May the muffins be forever in your favour."The Beginning of the End" Review/Analysis/Prediction: Why Season 9 will have the Greatest Ruse in Equestrian History! · 9:30pm Apr 8th, 2019
Here we are. Season 9 is here. This is the last time I am going to write a review for a season opener. And this time, I will go about it a little differently.
My usual procedure is to first write a review with my general thoughts about an episode, followed by deeper and more analytical Afterthoughts about something specific we've seen in an episode. But since this is the last season and I discovered something that makes me very excited and can't wait to talk about, I'll start with the deeper analysis for this episode.
This episode was an amazing one, but, it also left me very confused about what was actually happening there. At first, I thought that Twilight and her friends were still trapped in one of Sombra's visions of fear when the Tree of Harmony and the Elements got destroyed and everything was so hopeless and when we even saw Discord getting defeated by Sombra. It fitted perfectly to the biggest fear Twilight and her friends have, the destruction of Equestria. Even Sombra himself said something similar.
Then the end of the episode came and it made pretty clear that this wasn't the case. Everything actually happened, but I still couldn't shake off the feeling that there's something bigger going on behind the curtains. Something just feels odd and very off about these events and from that moment on, I began to put the pieces together.
Another thing I'm normally doing with my analyses is building them up slowly and then putting the conclusion at the end. This is also something I will do differently this time. For this analysis, I will put the conclusion first and then explain why and how that makes sense:
Everything seen in this episode; from Grogar, to Sombra, to the destruction of the Tree of Harmony, is part of one giant scenario by Celestia and Luna to test Twilight and her friends and see if they are really ready to rule Equestria together.
Hints for this are scattered all over the episode and I'll go and break down each one of them now:
1. Sombra was entirely unaffected by the Crystal Heart
This is already a big one. For the longest time now, we know that the Crystal Heart is deadly for Sombra. It has the specific, magical properties necessary to kill him and is his one big weakness. We have seen the Crystal Heart's effect on him both in the show and in the official comics.
But here, he could marsh into the Crystal Empire, gain control over the guards, enter the castle, take Flurry Heart, put her and her parents in chains and then lock them up behind black crystals, all before he took the Crystal Heart and blocked its magic. A lot for someone who is supposed to get killed instantly by the Crystal Heart.
The only way how this can be explained is that the Crystal Heart can not affect Sombra anymore ever since Radiant Hope, together with Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Twilight, gave him the body of a pony. The Crystal Heart's magic was only lethal for him because he was an Umbrum, but since this moment, he is not one anymore, so the Crystal Heart does no harm to him now.
And why would Sombra, despite that he has chosen the good side, suddenly marsh into the Crystal Empire and try to take it again and, on top of that, even look like his former, evil self again, if not because that's part of a huge plan that requires him to pretend that he is evil again?
The only thing about this that gave even me a headache for a while is Rarity's confused question about how Sombra's attack is possible even though he was "disspelled by the Crystal Heart", despite the fact that she was there when Radiant Hope, Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Twilight used their magic on Sombra and has seen that he became good. I had to look into the issue and spend an unusual amount of time thinking about this, but could figure it out at the end.
It would go beyond the constraints of this review/analysis here to explain it all, but the gist of it is, that Rarity was referring to it that the Crystal Heart only disspelled his Umbrum body and what made him an Umbrum, his Umbrum essence, but not his soul, as his soul had become pure when he chose to do good and to save Equestria from the Umbrum. I'll explain that in more detail in its own blog entry, once I can squeeze it in somewhere between all the Season 9 analysis.
2. Discord's aversion against helping
After Twilight and her friends were informed by Cadance that Sombra had returned and taken over the Crystal Empire, Twilight asked Discord if he can take care of Sombra for them. When he heard that, he did not only deny her the help, but even reacted rather panicked. He suddenly was in a hurry to get away and practically fled from her.
He acted like he was instructed by Celestia and Luna to not help them under any circumstances and like he couldn't come up with an excuse for why he refuses to help them.
