Pony Genetics

[The Wandering Magus]

Celestia's older than the hills and raises the Sun itself with little effort.  Twilight, on the other hoof, can't even de-age a flower.  And Dash is out-flown and out-matched by the Wonderbolts and at least one other pegasus her age.

[Night Pony]

Celestia's older than the hills and raises the Sun itself with little effort.  Twilight, on the other hoof, can't even de-age a flower.  And Dash is out-flown and out-matched by the Wonderbolts and at least one other pegasus her age.

Celestia and Luna are alicorns so Twilight is the most powerful unicorn up-to-date (except her brother but he is her brother.)
The wonderbolts are better only because they have more experience. Never seen other pegasi to pull off a sonic rainboom or some alternate version of it.

[The Wandering Magus]

Twilight might learn quickly, but Starswirl wrote the books on anything that's known about time travel (literally).  Clover the Clever continued this tradition.  Zecora is knowledgeable/wise/powerful enough to be a trainer rather than a disciple of Twilight.  Her brother is able to hold his own (for a limited time) against a Mane Villain.  Sombra is just a normal unicorn but is capable of enslaving an entire Empire and returning out of a thousand-year alicorn-powered binding spell with enough cunning left to do it again.

Lightning Dust is a match and more than a match for Rainbow, out-flying, out-performing and out-competing the pegasus in all respects besides friendship and empathy.

[Night Pony]

Shining is Twi's brother so it natural that he is strong in magic. For Starswirl we have limited information. For all we know he could be one of the few alicorn unicorns (from the theory above). Clover we have even less information. Is she mentioned sometime in the show or by the creators? The only memory of her I have from a fan made trailer.
Sombra could found a way to get empowered by the crystals from the empire. Also he could be natural in the black arts (we do not know his CM). Zecora is a zebra and even that she knows much theoretical and some pratical magic she does not wield magic like unicorns.

Lightning Dust is second to Rainbow dash plus I did not see her do a sonic rainboom or some version.

[The Wandering Magus]

Clover was mentioned and played by Twilight during the Hearth's Warming Eve episode.

Lightning Dust was named squad leader rather than wingpony and broke records all over the place, even enduring the spinning machine at maximum speed and coming in at a fraction of a second behind what Dash could only do at normal speed.  Like Dash, she leaves behind a trail, except one of lightning rather than a rainbow.  She also takes the initiative and pushes herself above and beyond what Dash pushes herself to.

[Night Pony]

Clover is then a student of a powerful unicorn. Like Twilight is student to powerful alicorn.

Almost every pegasus leaves a tail. She was made a leadpony solely on her attitude for pushing herself towards the limit. Also Dash broke some records too and some they did togheter so they shouldn't be accounted solely to Lightning.

[The Wandering Magus]

Main point is, Twilight and Dash are not, as super_chris85 claims, faster or more powerful than Celestia, and neither are they the unmatched leagues-beyond-anypony godlings he supposes they are either.

[Night Pony]

Never said they were. Alicorns and unicorns/pegasus are in way different legue to compare. Also we have little information about alicorns.
I was just saying that Dash and Twi are more powerful/stronger than your average unicorna and pegasus.

[The Wandering Magus]

average, yes, in that case I agree their training and dedication to improving themselves in their respective fields has made them better than the normal pegasus or unicorn generally tends to strive for.  My original statement was merely a refutation of Super_Chris's claims.  Apologies for the misunderstanding.

[Night Pony]

No apologies needed.