The Royal Wonder

She was in. Part of her wanted to jump out of her skin and high-tail it out of that place. The other part of her was willing, able and even anxious to carry on with the master plan of getting a photo shoot, come hell or high water. Judging by the tides that day at the beach, the high water part seemed rather plausible, even likely to happen. Sera just needed to get on a swimsuit and get in line. She didn’t know if there were any protocols in place for this sort of thing, but she was going to risk it. As she walked by the rooms, there were all sorts of shoots going on. Some of them were in front of green screens, some of them were in front of logos and some of them were in entire groups of supermodels all dressed the same way. Here she thought people were out to lunch.

Along the way down the hall, though, there came a creeping suspicion that she was being watched. The hoof steps behind her were a serious indication that she could have been watched at that moment. The fact that someone said “Ummm, excuse me?” right behind her was another very clear sign that she could have been watched at that moment. These all had some very damning evidence to that idea, but she gave herself the benefit of the doubt that it was just nerves.

“Ma’am?” The lady behind her said in a bit higher tone of voice, making her pop around immediately, stopped in place right in front of a gray earth pony with dark red eyes. The two were now face to face with one another. Sera found herself in front of a green and black haired mare who had some very impressively large tits that nearly touched her own with how close they were. They stood there in a very awkward momentary pause. The gray pony’s eyes were wide open with pursed lips while Sera’s face was bright and shiny with a smile.

“Yes?” She asked, tilting her head a bit. “Could you tell me where the beach shoots are being held and where I could get my swimsuit?” Right off the top of her head, it all just seemed to make sense to ask these questions. To her astonishment, this made the gray pony smile.

“Oh, I thought so. Yeah, that’s where I’m headed. It’s right this way.” She motioned down the hall, toward the Beach Set exit. “I’m Raven Cry, it’s nice to meet you!” Raven said with a bright smile.

“Hi, I’m…” She thought for a moment, “Angel Bright, I’m supposed to be meeting them for some sort of group shoot?” This all just rolled off of her tongue as an educated guess.

“Are there group shoots today? Man, they’re packing our schedule with this stuff, aren’t they? I’m just supposed to be here for the doubles and the surfboards. What have they got you doing?” Raven said as she led them into a changing room that had entire clothing racks full of bathing suits of every color, shape and size.

“I’m a little foggy on the details.” Sera said, or should she say, Angel. “I’m just going wherever they tell me at this point and putting on a sexy smile!” She said as she looked over the bathing suits. “Did they tell you which ones were ours?”

“As far as I’m concerned, if it’s not on a body, it’s up for grabs. I don’t know what all they want us to wear, but I know I’m going for the slingkinis because I want the good payouts.” Raven closed the door behind them and immediately dropped her backpack to the ground, starting to remove her shirt and shorts. She wore no underwear and both of her blackish gray nipples had big metal studs sticking out of them. Raven found whatever tiny bikini she could and started sizing them up. It was then that Sera saw that her body was covered in what looked like surgical scars, mixed in with stitching, but something looked a little off about them.

Raven suddenly stopped and looked over at Sera, “You liking the view from there? It’s the tats, right?” The gray pony giggled a little bit. “It’s either the tats or the tits or both. I know, a little unconventional, but I already had a fanbase that voted me into this place. So, they knew what they were getting.”

“Those are tattoos?” Sera asked as she stepped up to her and Raven’s red eyes smiled at her. “They look amazing. Are you supposed to be a zombie?”

“That’s the idea. Don’t be shy.” She held up her hip toward Sera and she ran her hand over the gray fur over her rump and her thigh. The tattoos were old enough to be worked into the fur and felt like the rest of her body. “Oh, your hands are as soft as my ass. Do you give massages?”

“I would for you.” Sera admitted, making Raven burst out laughing as she started to tie on a yellow bikini thong. “I may take you up on that.”

Sera was next to get undressed. “Well, if you think you’re a little unconventional, check these out.” The princess figured if she was so nice as to share her unique body, she could only return the favor. Raven did a double take when she saw them, her jaw going as low as it would go and her eyes widening to their utmost.

“Wait… what?” Raven stopped where she was, not even covering up her large rack before she got an eyeful of what looked like two wings on Sera’s hips. “What?” She repeated, looking up at her. “You’re…” The earth pony was trying to put all of this together.

That’s when Sera put her finger to her lips and gave her a tiny little shush. Then she put her hands on both of her wings and rubbed them lightly, using her glowing hands to make them disappear. “I’m Seraphine, but call me Angel Bright.”