3. Discord was very intent on reminding them to do things "on their own"
Just a few moments after, Twilight announced her plan to use the Elements of Harmony against Sombra. Discord returned and said to Twilight that using the Elements wouldn't count as "doing it on your own". This felt like he wanted to encourage them to fight without the Elements, so that they can discover that they don't even need the Elements of Harmony to protect Equestria.
And who would have a huge interest in it that they discover that? Right, Celestia and Luna. This also shines light on the reason why Celestia and Luna even went so far to let the Tree of Harmony and the Elements getting destroyed.
First they instructed Discord to encourage Twilight and her friends to try and defeat Sombra without the Elements. And in case that shouldn't work, they had decided that Sombra should destroy the Tree and the Elements, so that Twilight and her friends would be forced to discover that the magic of the Elements of Harmony rests inside them.
It was an insane thing to do that. Even for the purpose of creating such an effective end-of-the-world scenario to test Twilight and her friends, it was very extreme to destroy the only thing that's holding back the Everfree Forest and to endanger all of Equestria that way.
But with their knowledge that the magic of the Elements of Harmony is living inside of Twilight and her friends and the reassurance by Starswirl that he and the other Pillars can keep the Everfree Forest under control even without the Tree of Harmony, they figured it was a risk they could take.
4. Spike helped freeing Cadance, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart, yet, his fire breath was doing nothing to the black crystals
After Twilight told Sombra that they just needed to face their fears long enough to distract him, Spike used his fire breath to free Cadance, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart. However, when you pay attention, you will see that his fire hasn't done anything to the crystals:
He was merely breathing fire at them to make it look like he is doing something, then Cadance just broke free like he had weakened the crystals.
There's only one way for that to make sense: The black crystals were just mock-ups; weaker versions of Sombra's black crystals that he used when he was evil and that didn't have any power in them, and Cadance was only pretending that they absorbed her magic to make the display more convincing because she had already heard that Twilight and her friends were on the way.
With being a part of the entire plan, Sombra only used fake crystals that wouldn't harm anypony.
5. Sombra resisted the Elements of Harmony the first time around
Well, how is that possible? When Twilight and her friends used the Elements of Harmony against Sombra in the Crystal Empire, it looked like they defeated him. But then he returned without a scratch. We know that the Elements of Harmony aren't a weapon that kills, but merely one that banishes, turns to stone or cleans someone of evil. But the last time Sombra was exposed to their magic, when Celestia and Luna took care of him, he got at least banished under the ice. This time, though, nothing happened to him.
Sombra is not someone powerful enough to simply resist the Elements of Harmony, not even as a one-time exception, so how could he do that?
Since the Elements of Harmony are a force of good, they can probably not get used to hurt a creature who is already good. Or, Celestia and Luna equipped with him a protection spell that made him immune against the Elements of Harmony's magic. Or, more likely, he did it himself, as that would allow him to resist the Elements the first time and then to fake his death the second time, while still being unharmed by them. The latter is definitely not too hard to do for Sombra, we've seen him dissolve his body before that.
The fact that the Elements of Harmony aren't a weapon to kill someone and incapacitate a target at most also makes it impossible that Sombra got actually killed by them the second time around. It's not how the Elements of Harmony work.
That and the contradiction between resistance at the first time and defeat at the second time make it clear that it was not intended that the Elements of Harmony affect Sombra in any way.
6. Discord's second hesitation to help
After they arrived in Canterlot Castle, Discord showed up again in front of Twilight and her friends. He once again ended up refusing Twilight's plea for help, like he was specifically instructed to turn them down when they ask. When he finally couldn't resist anymore, he still only helped them with the guards very reluctantly and once again emphasized how they are supposed to do this "on their own". And then.....
7. Discord's impossible defeat by Sombra's spell
.....Discord got taken out by Sombra. Which is something that shouldn't be possible, because Discord is, as the Master of Chaos, much too powerful to get hurt by a spell like this. And he turned Sombra's magic into harmless things a few times right before that, so, why did he not do the same again instead of jumping in front of Fluttershy to protect her when Sombra was firing at her?
We already know what came later, but, this reaction by Discord already gave away that he was faking his defeat.
