>>12700
In contrast to my sparse review, I do have a lot to say, here:
Art and Animation
It seems like the animation was bumped up for this one. The Return of Harmony Part 1 and Part 2 were technically made with Season 1, correct? This certainly feels a step up. Something about everything felt a little smoother and... uh, crisp? Is that a propper word for animation? Characters seem to move more fluidly, background shots seemed slightly more detailed. The way it transitioned from day to night over the course of the fight. Background colors seem more vivid in a lot of spots. Let me see if I can show some of what I mean: Look at Rainbow Dash's sonic Rainnuke, those plants were actually animated pretty well for a gag scene! It seems like their is more oomph put into everything. OOn rewatching it (twice) I kept getting distracted by it. Which is weird because on paper it doesn't feel like a massive step up from season one (I also enjoyed Season 1's slight rougher edges). I say this all with a disclaimer, my main animation experience is messing around as a late tween/early teen, I am not an expert in flash and just noticing and guessing/drawing on what limited knowledge I have!

Twilight's Facial Expressions:
I think Twilight's more exaggerated facial expressions are also an example of this. Some of them I liked, but, her more hyperopessive ones I actually kind of disliked. I don't recall ever disliking those before. I forgot my screencaps so no detailed examples to point out.

This scene transition from through the window
I liked it. It is cool how it smoothly transitions from outside to inside with the windmill still animated in the background.

Bees
I didn't notice the bee's present around the beehive on Golden Oaks's Library in the outside shots we got, though I could've missed it. I want to keep an eye for little details like that this season. It would be interesting if I could keep a booklet and note new trends or things that disappeared.