Raven’s mouth gaped. She gawked for a moment before putting her hand on her mouth. “Oh, my dear sweet mother! You’re--” She saw Sera hold up both hands to stop her and then did the shushing movement again. Then Raven let out a tiny whisper. “You’re the princess?” When Sera shrugged and nodded, she let out a large breath. “You literally just got here this morning, how? Why?”

“Well, I heard Silvia was here and I wanted to become a model. So, I just snuck in…” When Raven’s jaw hit the floor, she gave a small giggle and bit her lower lip. “I just kinda… you know…” Then she held up the security card that was clearly not hers. “Stole this?”

Raven flatlined.

After a bit of panic and some crying, the two of them walked out of the dressing room and saw that they were not the only ones in the hallway anymore. There were a group of models heading out the doors toward the beachfront. Stallions and mares alike hit the sands where there were several modeling stations set up on some of the more scenic pieces of the shore.

“So, you already had a fanbase before you started modeling here?” She asked Raven, who nodded with a wink and a smile. They exited the building and the sun was up over the horizon for at least five more hours, giving them plenty of time to shoot in the daylight. The winds smelled salty sweet and the rays felt like heaven against her scantily clad fur. The sounds of the waves crashing against the shore were heavenly and the yelling of the photographers at their models got in the way a little bit. Still, it was beautiful!

“Yeah, I was an internet model for almost five years and I had around two hundred thousand fans world wide. It helped that I play a lot of Dragon Helm. The nerd community tends to go a little gaga over nerd girls who can whip their asses in an MMO.” Raven bragged a little bit, drawing an astonished look from Sera. This made her cock an eyebrow. “You do know that you have a fanbase of at least a million, right? Ever since you were announced as…” Raven looked around to make sure none of the models heard her. “You know, the lady in charge?”

“Well, that’s different.” Sera said, looking off to the side, remembering the ridiculous amounts of reporters who met her on the runway. “And what is Dragon Helm? Is that a board game?”

“Okay, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” Raven admitted more to herself than Sera. “I’ll explain later. Right now, we need to find a place where you can be seen.” Raven said as she wore her banana colored slingkini and Sera wore a white two piece triangle top with gold trims. “Alright, I’m supposed to be over there.” She pointed down the beachfront, where there were innumerable cameras shooting and models waiting for their turns. “I can try and sneak you in there, but it’ll be a long wait because you won’t have a number.”

“Yeah, well, I said I was going to do this and I’ve come this far, haven’t I?” She said as she caught sight of those beautiful waves in the distance.

Then she caught sight of something else as well. There was a stallion holding up a large black surfboard while standing in the shallow part of the ocean shore. The water came up to his ankles when the waves went away, and they were up to his hips when the waves came in. He was standing there, looking around with a disappointed look on his face. He was a pale yellow color and his hair was longish, ragged and red. The stallion was built like you would expect from a lifeguard that worked out for most of his life. Even his blue, tropical flowers on his swim trunks were beautiful.

The camera crew around him also looked somewhat distressed as they looked around. The ones who held up the screens and the two camera men were trying to call out for someone.

“What about him?” Sera nodded over toward him. “It looks like he’s waiting for someone.” She said and Raven did a double take. “Maybe I should go over there?”

“Are you crazy? That’s Machismo! He’s--” She looked around for a moment, then remembered who she was talking to. “He’s not the kind of guy you want to get too close to. If you go over there, I-- well…” Raven bonked the bottom of her palm against her forehead. “Yes, go. He’s obviously doing a duet.”

“Really? You think I should?” Sera asked and Raven nodded vigorously.

“If you don’t do it, I’ll go over there and do it because it’s obvious a model didn’t show up. So go!” She motioned for her to hurry. “Now is your chance.”

Sera took a deep breath and steeled herself. Her nerves were still jumping like pogo sticks, but she had to do something or she wasn’t going to do anything. Then she turned and smiled at Raven, grabbing both of her hands. “Thank you for your help. You don’t know what this means to me.”

“Hey, don’t think this is free. I want every single detail of everything he says to you and I want you to promise you will invite me over to your house. Got it?” Raven said as she motioned for Sera to hurry. “You’ve got my number, call me!”

