Now, does this ONE picture tell us anything more about my all-important "Opaline is actually Sprout" theory? Eh...no. She still looks Red and Blonde to me, which are very much Sprout's colors. And that long neck actually DOES look like Sprout's model. But, her eyes are still blue, different than Sprout's green eyes. And she doesn't have his white fetlocks around his hooves(though he could just be wearing socks). She also seems to have a magic glow around her horn in this picture, so her magic might not be fake. (Though...she is levitating a PLANT in the picture...which may be something a Earth Pony could do...)
Again, I know I'm being weird. A horn and wings? Pfft, that's easy to pick up at any dollar Halloween store! A different voice? They have cell phone apps for that! Different colored fetlocks? Socks are a thing! Actual magic? It's plant based! But...different colored eyes? That's the thing that trips me up. Go figure. *shrug*
So...yeah, not looking good for the old theory, but I'm still not willing to give up on it yet. I still find it odd that we've only seen Sprout in the video game...and there he WAS cross-dressing as different tribes.
As for the other pictures:
Look's like Sunny's lantern will remain a thing in the series proper. I guess that makes sense, since it's based on a toy Hasbro wants you to buy.
I really hope Sparky is the "cute" kind of baby in TV shows, and not the "annoying" kind.
Looks like Misty will be "fake" befriending the Mane 5...only to probably befriend them for real by the end of the season. No one who has freckles can be evil for long. Nice "evil" smile on her by the way. She's going to start something.
Magic flowers are a thing? Are these going to be our collectible this season? Just a random flower? It must at least be important to the episode. It doesn't look like Poison Joke to me at least.
Ponies...covered in JaAm. Probably because of that tree behind them.
So, not much to go on, but it doesn't look terrible to me. Then again, I didn't think the Make Your Mark special looked terrible for TV animation either, but everyone piled on that. So, hopefully, there's some improvement to the animation....if only to avoid all the whining.