Why he did that was pretty clear at this point: He was instructed to not help, but ultimately gave in to Twilight when she begged him for help. So he had to come up with something to stop helping them without raising any suspicions that he was part of a secret plan to test their abilities in protecting Equestria.
8. "Fluttershy" was the codeword
He even had a codeword, so that Sombra would know when to fire. Right before Sombra shot his spell at Fluttershy, Discord talked about her in a very emphasized and exaggerated, contrived way. He seemed like he was prompting Sombra to do it.
This was a code. Part of the plan was that Sombra would shoot a spell at Fluttershy and that Discord would catch it to protect her, then pretend to be severely wounded and unable to fight, in case that Twilight and her friends should indeed get him to help, or, that a situation arises where he has no choice but to help them out temporarily so that the entire plan can be executed.
He and Sombra came up with this idea and when Discord started to talk about Fluttershy in this contrived manner, it was the signal for Sombra to do his part of the trick.
9. Sombra's Theatrical Defeat: Step 1
After Discord's motivational speech, Twilight and her friends had new confidence and continued fighting against Sombra. Twilight repelled his spells with her own magic several times while telling Sombra that they will never give up fighting him. Then they finally realized, thanks to Discord's words, that the magic of the Elements of Harmony is inside them and they let it out and began using it against Sombra.
Sombra tried to break through their magic with his spell, but failed. However, how he averted his spell from them did not happen very sudden:
One would expect that Sombra, if evil and hellbent on seizing rulership of Equestria, would just keep firing and firing until he runs out of strength to fire at the magic of Twilight and her friends and breaks down, or, that he at least gets blown away by their magic in a very sudden and quick fashion because he just doesn't stop.
But here, we saw him losing control of the situation rather slowly: First he turned his head to the left and only a second later, he backed off and stopped firing at them. And his magic was not disspelled by their own in that moment. If you look closely, you will see that he was still firing it from his horn even after turning away.
His entire behavior in that moment, how he turned his head away and only then backed off completely and how he kept firing into thin air for a second after having turned away already, it looks very much acted. It looked like he was trying very hard to display loss in a struggle of power.
Additionally, if you look at the gif even closer, you can see that he even managed to hold off their magic and that it only expanded after he stopped trying. He stopped firing at them first and only then their magic grew stronger, but why did he do that if he clearly had at least a chance to stop their magic?
If we look at this moment closely, it can be easily seen that, rather than having become forced down by their magic, he backed away on purpose and let their magic expand and get him.
Doing that would be oddly foolish for an evil king who tries to take Equestria by force, but make perfect sense when everything is just a ruse.
10. Sombra's Theatrical Defeat: Step 2
After Sombra had backed down and seconds before the magic of Twilight and her friends hit him, he was already mourning his impending defeat. The way he did that, though, was anything but dignified for the King of Monsters.
The way he talked in that moment, it came across as very generic. Already his slight scream of pain when he averted his magic did not sound very convincing, but simple phrases like "No, this can't be possible!" or "Your magic can't defeat mine!" and the way he delivered those lines sounded a lot like he was reciting something that he had memorized earlier. And it's not just the words he used, his voice also sounded like he was trying very hard to leave the impression of a tyrant who can't cope with his defeat. How he whimpered after each of the first two sentences he spoke also came across that way and deepens this impression.
And the impression is completed by his facial expression in this moment:
A heartwrenching frowny-face, a quivering lip, an expression that looked like he is going to cry like a baby any moment. The King of Monsters has definitely looked more dignified before a defeat in the past. Panicking and angry, but keeping a strong appearance, that's how we saw him in the Season 3 Opener when the Crystal Heart was back at its place and when he knew he would lose.
In this moment, though, he looked like he pushed himself to appear as sad and crushed as potentially possible and for someone who is only a decent actor, a generic frowning face, a quivering lip and a teary expression are the first things that would come to mind when attempting to act out sadness and frustration.
Overall, Sombra appeared very much like he was playing a role in his "last moments". It felt like a pure performance, not like he was expressing genuine feelings. This is one of the strongest hints for it that all that happened was a part of Celestia's and Luna's plan to test Twilight and her friends.