“Oh, you can live in my house for all I care!” Sera started to run, her hooves making light prints in the sand as she went over to where the camera workers and crew were ankle deep in the water with their male model. “Ummm! Hi!” She waved to all of them and every single one of them seemed to let out an exasperated sigh of relief.

“There you are!” The camera guy said and signaled for the other camera guy to come over. “Where have you been? You’re our girl, right?”

“She couldn’t make it, actually, I’m the second string!” Sera said as she gave her bag over to an assistant. “I’m Angel Bright.” She said with a smile.

“You’re kidding me.” The second camera guy said as he came over. “You mean the higher ups actually did something for us? It’s like our birthdays came early!” He motioned over toward Machismo. “Let’s go!”

So, Sera had never met a male model. From what she heard, this sort of stallion was either after money or whatever was between her legs. She couldn’t worry about that, though. She was just there to become a model and be beautiful and perky. This was her time to shine, not the princess, but a woman with her own goals!

“Suuuuup?” The stallion said in a very smooth, laid back tone as she approached. He picked the surfboard up and held it diagonally at his side. It was black with a large blue swirl on the end of it. “Glad you could make it.” Machismo said, smiling in a surprisingly genuine way. “You new here? Don’t think we’ve met.”

“I’m uuhh… Seraphine. Nice to meet you.” She said with a small smile. As he took her hand and they did a pose. Her hand on his chest and he guided her other hand to his arm, grinning down toward her as the cameras started shooting. The white screeners kept the light even on them as the camera men kept moving around them.

“Machismo, the pleasure’s mine. Friends call me Mac.” He said as he guided her into another pose, like a romance novel where he had a serious look on his face and she had a worried, almost longing look on hers. “You look kinda familiar. We met?”

“Oh, uh, no. Not that I know of. I think I’d recognize you.” She said and this drew a little chuckle from him.

“Kinda surprised you don’t recognize me. But that’s a good thing.” He chuckled a little harder then as they went through the motions and the camera men gave them direction. “How long you been modeling?”

“Oh, about two minutes now.” Sera smiled a little. This drew a big laugh from him.

“Alright, you’re winning some serious brownie points here. I’ve been around the block a few times, so just follow my lead. I’m guessing they didn’t hire you without experience.” Machismo’s bemused expression never left his face. “So, I’m guessing that means--”

“They didn’t hire me.” She had a small smile on her face with a nervous giggle and a reddening face.

“Hey, chin up.” Mac said with a more articulate voice, like he was instructing a pupil. “Face clear, think of the sunset.” He said, allowing her to take a small breath and clear her mind of hindrances. “Very good. You’re a natural. Where you from?”

“Oh, I just got out of…” The thought of saying she was in an aristocratic magic school may have been a bit much for such a conversation. “Boarding school. I’m just here trying to get my start.”

“Right, your start. That sounds good.” Machismo said as he stuck his board into the water and dipped her as if they were dancing. “I guess I’ve been trying to do the same thing.” He admitted.

“Well, that’s good. I’m glad we could help each other out.” Sera looked toward the cameramen before Mac tapped the side of her chin to make the alicorn-in-disguise face him again.

“Don’t look at the cameras until they tell you to. One little look out of line and they tend to get uncool.” He said as their faces were so close together. “I promise, I’ll keep your secret.”

“Thanks, if they found out I snuck in here like this, I’d probably get arrested.” She whispered to him and he pursed his lips a bit, doubtful.

“Nah, slap on the wrist at best. Your highness.” He said with a bit of a snicker. At this point, her eyes widened big time.

“Straighten the face!” One cameraman said, making her blink back to concentration. There were a few more pictures before they finally stood up straight. “And that’s break! Just wait for a moment while we look over the footage.”

“No problemo, Mr. Camera guy.” Machismo stood up straight and let her back on her hooves.

“How did you know?” She said as the waves came back in and the water started to rise up to their thighs.

“I’m pretty sure everyone knows Princess Seraphine at this point. My Hornhoof page’s been blowing up with pictures of you. Kinda surprised the cameramen haven’t noticed.” He looked around toward them as they were under a shaded tent, looking at a computer screen as they went through the pictures.

“Am I really that conspicuous?” She asked, starting to get visibly nervous. Sera looked around and made sure no one was staring at her.

“Babe,” He looked at her for a minute then shook his head. “I mean, your highness… or…”

“Babe is fine.” She smiled sweetly at him, making him laugh a bit.

