It gets done in the postbit_legacy template.
First, copy and save your postbit_legacy template to a text file.
I'm not sure, but I think you want to find this whole chunk of code (this is from 3.8, so yours may be slightly different):
<!-- controls -->
<if condition="$post['editlink']">
<img style="display: none" id="progress_$postid" src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/progress.gif" alt="$vbphrase[loading_editor_please_wait]" />
<a href="$post[editlink]" name="vB::QuickEdit::$post[postid]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/edit.gif" alt="$vbphrase[edit_delete_message]" border="0" /></a>
</if>
<if condition="$post['forwardlink']">
<a href="$post[forwardlink]"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/forward.gif" alt="$vbphrase[forward_message]" border="0" /></a>
</if>
<if condition="$post['replylink']">
<a href="$post[replylink]" rel="nofollow"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/<if condition="$post['forwardlink']">reply_small<else />quote</if>.gif" alt="$vbphrase[reply_with_quote]" border="0" /></a>
</if>
<if condition="$show['multiquote_post']">
<a href="$post[replylink]" rel="nofollow" onclick="return false"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/multiquote_<if condition="$show['multiquote_selected']">on<else />off</if>.gif" alt="$vbphrase[multi_quote_this_message]" border="0" id="mq_$post[postid]" /></a>
</if>
<if condition="$show['quickreply'] AND !$show['threadedmode']">
<a href="$post[replylink]" rel="nofollow" id="qr_$post[postid]" onclick="return false"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/quickreply.gif" alt="$vbphrase[quick_reply_to_this_message]" border="0" /></a>
</if>Copy it, move it into this area, then delete the original:
$template_hook[postbit_messagearea_start]
<div class="smallfont" style="align:right;">
put all the code from above in here
</div>
<if condition="$show['messageicon'] OR $post['title']">
<!-- icon and title -->
<div class="smallfont" style="align:left;">
<if condition="$show['messageicon']"><img class="inlineimg" src="$post[iconpath]" alt="$post[icontitle]" border="0" /></if>
<if condition="$post['title']"><strong>$post[title]</strong></if>
</div>
<!-- / icon and title -->
</if>
<hr size="1" style="color:$stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]; background-color:$stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]" />
(I moved the <hr> to outside the condition, you will need to do that also.) This is NOT tested. If it doesn't work, replace with the original code.