Have now finished reading the second issue of “Set Your Sail” - a lot of lore, quite a lot! And it may seem that writers Megan Brown and Casey Gilly have created a thriller where nothing is what it seems, where it is not easy to find out who is friend or foe. Zipp is on the case! So when Sunny, Hitch and Misty come to the final phase of the ongoing saga we might see an alicorn in sea pony form. It may be needed.
It is also possible that Brown and Gilly had planted evidence that Twilight’s empire also included the seven seas because, as we know from MYM, she had created magical anchor points for the ponies with the Unity Crystals and for the dragons with the Dragon stone. Here we see that she had also possibly done the same for all known realms; magical “anchors” are found in all seven locales that have been mentioned; Coral Crown for the great inland sea, Seadragon Scale for the Seadragon Drift, Moon Pearl for the Luna Ocean, Agate Goade for the Celestia Ocean, Sand Dollar for the Sea of Clouds (what?), Starfish Seaglass for the Sparkling Sea and the Last Anchor for the Trench. These work in a similar way to the Unity Crystals and the Dragon Stone. Then it could mean that Twilight, after finishing the Unity Crystals, had done the same with all realms all over the world.
What happened during the endgame between Opaline and Twilight and the aftermath of that, which we know ended with all realms being separated from each other with different fates for everyone? Also, Zipp discovered something very strange, she found “pegacrabs”. Yes, you read that right. We may have learned from the last TYT episode and several clues elsewhere that these strange chimeric critters may have been created with pony magic - and that could only have happened if the magic had gone wild. She sensed that there is a clue there to find out the truth.
All seven localities in themselves are interesting. We have two world-wide oceans with the word “ocean”, then two smaller-sized oceans called “sea” and then a large inland ocean - which must be in the unknown continent on the other side of the world. A map was shown, which suggests that the Seadragon Drift may be part land, part sea - while the Sea of Clouds is somewhat confusing, does it mean up in the atmosphere or on the sea surface? “Sand Dollar” brings to mind Rainbow Dash’s tale of Timbucktu, a pegasus cloud city that was a rich merchant town.
It is apparently not only the manga One Piece, but also the movie from 2018 about Aquaman who returned to Atlantis, which may have been a source of inspiration for the writers behind “Set Your Sail”. The trench ponies from the Trench are in conflict with the royals from the Sparkling Sea - and we don’t know who is enemy or friend.
The currents deep in the ocean are “winds” for sea ponies and others who could use them to travel long distances - that could explain why the ghost ship in the first issue could have sails. But it was not comfortable, so railway something the Seapony Express at the bottom is preferred by residents.
But it is now a possibility that Twilight Sparkle had also been very heavily involved in the seven seas in her time, so that could mean that she might have been world ruler and together with her friends had left their mark on the whole world as the New Mane 6 now exploring.
So far it looks like the sea ponies in IDW are different, as if these are based on transformation magic which we know is due to personalities in transformed land beings. Perhaps many people had gone into the depths and explored the seabed when Twilight reigned, and that there may be untouched sea realms that are not covered by the legend in the comics. The “real” sea ponies are possibly in the uncharted seas as mentioned in the other issue.
