"Alright, Marine," Cyber began. "I think I got your legs worked out, but as for how you will breathe... that's another story."
Marine looked at him in disbelief. "You mean this was all for nothing?"
"No, no, it's not that, I just need to take into account how you will be able to breathe and eat food without it getting soggy, where are your gills?"
Marine shrugged. "Can't Twilight cast a spell to have me breathe air or something?"
"Well, I asked her, she said that there is a spell that can grant a pony the ability to breathe underwater, but the other way around... I don't know if such spell exists, so unless I find out where your gills are, all I have are your legs, but on the bright side I modified them to fold up so you could easily switch from land to sea mode at will."
Marine gave a disinterested look as she sulked to the bottom of her tank. "That's not very helpful if I'm going to be stuck here."
"I know you're upset, but there isn't much I can do right now. I've already contacted Lyra so we just need to wait for her to get here."
"In fact, she's here now," Clockwork said as the door opened and the sea foam green unicorn stepped in.
"Sorry I'm a bit late, my lyre strings just suddenly broke and I had to replace them."
"You must have met Laa-Mohr, he's our new member and a bit of a jinx. But don't worry about him, I would like you to meet my new friend and Misfit minor member, Marine."
Lyra looked at Marine, who waved. "What are you?" Lyra asked.
Marine smiled. "I'm a hippocampus."
"And she wants to walk?"
Clockwork nodded. "Yes, but she can't breathe air. That is where you come in." Lyra nodded with understanding.
"I see, so you want to make a way to have Marine breathe?" Cyber nodded. "Where are her gills?"
Cyber shrugged. "We don't know, I tried running scans but I got nothing."
Lyra thought. "Hmm... maybe you're thinking is too narrow?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you're focused on her gills when maybe it's more conditional?" Lyra turned toward Marine "How far above water can you go and still breathe?"
Marine went silent as she thought. Eventually she just started rising out of her tank until she stopped about halfway. "About this much," she said, letting Cyber, Lyra, and Clockwork think.
Cyber snapped his fingers. "I got it!" he exclaimed as he pulled put some blueprints and began to sketch out the idea, which was a pair of robotic legs that were activated through tail movements, they were full of water and had a built in filter and pump with tubes that were also full of water that extended up the hippocampus' body and wrapped around her neck.
"That may actually work!" Clockwork said.
"Ooh, this is exciting!" Lyra agreed.
"I'm going to be able to breathe and walk on land!" Marine could hardly contain herself.
"This is so exciting!" Pinkie said, by now, nopony was screaming anymore, but still surprised by her sudden and unexplained appearance.
"Seriously, how did you get past my security system?" Cyber asked.
"You left the door unlocked," Pinkie said.
Clockwork was confused. "But that door can't be-" he was interrupted by Pinkie running up to Marine.
"Ooh! Are you some kind of mer-pony?"
Marine giggled. "No, I'm a hippocampus."
"Oh, why are you in this tank?" Pinkie asked as she tapped on the glass. The sound made Marine grimace as she held the sides of her head in pain.
"Aaah! Don't do that!"
Pinkie stepped back from the tank, giving an apologetic smile. "Sorry."
"It's alright, and I can't breathe outside of water."
"Hm, so I guess you're the one for the ocean styled cake, Marine. Then that means the other cake is for Laa-Mohr! Yay! I gotta get ready, the party should be ready very soon!"
Marine was confused. "Wait a minute, I never told you my name before," she tried to say but Pinkie didn't listen.
"Don't question her, she's unpredictable," Cyber said. "Pinkie, could you tell Fang to meet us in the Everfree forest by a lake, he'll want to be there to see Marine take her first steps."
"Okey, dokey, lokey!" Pinkie said before she bounced away while Cyber, Lyra, and Clockwork began working on Marine's legs.
The rest of The Misfits continued Laa-Mohr's tour around Ponyville. Already Moonlight and Pixel joined the group.
"And that's the spot where Dusty and I like to punch diamond dogs during our free time," Fang said to Laa-Mohr.
"Diamond dogs?" asked Eclipse, Moonlight, and Laa-Mohr.
"They're these dogs that search for gems," answered Dusty. "I'm not really sure why though, they're kinda stupid, which makes it easy to punch them without second thought."
"I'll have to give that a try sometime," Laa-Mohr said with a grin.
"I see no purpose in hitting mutts on the head, they will hardly notice anything and it may just enforce violence," Moonlight said blankly.
