway. The hallway was adequately wide and decently tall, as were many of the doors. Alex had no problem with catching his armor or bumping his head when he walked through them. That was an occasionally problem that happened with hallways in abandoned homes or offices back in the Capital Wasteland. He was a pretty big guy, even without his armor.
But mostly, over all things, everything was immaculately CLEAN. Besides the floor where Alex had tracked dirt in, anyways. The marble floors made his armor look absolutely filthy.
The walls were lined with carefully woven tapestries, brilliant oil paintings, smoothly cut statues, and the floor had a bright velvet carpet laid on the floor in the center of the hallway.
On his way to the castle he made sure to stay away from the city itself. When he got to what appeared to be the entrance to the castle - a thick wooden drawbridge over a moat that came from the waterfall coming off the mountain - there were no guards to meet him. The drawbridge was down, but the front gate was closed. It hadn't taken much effort to push it open in power armor, but it still raised questions.
The pegasi had flown away from the battle and back to the castle, but there were no reinforcements or resistance to meet Alex. Either it was very poorly planned, or - an immeasurably more likely plan - they wanted him to come in. So, with caution, he entered the looming pastel castle. There was nobody waiting for him in the spacious front hall and he hadn't been confronted since he started walking the castle's fancy halls, but he still kept his guard up.
Now, as he approached the large wooden door at the end of the hall, he checked his compass for any abnormalities. Of course, there was. Several markers had appeared on the compass, all pointing to possible hostiles behind the door. If Alex played his cards right, he would be able to do it right this time. It would be hard, but worth it.
The door was around twice his height - he would guess around 14 feet or so - and was fancily inlaid with gold trimmings and designs. However, the hinges appeared to be made of iron. With both his personal and amplified mechanical strength, Alex would have little trouble busting the door down if it would be called for.
In light of the new situation, he did what he thought to be the best thing to do.
He politely knocked on the large door.
He waited for several seconds and watched the ticks on his compass move around as small bit. The markers remained a small to medium size, telling Alex that they either couldn't or did not want to get close to the door. After about 30 seconds he knocked again. The ticks on the compass got no bigger than they already were.
"Alright then, guess I have to intrude." Alex said as he placed his hands against the oak of both doors and gave them a heavy push. Considering their probable weight, the doors gave surprisingly little resistance to his efforts. They swung open on oiled hinges without a sound and opened to reveal what was on the other side.
Well, that would be what would have happened if what was on the other side of the door hadn't momentarily blinded him in a flash. Inside the mechanics of his helmet, two pieces of heavily shaded pieces of glass dropped down over the visor in time to prevent total blinding, but some still got through in the .05 seconds it took for the helmet to register the bright light. Small spots of changing color were still left in Alex's vision, but he was mostly able to see through the dark glass, although somewhat faintly.
The room he was in now was even taller and wider than the hallway, the walls were lined with massive marble statues and pillars of large extravagance. The red carpet that laid on the floor led down the length of the hall to a large golden...
Wait, what was that large lattice mass flying towards Alex? Ah yes, he believed it to be a big net made from iron chains.
Alex shifted his whole body to the right and launched himself with all the power his overclocked leg servos would allow him without ripping themselves apart. He catapulted out of the path of the iron net and rolled on impact with the ground, chipping, cracking, and breaking some of the marble. The net landed with a tremendous crash that reverberated through the whole chamber, reaching the ears of about... seventy or so.
A golden layer of equine creatures blocked any further view of the room. They looked like the ones from the confrontation in the gardens, just more, plus a few additions. Some unicorns in black and red armor stood on the frontlines and two soldiers in reinforced golden plate stood by another tall equine like the one he saw in the gardens. However, this one seemed to be slightly taller with opposite colors. Possibly a more powerful variant or another princess.
The situation was quickly degrading already and if he didn't do something quick it would be another bloodbath.
"STOP THIS!" Alex shouted as loud as he could, activating his power helmet's voice amplified module. He had made it, but rarely used it, so it was a little dusty and it warped a small bit.
'I need to fix that.' He thought as the heard it himself, but the current situation always came first.
"You know, maybe I DON'T want to be attacked." Alex said with intentional sass. It was useful once in a while. "Maybe I want to talk and try to avoid conflict, but NOOOO, you just want to throw guards at me seeing if they can make a dent in my armor. Seriously, DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE IN THE GARDEN!? THAT WAS AN ABSOLUTE BLOODBATH!!" The warp was better now, but how long had it been since he had yelled that loud? Years? Jeez, the last time was...
"DAMN YOU MAXSON!!"
...The last time he had seen Maxson, that little bastard.
"Who are you and why are you here?" Said the tall white creature. Alex got a better look at her and saw she was dressed - if they can really dress - expensively. Gold and jewels all over. Alex took his power helmet off once more so he could talk more clearly that through the helm's amplifier.
"First of all, I would like to say the standards of hospitality here are terrible. I have yet to be offered a drink. Secondly, please keep your guards under control. I assume you know what happened when a few got a little too trigger-happy."
"You have yet to answer my question."
"Fine. I won't bother you with the full details at this moment, so just call me Alex. I am a human." Alex said with as much of a curtsy he could muster in the chunky suit while carrying a heavy weapon in one hand by the front handle and his helmet hanging in the other. Grace was not one of his strong suits.
"A human, you say." Said the tall white equine, her face having a thinking expression. She turned to a few of the others and talked in hushed voices.
Seriously, Alex knew what horses were, but can these even be classified as horses? Bodies too small with heads and eyes that were too big. What were they? Some form of mutation? Alex had already given up the notion that this was still the Capital Wasteland, so it's hard to believe such a beautiful place was filled to the brim with only mutants.
"Well... Alex... I hope you don't mind answering a few questions in a more... enclosed environment." Said the tall white horse thing.
"Like an interrogation room? I'm up for it." Alex said. He could tell the tall equine didn't expect him to be so blatant, but nonetheless she motioned some of the frontline unicorns over to Alex to lead him to wherever he was going.