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Geliel needn't have worried about filly-murdering psychopaths, for she had a secret guardian- a super guardian?- no- a badass guardian, sticking to the shadows and watching everything. He'd noticed the girls not long after their voices began to ring, flute-like, through the system of tunnels and caverns. Zero knew the heart caves well- heck, he practically lived there.*

*(Except when he lived in the Throat. I mean technically he lived in the Throat most of all of the time. But the Throat didn't have nearly as good rocks as the cave did, and so he spent a lot of time in the caves, you see, and-

Ahem. Anyways.)

He'd noticed the girls a short way into their conversation, his slight head pulled from a very interesting rock by the word Galiel. Until that point the lightning child had tuned out these invaders in his cave, too interested was he in this particularly magnificent specimen of green opal. But Galiel was a word the boy had never heard before, and it was in his nature to be drawn to the new. Maybe it was an adventure! Zero grabbed up the shiny rock, shoving int into one of Squishy's many crevices, then pivoted quickly on spindly legs, taking care not to make too much noise.

It was rare that Zero got to be sneaky, really sneaky, but the plants in the glowing room had a talent for muting sound, and the girls didn't seem to have noticed him yet. With exaggerated caution the boy crept closer, every muscle tight and alert and quivering with hardly suppressed excitement. He could see them now, a unicorn mare and a pegasus filly even smaller than him. They were both so pretty (which was a new experience for Zero, noticing the prettiness of girls), especially the filly, and Zero felt an unfamiliar yet not unpleasant flush rising to his cheeks. Being a small and inexperienced boy, he quickly excused this sensation as your everyday excitement at making new friends- but it was definitely there, and he was definitely enthused.

The blue mare was talking about magic now, and Zekle leaned closer to listen. He might have gone on unnoticed forever, had it not been for a terrible clanging which certainly came from Squishy, and not from the boy tripping and banging his metal side against an outcropping of stone. Never one to be caught in a mistake, Zero spun to face his stone companion, an aghast expression on his boyish face. "Squishy! What're y'doin', spyin' on people?! You know that's not okay!"

Sunbeam eyes turned back to the girls, a sheepish grin spreading across the yearling's face. He bounded toward them, his cover blown, tailfeathers raised in an attempt to appear particularly dashing. "Sorry 'bout Squishy, he isn't so good with people." Behind its master the golem toddled up, emerald eyes expressionless in a copper face. The boy went on.

"Anyway, my name's Zero, an' I gots magic, an' that's how I made Squishy, so there's nothin' to be scared of, see?" This was addressed specifically to Galiel, and was accompanied with a flourish of his single wing for emphasis. The boy was boasting, but was he really boasting when it was true? Magic had never done anything bad to him.

He glanced at his shoulder.

Well, almost.

The metal on his side glowed eerily in the bio-luminescent light: the plate of it practically encompassed his left, though his right had yet to be consumed by the stuff. Zero's enthusiasm was infectious, his oblivion to the gravity of situations complete. He grinned his crooked grin and splayed his single wing, and dared the world to challenge his joy, because it was his, and he was gonna share it, and that was that!