"Wow, you really have a way of taking the fun out of things," Eclipse said. Moonlight rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, that's about it for Ponyville," Mixy said.
"What about outside of Ponyville?" Laa-Mohr asked.
The other misfits thought before shrugging.
"We usually just sight-see or we're not in other places long enough to know our way around them," Fang said. "Come to think of it, this has been the longest we've ever stayed, and now that we've done everything we need here, I think it might be almost time to leave."
"I have wanted to go to Hoofington... for personal reasons," Eclipse said.
"Likewise," Moonlight said.
"You want to go to Hoofington?" asked Pixel.
"No, my reasons are personal."
"Isn't everything personal for you?" said Eclipse. Moonlight just rolled her eyes again.
"Anyway, I think that it may soon be time for us to continue our quest," said Dusty.
"But first we need to attend Pinkie's party," Mixy added.
"What?" Laa-Mohr asked.
"Well apparently every time somepony arrives at Ponyville for the first time, Pinkie Pie throws a party for them, which means that there will be a party for you and Marine."
"Just be careful how much of her cake you eat before bed," Dusty said. "That stuff messes with your head and gives you weird dreams."
"That is unusual, I have never heard of anything that could affect dreams."
"Well, Pinkie's an unusual pony, but can you hate a pony with a smile that large and personality that friendly?"
"I'll have to see what you mean when I meet her."
"How about we meet now?" Pinkie asked, startling Laa-Mohr.
"What the- where did you come from?"
"Well, I was born on a rock farm and-"
"No, that's not what I- nevermind."
"Okay!" Pinkie replied smiling.
"Do you have any idea how she did that?"
Mixy shrugged. "It's better not to question her."
"I heard that you were leaving soon, why are you?" Pinkie asked, slightly upset.
"There's still ponies who need our help in Equestria, and we can't help them by staying in Ponyville forever," Dusty answered.
Pinkie slumped down. "Aww, I was having so much fun with you here."
"Look, don't worry, we'll be back in Ponyville soon, we just have other things to go to," Eclipse said.
"But you know what that means," Pinkie began. "A 'farewell' party! Let me know when you're leaving, all our friends will be there should be ready by this evening. Oh, and by the way, I was just talking to Cyber, he wanted me to tell you that-" she was interrupted when her tail started twitching and she was able to just barely dodge an ice chunk that fell from the sky, much to Laa-Mohr's surprise.
"You can tell what my curse will do?" he exclaimed.
"You have a curse? So that's why I have a weird gut feeling around you, my Pinkie Sense can see your curse. Anyway, Fang, Cyber wanted me to tell you to meet him in the Everfree forest, something about Marine, come on follow me!"
"I'm never going to understand you," Laa-Mohr said as Pinkie bounced away with Fang not far behind.
"I don't think that anypony will understand her," Mixy added.
With the machine built and put onto Marine, she waited with Cyber, Clockwork, and Lyra over at a lake in the Everfree Forest just in case the machine failed.
Soon Fang arrived. "I came as soon as I could, is this what I think it is?"
Cyber nodded as he looked at Marine. "Are you ready?" he asked, Marine nodded excitedly, then Lyra used her magic to grab the tank Marine was in and pour its contents into the lake.
"Alright, now we will take you out of the water, and you let us know the moment you have a hard time breathing, alright?" Clockwork instructed.
"Got it," Marine said as both Cyber and Fang helped her out of the lake, with Lyra keeping the hippocampus' balance.
Marine had confidence as her front hooves and tail left the water, but was still very nervous, as evident by her shaky breathing... breathing...
She could still breathe! Her body was out of the water but with Cyber's machine she could still use the water it supplied her to breathe. The hippocampus princess couldn't help but smile.
"How do you feel, Marine?" Cyber asked, and his response was a giant hug from her.
"Thank you!" Marine said, right before falling over, and chuckling a little. "I guess I need more practice, so how do I use this?"
"The legs' movement are controlled by your tail," Lyra answered. Marine swayed her tail like she was swimming, instantly the mechanical legs reacted and started moving in a trotting way, much to her excitement.
After quite some time of practicing, Marine finally got the hang of walking, turning, even moving backwards, when Laa-Mohr found his way to the group.
"So, you're this 'Marine' I've been hearing about," Laa-Mohr said.
"Yeah, who are you?" Marine asked.
"Marine, Lyra, this is Laa-Mohr, the newest member of The Misfits," Cyber introduced.
