In my opinion, one of the most underrated magic users in the show is... Sweetie Belle.

Why Sweetie Belle, might you ask?

To explain, going off of the show, she has casted a shield spell, if rather weak, in Campfire Tales (S7), she has flawlessly casted Accelero (S8, Surf and/or Turf; if you watch this timestamped video, it's really easy to miss that she did that unless you slow that part down and/or watch it multiple times, and you can also briefly see that Scootaloo, Terramar, and Apple Bloom have dumbfounded expressions on their faces right after she zooms off), and she pulled a double teleport, albeit short-range and unrefined (S9, Growing Up is Hard to Do [I should note that Twilight used to have issues with that one, and she also groaned right after her first solo teleport, kinda had to catch her bearings for a bit in the pilot two-parter, after learning it from being subjected to it]), all while she's still a kid (true, she was temporarily aged up in the "teleported" case, but she'd still be operating off of magical knowledge she already has).

How would she have access to any of this knowledge, develop her skills? Well, Twilight Time back in S4 did establish that she's practiced basic magic under Twilight's tutelage before, and it wasn't really established that she stopped practicing to strengthen it (in fact, aside from the aforementioned spells it seems like the opposite was implied, if this little moment was anything to go by, where she stopped rolling a barrel to do this, as if she was exercising her magic.).

When you put all of that together, Sweetie Belle is, barring newborns going through magical surges, or prodigious examples like say, Twilight Sparkle, when she got her cutie mark, or Flurry Heart in general, etc, one of the better mages, especially at such a young age, and I think it would be reasonable to say she'd be quite comfortably adept at magic as an adult (which would be fortunate, if she's a teacher in the School of Friendship, as the last episode showed, for those that could benefit from her knowledge... or if she's in an adventure sort of story).

Regarding her cutie mark, it is worth noting that she has a star on it, and stars/celestial objects on those can be often be a sign of a unicorn's magical abilities being above-average.

She does strike me as the type that would be wanting to stick up for herself and others, and while the trait would be downplayed due to her being a child, I think she is possibly (ironically enough) the most aggressive of the CMC, because I can't quite remember any of the others, for instance, doing anything of this nature (flicking Rarity's horn, in this case) with their respective siblings.

I think I'd stand by saying she's quite possibly the most dangerous of the CMC in a straight fight, at least being able to beat Scootaloo in one, however much the latter might bluster to the contrary (Apple Bloom, it might depend on how strong and how good she'd be with potions, and what applications those have).

An honorable mention for "underrated magical prowess" in this case would be Cadance (who is also an underrated princess, in my opinion, because of her track record with Worfing compared to Celestia and Luna), who helped curb-stomp a changeling army and their leader, held off Sombra for days without sleeping, made a health bubble that protected her and Twilight from something that had brought Discord down to sickness, kept up with Twilight in a fight in the same episode (Three's a Crowd, which also showed that she was just as excited as Twilight to see Star Swirl the Bearded exhibits, which would seem to hint at a magical interest), and is the one who Twilight asked to proofread the spell she found in and had to remember to help with a crisis to make sure it's good, and helped her do it (The Crystalling; yes it did fail in solving the problem, but Twilight trusts her judgement, looked to her for a second opinion, and they didn't do the spell incorrectly), all of which is more notable because if expanded universe material is any indication, Cadance was originally born a pegasus.

To get this analysis kind of on-topic regarding "stories" (I hope this wasn't too off-topic overall, from what the group's topics would normally be, but I'm guessing and hoping this is fine), I'd like to end this with a question: how often is Sweetie Belle portrayed as a competent/powerful mage in stories, whether it's the main focus of the plot, or not, especially in future fics? I think I'd say she does have a canonical basis for that to be a plausible plot element, especially since I think you could convincingly argue that she has more of a passion on the matter of "magic" than Rarity does. (Sweetie Belle is rather well-rounded in her interests, I'd say, _{and rather sane by unicorn standards})

Regarding your question, I believe it's because people explore or just fall into the rest of her abilities.
I believe that anypony should be able to master magic with enough dedication and training. (In fact one of my nitpicks with the shoe is that outside of Sunset we don't really see any other pony researching magic to the level of Twilight despite having a school for magical training)
Rarity, especially at the end of the series, showed to be far more competent mage than at the start, so the possibility is there.

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--Sweetie Belle

This is a really great post! This is exactly the sort of well-evidenced, in depth post I enjoy reading, and it makes a really good point. I haven't thought of Sweetie Belle as a good mage in the past, but all the evidence points to her actually being a very strong magic user! Thanks for sharing this.

Trixie, clearly. Remember how she performed Mane magic on Rarity in her first appearance? And recall how Twilight and Starlight Glimmer, the two undisputed champions of BS Magical Power in the show said Mane Magic is basically impossible?

Trixie rests her-- I mean, I rest my case. Yes.

Oh, and Sweetie Belle is awesome. I suppose...