11. Discord's Confession
Surprise! Discord was only pretending that Sombra knocked him out! It was already easy to see this moments earlier, but after Sombra had played his part and was gone, it got its confirmation, a pure formality at this point.
More important than the confession itself, though, is the way it happened. Discord was upset and angry and while ranting about his wasted effort, he was constantly looking at Celestia and raging at her. Even to the point that he got face-to-face with her in all his anger. More than that, he even directly asked Celestia "So, Twilight's not taking over? This was all for nothing?" while walking towards Celestia and looking at her the entire time.
Discord's entire reaction shows that Celestia instructed him to do all of that and to follow the plan, while promising him that it would work and that Twilight would prove herself to be ready to rule Equestria.
He was promised a certain outcome of the plan, but things turned out differently and as a result, he was mad at Celestia for the promise she couldn't keep.
This is the strongest hint of them all. Discord almost spilling the beans about everything gave away what happened the most.
12. Celestia's and Luna's reaction to Discord's rage
Last, but not least, Celestia and Luna looked very worried when Discord got mad:
Normally, Celestia looks amused over Discord's antics. She usually does not take him very serious and smirks about him. But here, she looked concerned. Her facial expression was practically starting to speak and say "Discord, cut it out! You're blowing our plan!" (imagine this being spoken between gritted teeth).
Luna did not look any different. She even opened her mouth and gasped, so worried was she.
Why the worried reaction by them? Neither Celestia nor Luna have any reason to get worried over Discord having an outburst over something. Unless said outburst leads to it that he reveals a secret he promised them to keep.
Discord did not directly reveal that there is a secret plan in motion, but the reactions of Celestia and Luna leave no doubt about it that this is the case.
Twelve hints for a big theory; some weaker, some stronger, although, with all of these hints combined, I struggle to call it a "theory".
It is rather obvious what is going on in the background, mostly thanks to Discord, and while we maybe could find other explanations for each of these hints individually, all of them combined form a very great, seamless and perfect picture. So I'm more prone to call it a "prediction".
We are still left with a few open questions regardless:
What about Grogar? Is he a part of that plan? Or is his return right now that Celestia and Luna enacted their plan a coincidence? And why was Sombra with him? Was that part of the plan, too, to make him look more convincing while he is pretending to be evil again? Or did Celestia and Luna send him there? Did Sombra allow Grogar to summon him so that he could infiltrate him and tell Celestia and Luna what is going on?
And is Cozy Glow perhaps a part of this plan, as well?
I can imagine all of this a little. But we lack informations right now, so I only have a few speculations. One thing I can see is that Grogar is not actually evil. Perhaps he is part of Celestia's and Luna's masterplan; a powerful ancient ally who steps into the role of a villain to test Twilight and her friends further, while simultaneously keeping an eye on Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow. In that scenario, Sombra agreed to get summoned by Grogar for the cause.
Or maybe Grogar is evil, but Celestia already knows about him and already has found a way to defeat him and merely lets him do his thing for a while to use him as a means to test Twilight and her friends. In that scenario, she would wait to see if Twilight and the others manage to defeat him "on their own" and only if they fail, unleash on Grogar whatever she has planned to use against him. Celestia has proven time and time again to be a mastermind, it would not at all be surprising if it turns out like that.
In both scenarios, I could even see Sombra returning again. Since he has become good and Celestia and Luna made sure he wouldn't get killed while enacting their plan, he could keep infiltrating Grogar and see what he and his team are up to and report everything back to Celestia and Luna. That he can turn into black smoke would make it easy for him to stay hidden. And if Grogar isn't actually evil, Sombra could simply return to them to be another fake villain in Celestia's and Luna's masterplan. Grogar has his team under control, he would just come up with something for why Sombra is still alive so that Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy won't get suspicious.
I'm not even ruling out that Cozy herself could be in on it and that the plan already started during the events surrounding Cozy's attempted takeover of Equestria, by Celestia having sent Cozy into Twilight's school as a student with the task to play villain as a convincing set-up for their later plan to test Twilight and her friends. I'll admit, this hunch is so vague that it's probably more wishful thinking on my part than speculation, but it would be awesome if that were the case. And for Cozy, certainly better than the actual theory I have about her motivations.
