Twilight arrived beside Spike and her horn glowed with power as she gently lifted the pool into the air. "It's heavier than before, you didn't have to fill it up quite this much Spike."

Spike shrugged softly. "Figured better safe than sorry. Speaking of which, where is she?" He looked left and right, then jumped back.

His reaction got Twilight to turn as well to see Cherry approaching them with a triumphant grin. Her motion was awkward but sure as she mostly pulled herself on her forehooves and the mechanical hooves took slow steps to keep up. She raised a hoof in a vigorous wave. "Look! Look look! I'm Dry Swimming!" She gave a giggle full of delight and pride as she closed the distance. Her powerful tail swayed left and right behind her as if it could propel her, but it was helpless in the air.

Twilight smiled brightly. "You have a real talent for this! We should get you right to--" Her words trailed away as Cherry arrived only to go past her.

Her forehooves weren't trying to walk forward anymore and had swapped jobs with the rear hooves, with the rear hooves pushing her along and her forelegs moving to keep her upright and stable. "They won't stop!" she cried in dismay as she marched across the street. "Help!"

Spike dashed after her and made a leaping dive for the rebellious metal hooves. He managed to get a grip on one of them, but it walked with him attached, carrying him along as if he wasn't even there.

With a growing panic, Twilight let the pool of water splash to the ground and quickly trotted to Cherry's side. "How did you get it moving in the first place, just undo whatever that was."

"I can't!" Cherry pointed back where she had come from. "My, uh, wrench, yes, my wrench is back there and I need it to turn the things to make things happen. I dropped it when it started working and now I can't stop!"

Spike rose and flopped to the ground with every step, giving out a little 'oof' each time he was slapped against the floor. "Why... not... go in... circles?"

Cherry blinked softly. "Good idea!" She veered to the left and started making an uneven oval where she had been making a stubborn line out of the city. She breathed a relieved sigh. "Alright! Spike, you're the best dragon ever!"

"Aw, oof, it's, oof, nothing, oof."

Twilight hurried back with the wrench floating beside her. "Here it is. Do you know what needs to be adjusted?" As she spoke, she was already looking at Cherry's mechanical legs and trying to divine exactly what adjustment would bring them to a halt.

Cherry reached out a hoof for the wrench, but her rear legs had no mercy for her and attempted to move forward. Suddenly there was too much weight on the one hoof and she flopped over out of balance, crashing to the ground for the second time that day. On the positive, her mechanical legs were kicking out into the air, no longer in proper contact with the ground to keep her moving.

Twilight put a hoof gently on Cherry's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright," said Spike as he stood up and dusted himself off.

"I meant Cherry, but I'm glad you're alright too." She leaned in and kissed Spike's cheek before returning her attention to Cherry.

Cherry wriggled free of her belt. "I thought I had it all worked out." A sour look was on her face at her failure. "Can I have the wrench?" Twilight offered the tool and Cherry took it in her mouth. She shoved it into the whirring gears and gave a careful turn that caused them to slow to a halt. "There." She heaved a sigh. "I'm sorry for being such a big bother. I must look so silly."

Twilight shook her head vigorously. "Cherry, what you managed was amazing, and don't let anypony tell you otherwise, including you. Working with new things will come with failures, but that's just a part of the process." She put a hoof on her own chest. "You may not believe it, but even I sometimes mess up."

Spike smirked at that. "Sometimes?" He ducked under a sudden swat, giggling. "She's right though. Everypony makes mistakes, so I wouldn't get too worked up about it." He put a claw to his chin. "The way I see it, the problem is that you need that big wrench to make your legs stop and start. You need a better way to do it while you're walking."

"Walking?" Cherry tilted her head.

Twilight pointed a hoof back at her hind legs. "This." She made a slow step forward. "Walking."

"Dry Swimming," corrected Cherry as if teaching her friends a new word. She rolled upright, leaning on the deactivated but stiff and supportive hooves. "I think Spike's right. I need a way to tell them what I want to do without the wrench... If I have to swim around with the wrench always in my mouth, that doesn't sound fun."

Twilight smiled supportively. "Well, for now, hold onto that wrench and don't worry too much. We'll get this working for you. With your keen mechanical intuitiveness, I doubt this will even be a problem for long. But first, I'd like to get you somewhere a bit more familiar and capable." She tapped at her chin. "So... I'll only ask once, but I'd really like to bring you to my home."

Cherry frowned with thought and looked to Spike. "How far away is Twilight's home?"

Spike blinked owlishly as he was put on the spot. "Um, well, it was a few hours on the train."

"Train?"