"Sorry about your instrument, by the way."
Lyra winced. "What!?"
"He's got a curse," Fang explained. "Which probably means he shouldn't be near Marine or his curse will sabotage the machine and suffocate her."
"Relax, after what Zecora did I'm pretty sure my curse can't kill anypony."
"Wait, did your curse break my lyre?" Lyra asked.
"Yeah, sorry about that," Laa-Mohr replied, leaving Lyra jaw-dropped. "Hey, at least it was only the strings."
"Speaking of potatoes..." Clockwork said, surprisingly. "... I mean sprinklers. No, pineapple! Ground eater! Monkey juice backwash!?"
"Clockwork, are you ok?" asked Marine.
Clockwork shook his head. "Pickle barrel cherry sweet tart! Peanut butter!"
"Laa-Mohr, did you do this?" Lyra asked.
Laa-Mohr shook his head. "I know what my curse does, this is not it."
"Maybe he has some kind of problem in his-" Fang was stopped by Cyber's hand slapping him across his head. "Ah! Cyber, why did you do that?"
"I didn't do anything!" Cyber said as his hand slapped him too.
"Black platypus!" Clockwork said, pointing above Cyber, where strings were perfectly visible and attached to Cyber's hands, which were connected to a marionette handle, which was in the talon of... Discord.
"Long time, no see, am I right misfits?" the draconequus said.
"What do you want, Discord?" Fang demanded.
"That's Discord?!" Lyra exclaimed.
"Ah yes, hello, Lyra, a pleasure meeting the marefriend of The Misfits leader," Discord said with a bow, making Lyra blush and Cyber groan.
"But I'm not his-" Lyra was about to say.
"Anyway, I wanted to meet these new ponies, I've already met the satyr, couldn't get a word out of her though, but I know I could get something out of these three, especially the robot."
"Cheese egg salad clock," Clockwork said.
"And I can't wait to stir up some chaos with them, just a thought Marine, can you breathe in soda water and apple cider? I want to cause chaos but I don't want to kill you," Marine winced.
"If I had my sword right now..." Laa-Mohr muttered.
"Oh, you're some kind of swordstallion? Well, let's see what you can do," Discord put on fencing gear and pointing a floppy rubber sword at Laa-Mohr. "En garde!"
BONG!
Somehow an anvil fell right on top of Discord, flattening his face, which he pulled back into position as everypony laughed.
"That wasn't funny," Discord said, unimpressed. "I think I now understand your-"
BONG!
Again with the anvil. "Ok, that's enough," Discord said, annoyed.
BONG!
Same thing happened, this time with a boulder. "Well played, Laa-Mohr," Discord said.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm not doing anything," Laa-Mohr said with a smirk.
Discord rolled his eyes... before being hit with a safe. "Fine, I know when I'm not wanted."
"Not really," Fang said under his breath.
"Anyway, I'll be going."
"Sunshine yak potato skins?" Clockwork said.
"Oh right, your voice," Discord said before pressing a panel on Clockwork's neck, which made a cassette tape eject out of it before Discord inserted a new one and teleported away.
"That was more weird than I expected," Clockwork said.
"Don't think about it, just don't, let's go home," Cyber said as the group left for The Misfits home.
The rest of The Misfits met up at the front door to the house.
"Why do I get the feeling we're going to find a party on the other side of the door?" said Mixy.
"Probably because of Pinkie," replied Dusty as Cyber grabbed the knob and opened the door as the sound of noisemakers filled the air, the inside was decorated with streamers and balloons, with a few cakes in the middle, each with various flavors.
Shortly each of the elements of harmony emerged from their hiding places.
"Wow, what are you doing here?" Eclipse said.
"Pinkie said that y'all will be leavin' soon," Applejack said.
"So we thought that this should be extra special for you, darling," Rarity said.
"Wait, you guys are leaving?" asked Lyra.
"Yeah, but not until a few days from now, so we got some time to hang out," Cyber said.
"So why are you just standing around when we've got games to play and beat Dusty at?" Rainbow said.
"Oh, you're just asking for it now, Rainbow Crash," Dusty said.
"Let's get it on!" Pixel exclaimed excited.
Following that, Laa-Mohr, Marine, and Pixel enjoyed the party like never before. It was the greatest day of their lives. And Laa-Mohr's curse did not activate all throughout the party, which lasted until the sun set. Then after several more games, everypony went to their beds as the first day of Laa-Mohr's and Marine's new beginnings came to an end.