I feel that many things are possible right now, but these are only tiny speculations/wishes, because everything is presented very vague to us at the moment. But I'll keep my eyes open in the coming episodes and I'm ready to dissect and analyze more.
It is a strange feeling right now, at one hoof I can't wait to see more episodes to find out what's up with Grogar and his alliance of villains. At the other hoof, I dread it, because every episode brings us another big step closer to the end. It's a feeling of conflict I never felt before in my life.
Overall, I love this episode. Cozy Glow was absolutely amazing the entire time. I didn't reckon to see her again so soon, especially since the trailer didn't make it look like she is playing a role in the events at all and I am very glad to see her again. I love her remark about being "just a kid" when Grogar asked them all how they got defeated, her sarcasm there was splendid!
The events of this episode also showed that Cozy Glow actually adores Tirek. So far, I thought she's only seeing him as a means to get power and that she tries to be his friend so that she can possibly benefit from his power in the future. But having seen the things she did; building a rock statue for him that displays her sitting on his back, making him compliments, seeking protection behind him when she is scared, all of that, I can see that she actually seems to love him. I mean, just look at the face she made in this moment:
Tirek leaned down to her and explained her who Grogar is and she was all adorably smiling. If that isn't the expression of pure love, then I don't know. She appeared like she was looking up to her father who answered a difficult question she had.
Even Tirek seemed friendly in this moment. He was not the slightest bit annoyed and he calmly and patiently told her about Grogar. Almost like a dad answering a nagging question his filly has. Almost.
These two have an interesting relationship going on and I'm curious to what it leads down the road.
The way Cozy acts around him even brings my theory about her, that I linked above, a little closer to confirmation. Not only did she seek his protection when Chrysalis scared her, that she smiled at him like that right after Grogar scared her, too, shows that she finds his company soothing and that she sees him as her protector. If she really tried to rally a lot of friends around her to seek protection from an abuser/rapist of hers, then it only makes sense that she clings to the next best creature who could protect her after she got imprisoned in Tartarus. And she knows that Tirek is strong, so he is not just the only available, but also the most obvious choice for her protector.
The way we saw her acting in this episode makes her look even more like a scared and hurt little filly who looks for protection and is willing to go lengths for that protection. I really hope we see A LOT more of her and her dark mentor in this season and that we find out about Cozy's past and what made her the way she is. I'm craving to know more about her.
Last thing that caught my interest in this episode, although not as much as Cozy and her relationship with Tirek, is the age of Grogar. According to Tirek, he already heard tales about Grogar when he was young. Which means when Tirek was young, more than 1,000 years ago, Grogar was already considered a legend and no one knew him anymore other than from stories. Furthermore, Tirek explained Cozy that when Grogar was active, Equestria was nothing more than farms and pastures. And Grogar himself said that he needed several (!) millennia to regain his power.
It impresses me how old Grogar is. We look at a villain here that is not only older than Celestia and Luna, but several thousand years older than Equestria itself!
There is a whole era of pre-Equestrian history hinted at here and that we would find out about something like that in the very last season is something I didn't expect. I wonder if Season 9 will have some time to reveal a few infos about this era long before Equestria was founded. I really hope there will be some time for that, I am highly interested in hearing about it!
I'm also interested in Grogar himself. He said that he gave life to the "foulest creatures", which makes me wondering if "foul" could have been meant literal. The Grogar of Generation 1 is always falsely called a "necromancer", as he has zero things to do with raising zombies or spirits of the dead. But I'm already wondering since "A Flurry of Emotions" if Equestria's Grogar could be an actual necromancer.
This statement of his confirms that he is able to create living beings, at least, and if he made a reference to the undead with the word "foul", then I think Cozy Glow has to make some room on the top position of my favourite villain again.
Maybe Season 9 will fulfill one of my big wishes before the show ends, to see actual, undead zombies in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
Overall, this is a solid start for Season 9. No, more than that, it is an incredible start! It can already be seen that a pretty big plot twist will be happening later in the season, we met Grogar and learned that he actually exists, we saw Cozy Glow again, got hints about a huge era of pre-Equestrian history that is still unknown to us, the implication that Grogar is possibly an actual necromancer and we got to see this interesting relationship between Cozy Glow and Tirek!