Twilight nodded. "It's a great mechanical device I'm certain you'll love getting a peek at, but no tampering with it please. It'll carry us nicely and comfortably to Ponyville, that's where we're from, and we can even bring the pool with us."

Cherry thrust a hoof back at the sparkling sea. "You'll bring me back here when we're done, right? Promise me."

Twilight raised a hoof and made the arcane gesture of the Pinkie Promise. "I swear. Once you're ready to go home, I'll bring you right back here and get you in the water so you can go. For now, you're my guest and I hope you'll enjoy your time with us." She smiled brightly. "Shall we get going?"

Assurances made, Twilight lifted Cherry up off the ground and carried her back to the waiting pool and set her gently in it. "This reminds me, is fresh water acceptable to your biology or should we be adding salt to this?"

Cherry looked baffled at the question. "Fresh? What do you mean?" She splashed the water lightly. "This isn't fresh. It's trapped in this pool."

With Twilight and Spike working together, they began towards the train station. She looked over her shoulder. "Fresh just means 'water without salt', as opposed to sea water, which has a lot of salt. You can taste the difference, can't you?"

Cherry sank into the water and sampled the water purposefully before she jerked upright. "Wow! How did I miss that before? It tastes entirely different... Is it safe?"

"That's what I was asking." Twilight shook her head. "I'll add some salt once we're on the train just to be safe. Your health is important to us, and I certainly hope to you too. You haven't shown any adverse reactions to it so far, but why take chances? Speaking of which, that was the longest stretch of time you were completely out of water, so how did it feel?"

Spike nodded from beneath the pool. "Mechanical mistakes aside, you looked like you were having a good time."

Cherry darkened in her cheeks a little. "Dry Swimming was kind of... fun, but scary. I think I'll put off trying it again until I get this working right." She tapped at her belt with her forehooves. "It's either that or swim around with my wrench ready or be ready to crash when I want to stop and that hardly seems like a good idea."

"I should think not." Twilight shook her head as she lowered her side of the pool. "Hold on a moment while I get us some tickets and then we'll get on the train."

As she trotted away, Cherry turned to look at Spike. "Where's the train?" Spike hiked a thumb at it and Cherry's eyes widened. Twilight had not been joking when she described it. It was huge, and she could see the mechanical parts that made it work. Just following the pistons she could see in clear sight made her a little tingly with excitement. It put her hooves to shame in some ways, but in others, her hooves were more delicate and precise. Different machines for different purposes. She wanted to rip it apart and see what made it work! But that was exactly what she shouldn't do, so she settled for gazing at it fondly and imagining what it must look like when it was actually running along its thick tracks.

"Here we are, all set to go." Twilight had several tickets floating beside her. "Next stop, Ponyville! You'll get to meet all of my friends and I'm sure they'll be eager to meet you."

Cherry tilted her head curiously. "Are they all like you?" She pointed at Twilight even as her pool was lifted between dragon claws and unicorn magic.

"Not exactly..." Twilight frowned a little as she carefully boarded the train. "Two are earth ponies, which means they have no horns or wings. Two are pegasi, which means they have wings, but no horns, and the last is a unicorn, so she has a horn, but no wings."

Cherry leaned a little on the edge of the pool, but not overly much after her last spill. "Why don't any of them have the air flippers and horn like you do? I didn't see any ponies--" She pointed back off the train "-- that had both at once, besides you of course."

Spike set the pool down in the private carriage they had secured and hiked a thumb at Twilight. "That's because she's an alicorn, which makes her a pretty big deal."

Cherry frowned a little. "So are 'alicorn' families in charge of all the others? Is that why everypony listened when you were talking?"

Twilight chuckled nervously. "Ah heh, not exactly... I wasn't born with both. I had to earn it." She spread her wings. "I'm still getting used to some parts of it, but I've gotten a pretty good grip on it now. See, I used to be a unicorn."

Cherry thrust a hoof at Twilight's barrel. "So you didn't have the air flippers?!"

"She was smaller too." Spike was smiling a bit too widely for Twilight's comfort. "She hasn't changed too much besides all that. She's still Twilight, everypony's favorite nerd."

"Spike!"

Cherry giggled softly, only to come to an abrupt halt as she felt the water and ground beneath her shudder. She could see through a window that the world was moving around the train, or was the train moving through the world? She supposed the second was more likely. Her mind swam with visions of how the great pieces she saw were possible moving to make that happen. "Twilight, can I get a train that I'm allowed to take apart?"

Author's Notes:

Trains are easy to obtain, right?

Cherry's on her way to adventure in The Dry and explore more of the above-ocean and its mysterious inhabitants. She can't wait!