“Babe, look out there.” He directed her attention to the waves as they were going out, making the water level go down to their ankles. “You gotta be like those waves. They don’t care who stares at them, they seem to like it, even. No one expects more of them than what they like to do. So they keep doing it.” Machismo stared at those waves for a bit. “See? I’m gazing into the waves and there they keep going.”

“Is this a long winded way of telling me to go with the flow?” Sera said, causing him to burst out with a bit of a laugh.

“Yeah, you see? You catch on quick, your royal babeness.” Mac said, then he looked over toward the building as a brigade of security guards came out, along with the desk clerk who looked a little more than flustered. Obviously, she’d found out that her card was gone and was a little less than forthcoming about how she had lost it. “Oh, right, I guess that makes sense.” Machismo caught onto the situation quicker than she could have possibly explained it.

“Oh, well, I guess this is where we need to part ways. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Ma--” He interrupted her by taking her hand and pulling her close.

“Hey, I told you you could come on set and take pictures with me. If they want to kick my girlfriend off this set, then they’re kicking me off this set.” Machismo said, making her cock an eyebrow in confusion. This also made the cameramen look up at him in some confusion. “That’s right, if they ask, this is my girlfriend and she has my permission to be here.”

“Ummm…” One cameraman looked at the other, who shrugged. “Okay.”

“Wait a minute!” The front counter clerk lady pointed over toward Sera, her eyes narrowing. “That pony over there!”

This made both Mac’s and her eyes widen, big time. “Ummm, did she see you sneak in?” He whispered to her and she shook her head, not understanding fully.

“That’s Princess Seraphine!” The clerk shouted and all of the security guards widened their eyes as well.

“Whoooaaaa…” Machismo said, clearing his throat. “You better hop on my board.” He said as he pulled it out and every single camera in the tristate area started to come toward their photo site. He jumped onto the board and she joined him on the gigantic thing as he got onto his gut and started paddling with his hands out toward the sea.

“Hey! Wait! Sera!” One voice shouted out toward her that she recognized. Before the assistant could take her bag, knowing it was hers, Raven slapped him across the face and took it from him with a mean look in her eyes. Then she hurried toward her with it raised upward. “Sera! I can get this back to you!”

That’s when the princess smiled toward her friend and reached her hand out as it began to glow. The crowd stopped as he got too far out toward the ocean, but Raven kept going, allowing the bag to float out of her hand and toward the princess. The glowing bag made it back to Sera’s hand and she waved to Raven, who eagerly waved back and motioned for her to call her.

“Hey! Do you know the princess?” One of the other models asked and all of the other people turned to the gray earth pony, who stared blankly at them.

“Oh, why yes I do!” Raven smiled sweetly toward all of them. “Who wants an exclusive?” She worked the slingkini into its sexiest state as she posed as all of the cameras started to flash.

Seraphine watched as the shore started to become smaller and other surfers started to think about giving chase, but obviously thought otherwise.

“Damn, babe, you got some fans.” Machismo said as he now sat on the surfboard with which they both floated. He sat his rump in the middle to make sure his weight difference didn’t tip them. The board was very big and sturdy, though. His legs dangled into the water as they floated with the ocean’s surface. “I am so totally keeping this board. It’s only for the shoot but now it’s like my spirit guardian, you know?” He said as he put his hand on the large blue swirl symbol at the top.

“It’s mine too, for sure.” Sera agreed as she looked over at him. “Thank you for helping me back there. You didn’t need to. Like you said, they probably would have just let me go.”

“Not before getting pieces of your bathing suit as a token of their gratitude. People ain’t too smart in big groups like that.” He sad as he felt the tides lift the board more. He thought he’d gone farther out to the ocean than the waves, but obviously he underestimated them. “Hang on, Seraphine babe.” He stood up on the board and got to the edge of the wave as he directed his board along it. Machismo knew he had to calculate riding this wave with her added weight in mind, so he had to make sure he didn’t go too fast or push the board too hard. The surfboard was sturdy, though and he took off with it with no hindrance.

She did hang on at that point. Her hands clutched both sides of the surfboard as the yellow earth pony held it down with his foot directly in the center of the blue swirl and effortlessly traveled across an arching swell of water. She watched as the sun reflected off the sea and he had no problems or worries when it came to guiding the board across the tides. Her heart fluttered as they moved and she even gave a tiny yelp as the wave got bigger, only to be riding its peak.

He rode the water as the wave propelled him farther away from the way they came, going into a privately owned part of the beach. He decided that they were a little too close to shore to be handling the rapid waves, so Machismo got to the shallow shore with his board and stepped one hoof off. He held up his hand to her and bowed a bit.