It's hard to trump previous episodes of this wonderful show, but I think we have the best two-parter to date here! Hyped for next weekend!
I am impressed by the analyzation you've put forth. You have plenty of evidence to support the claim, so much so that even I'm beginning to wonder how things are going to play out. This is amazing!
5041166
Thanks very much!^^ I'm pretty proud of it myself. I've written a couple of analyses in the past, but here, everything was falling into place like it never has before. Have the huge feeling that I'm on to something here!
I agree. Some little Errors they, Made like with Spikes fire and such. Yet cozy, i Guess she sees tirek as Father figure she could Never have
5041307
I have the same feeling about Cozy! Not sure about the "could never have" part, since we don't know anything about her parents, but she definitely acted like Tirek's her dad there.^^
I'm wondering if anyone in the fandom can really still hate her after seeing that.
5041439
Well, i Never Hated her, i am eager to See more about her Background. Given she acted like that, i just suspect it has to do with her parents.
Also, i Hope scoots finally Fly. Honestly, Ending the Show with her not able to Fly would look wrong. At least for me
5041440
Good, because she gets enough hatred as it is. I think, she gets even more hatred in the fandom than Starlight Glimmer used to get back during Season 5.
And that's quite possible. If her parents are abusive, it would make sense that she not only seeks a protector, but also new parents. In which case, she seems to have chosen Tirek as new father.
And about Scoots, well, that's probably not going to happen. It would be awesome for her if something could fix her wings, for sure.
But, even though we haven't exactly seen a clinical diagnosis about why her wings are crippled exactly, everything we've seen in the last few years makes pretty clear that the ailment is not cureable. We have seen a lot of desperation from Scoots in certain moments, if there would be something to fix her wings, she would have a more hopeful outlook and not react like this when confronted with being flightless.
But she is coping well with it and still manages to be happy and find fulfillment in other things, so I'm not worried about her. Scoots is strong, she will keep doing fine.
5041443
Either that or they died in a tragic accident involving Magic. Can't Imagine otherwise how a filly could get up with taking over Magic.
And scoots, i agree, just had to thought back of Flight to the Finish, where it was focused on, and its Never truly Stated in the Show Why she can't Fly yet.
Speaking of, mind if i Share something with that regarding her?
5041446
Interesting theory! That would certainly give another explanation for why she wanted to banish all of Equestria's magic! Now I'm curious which of our theories will end up being true, if we find out what happened to Cozy.
There's also "The Washouts" from last season. After she had joined them, she openly said that she can't fly and was very desperate and she said that she joined the Washouts to do great things in a different way.
With how upset she was there, that gave it away even more.
Sure, send me a PM!
5041477
Well, that's the most Logical i can Think of. Still, i like the Fan Stories with her parents wanting her back
5041480
I am interested in those, too. I definitely need to work hard to read these before we find out about Cozy's past!
5041482
They are all well Made. My favorite is the one where starlight is also helping her
5041485
"An UnCozy Reformation"?
5041488
Yes, i Think that was it. I quite like the idea how this happened because she misunderstood her parents
5041490
Hmm, that's nothing that is mentioned in this story. I guess we're talking about two different ones then. I could only read "An UnCozy Reformation", so far.
5041491
Well then, Let me Check. I just like how most Villains were Never Bad to begin with, like starlight and tempest. Maybe cozy will have a familiar reason
5041491
Found it, it's called The Great Breakout
5041498
Ah, this one! I'm highly interested in it ever since I saw it getting released!
5041529
You will like it for sure: Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if Cozy would have a similar fate as Starlight
Grogar's bit I feel is the only one that might bear fruit. Everything else is a stretch for me. Unless it turns to be true.
Then I'll believe it.
5042212
It will turn out true. I won't say we will necessarily see it outright confirmed, like Celestia and Luna openly admitting the plan to Twilight and her friends, because Celestia likes to do things in the shadows and to be mysterious and the creators at DHX like it to show developments in a very subtle fashion, but there will be something we can point at and say "And here, the truth is out, fillies and gentlecolts!".
If it's not happening in an obvious way, I will go and explain it like I explained the plan here.
That said, you are a very big sceptic if 12 rather obvious hints that form such a perfectly coherent picture still feel like a stretch to you. But you will see.
5042226
Because we've had hints before that went nowhere, or Hasbro went a totaly different way with it. I don't try and predict these things.
So that in case they don't go anywhere, I don't throw a temper tantrum if I'm wrong.
I love your attention to detail! It's clear that you've studied the evidence put forward and your explanation is very convincing. I sincerely hope that this is the case because the show's treatment of King Sombra was abhorrent to say the least. I do have to point out that your mention of the comics might be pointless seeing as how the showrunners don't deem them canon. Still, it would be kind of amazing and clever if your theory (or something like it) really was the case.
5050054
What the show runners deem canon does not really matter. They also never said they don't see the official comics as canon. On the contrary, Season 6 openly acknowledged and referenced the official comics twice. And no one at DHX had a problem with the direct tie-in between the official comics and Season 7.
But even if they were to reject the canon status of the official comics, it would not really matter. What matters to answer the question if the official comics are canon (as opposed to showing an alternate universe), is how much the events seen in the show and in the official comics match up and fit together.
So far, neither of the two mediums has contradicted the other. The only exception, a tiny one, as I might point out, were three issues of the official comics. Namely, the Everfree Forest arc (Issue #27 & #28 entirely ignore the existence of the Tree of Harmony) and the "Friends Forever" issue with Zecora and Fluttershy (depicts Fluttershy as not having her natural gift of understanding the language of animals).
But 3 issues with contradictions vs. 153 issues (across the several series) without them do not hold weight and are not enough to make a point for it that the official comics show an alternate universe.
Only analytical observations of what is seen in the individual episodes of the show or the individual comic issues can serve as measure to determine the canon status of the official comics.
And since there have been barely any contradictions between the two mediums, any claims of the official comics not being canon or showing an alternate universe Equestria are rooted in readers' not paying enough attention and overlooking crucial details (or, merely rejecting a fact, as the official comics have a bad reputation with some because we've seen some unexpected sides of certain ponies or some unexpected worldbuilding in them).
I have invested a lot of time into reading each issue and analyzed the events seen in them and closely compared them to the events seen in the show.
It is this that made me able to see what was really going on here. Sombra's appearance as evil even allows for one other interpretation that is still perfectly aligned with everything seen about him in the official comics, but I will be keeping this to me and only reveal it in the unlikely case that the result of my observations regarding Celestia's and Luna's top-secret plan should turn out as false.
I am very much looking forward to an upcoming episode whose synopsis has been revealed yesterday, as it has a good chance of containing more hints for my prediction.
5050066
Excellent! For the sake of my favorite underutilized shadow-pony, I hope that you're right.
5050084
Then I hope you don't mind a little self-promotion here..... You should read "Princess Flurry Heart, Destroyer of Worlds!". Not going to spoiler more than that, but there might be something in it for you if you loyally read all the chapters.
5050144
Great, I'll check it out! I've written my own head canon story on King Sombra called "When Darkness Falls".
This was a very compelling post. Thank you for sharing. I hope this turns out to be true.
5050632
It will. I never was so confident about something before. I'm just sitting here, watching and waiting to see even more clues for that.
5067393
Well I have my hooves crossed.
This is an excellent theory!
I have my own King Sombra theory, and though it doesn't involve the guy being in on a setup, it does very much involve him having a greater purpose. 
https://www.deviantart.com/cloudmistdragon/art/King-Sombra-is-Still-Alive-Fan-Theory-799825347
Well analyzed, if reaching in several areas. Unfortunately I think the simplest answer is the right one; that the two parter wasn't thought out too well. Not bad mind, just that they focused more on Big Moment A and B and C (and so on), but didn't focus on the moments inbetween and leading up to the said Moments.
5100292
You should become less wary and trust the writers more then. All of this clearly happened on purpose. These aren't newbie writers who would make beginner's mistakes like that.