“Milady?” He said in his cool surfer tone. Her heart was beating at a mile a minute at that point. She took his hand and stepped off into the water covered shore. “Well, looks like my shoot is done. You got a ride home?”

“Ummm, well uuhhh, no!” She said suddenly, making his eyebrow raise a bit. She grabbed onto his other bicep as she steadied herself. Disoriented, she seemed to check the ground under the water to make sure it wasn’t moving. That was when she looked at him, squeezing his muscle and blushing some as it did not give way at all. “I actually took a rent-a-driver here.”

“Oh, killer, we can head back in my car.” He said as he started to walk toward the beach with her.

“So, uuhhh,” He flicked up his sunglasses as he looked at her palace of a mansion. He drove his jeep to the very long driveway as the gate opened for her entry card. All the while, he was counting how many windows and acres she had to her name. “You got a jumbo jet too?”

“No, I usually have one rented out to me if I need to fly somewhere.” She said, then remembered her wings as he parked his car in one of the numerous spots. “I’m supposed to be getting two cars pretty soon.”

“Not gonna lie, this is quite a pad.” He turned off the car and got out as he looked up all three stories of the so-called “house”. Then he looked at her as she exited his jeep. All the sudden, she had wings. Thinking about this from a guy’s perspective: Meeting a girl with whom you think is a unicorn turns out to be an alicorn. Not just any alicorn, but an alicorn with wings on her hips rather than her back like a normal princess. Some guys would consider this a defect, or a black smudge on an otherwise beautiful painting.

Seraphine wasn’t sure what his reaction was. Those first few seconds of a wide-eyed look with pursed lips as he took off his shades and placed them on top of his red mane. Her first thought was that she was about to scare off the first stallion she had had any real contact with and even brought to her own house to “hang out.” Now, he was going to act like he had another appointment to get to or that he just forgot about another photo shoot or something stupidly mundane like that.

“Dude, if I had wings on my legs like that, I would so be able to steer my board like a total boss. You need to learn how to surf now.” He said, patting the surfboard he put on his large yellow jeep as if he was willing and eager to conquer the task of teaching her. “Rad.” He said as he looked up at the house again, taken aback by how huge it looked up close.

The result of her entire life’s self conscious nature due to an odd placement of appendages was relegated down to the dubious ability to guide a surfboard. Sera had no idea how to take this, nor did she really want to dwell on such a thought for very long.

She shook her head and followed him toward the house, getting her key from her possessions bag and was going to unlock the front door, but it was already unlocked. She furrowed her brow, knowing she had locked the door when she left to get the rent-a-driver. She gave Machismo a strange look, making him raise his eyebrow. She cautiously opened her door and looked around the front hall.

“You hear that?” Machismo asked before Seraphine perked her equine ears up. She did hear something. It was coming from the left hallway, in one of the guest bedrooms she probably was never going to use for its intended purpose. They made their way through the hallway quickly and she saw something she didn’t think she’d ever see. Mac pressed his fist into his hand, cracking his knuckles as if he were mentally preparing to pound someone’s face in. Seeing him go into battle mode was something of a point of interest for her.

He startled her as he opened the door on the fly. What they both saw took them all by surprise.

There was a white stallion on top of the bed. His armor was taken off and put on the other side of the room, along with a similar suit of armor. In front of him, there was a beautiful gray bat pony with fire orangish red hair. Her big pink nipples rubbed against the bed’s comforter as his huge pink cock stretched her hot pussy from the inside. He slammed his balls against her crotch while she moaned into the top of the bed to muffle herself.

The white unicorn stallion and bat pony stopped what they were doing immediately as Machismo barged in. Seraphine’s face flushed all the way red as Machismo’s eyebrows raised.

“Whoa, you ain’t got your own pad to do this in?” Mac asked as he looked from them to their suits of armor. “You from the renaissance fair?”

“Ummmm, Mac?” Sera said as the two stunned, embarrassed ponies turned their gazes to her with reddening faces. “I think these two are my royal guards.”

“Well, yes, yes we are.” The white stallion scratched the back of his mane, his cock still thoroughly lodged into the bat pony’s dripping quim. “I can explain.” He chuckled with an extreme guilty nervousness.

“Hi.” She said from the doggystyle position, smiling. “My name’s Grem. It’s spelled with an ‘e’.”