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And that time she teleported the Friendship Harmony Map, a very magical object, far away from the very magical castle, and she did it by accident.

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They referenced both Empire Strikes Back (by Sweetie Belle saying "weighs a ton" at one point, regarding it), and The Sorcerer's Apprentice with that one, by it being a broom.

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Thank you! I was hoping that some people would find this topic for discussion interesting enough. I think the show could've done more to make such a element of Sweetie Belle's character more prominent than it was, as opposed to it being as subtle as it was (well, at least until she teleported, anyway), but I found it interesting how she got a lot better at magic as time went on, from her not being able to levitate objects (S1-S4), to being on the road to refining her teleports.

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Arguable retcons or "potion magic made it harder/the prodigies were being lazy" aside, I will say Trixie is unambiguously good at magic herself by the end, being able to transfigure (S7), self-levitate and make shields (S8) and teleport and make shields in short order (S9).

_{and then there's Snails, who's good enough at telekinesis to self-levitate, and Twilight Velvet also did so (though considering her children, it's unsurprising for her to be good at magic)}

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Rarity, especially at the end of the series, showed to be far more competent mage than at the start, so the possibility is there.

Really? IMO, Rarity is by far at her magical best in Season 1.

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I don't mean she wasn't good at the start, she certainly had developed her magic in the ways that would be more useful to her, mainly her
telekinesis. And at the end of the show she seems to have gotten even better at that.

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But from Season 2 onwards, she stopped using non-telekinetic magic almost entirely. I can't call that an improvement.

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Not being shown that she uses it doesn't imply she forgot about it, and in season 9 she blast vines away in the Everfree, lifted an entire boulder to protect Twilgiht, and made a shield with Spike to counter Chrysalis magic when she was empowered by Grogar's magic.

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Decent raw strength - perhaps she's been working out? - but nothing that any other unicorn couldn't have done. I prefer her - all unicorns, really - to have a more unique taste to their talents.

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Rarity used to only attack others physically, too, I should note (and to mostly good effect, actually). Before S9, she only I think used magic offensively against changelings in the comics (the one that happened right after Chrysalis' first defeat), and in a dream.

There's also how she blindfolded a brainwashed Fancy Pants and then turned the net he had against him and the mob he was with in the first S9 two-parter, thus showing telekinetic precision.

(And there's this Movie gif too, for a more mundane note)

She also temporarily pushed back Chrysalis' beam when Spike and her worked together, aside from that shield that lasted a second or two (should note that Chrysalis did effortlessly counter them both when she pushed back with more power).

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I have a theory that Trixe got a power boost from the Alicorn Amulet. Not just a temporary one.

We seen her do spells like teleport and transfiguration (tea cup) not just one but rapidly. After the whole Amulet event.

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to have a more unique taste to their talents.

And I agree, many have said Rarity's magic is more about precision than Twilgiht.

While Rarity is a telekenetic powerhouse, Sweetie Belle dies show a lot more range of spells than her sister or most other unicorns.

I would argue that Rarity is underrated as well, despite not having much in terms of range of spells. The reason for this is Rarity shows far more power than most unicorns on average. This can be demonstrated by the sheer number of things she can levitate and manage at once, but is more acutely demonstrated during the season three finale when her cutie mark is switched with Rainbow Dash's and what she does with the weather-- that is some seriously powerful magic she displayed in altering the weather on that scale. It can be argued to that the Inspiration Manifestation spell also relied on Rarity's power and showed her to be a magical powerhouse. Rarity may be just as strong as Starlight Glimmer when it comes to sheer magic power, what Rarity lacks is knowledge of a wide range of spells or interest in learning them.

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Telekinetic mastery is one thing she's always had, especially controlling many small items. And her physical combat skills are a cool and unexpected aspect of her chracter too.

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Or perhaps she just got a good teacher?

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But in Season 1 it was also about beauty.

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It's hard to tell, because we never get that much of an idea of what the average unicorn is capable of.

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Simply put, if the average unicorn was capable of altering weather on that scale there wouldn't have been a need for pegasi since a trained unicorn could do the same job better. Rarity might have been clueless about how to properly manage weather, but the fact that she was able to do what she did is a sign of incredible power.

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I always considered that part of the episode BS. While instantaneous hair growth would most likely kill somepony. (I have read way too many horror comics, I have seen people killed form the inside out with hair and plants. It's nuts!) We have medicine like lotions, hair transplants, and various pharmaceuticals that can regain hair in a matter of days. And considering how I've seen magic in MLP done before. I think Twilight and a couple of doctors can restore a semblance fo her mane in a few hours with the right chemistry and medical facilities. Or maybe cancel the interview and explain that there was an accident. Basically a not so good of a plot.

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But how may unicorns have weather magic in the first place? Because it seemed clear to me Rarity only did because her destiny had been twisted - she's never used it before or since.

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Well we don’t know how the Alicorn Amulet works. She was not as powerful as Twilight. We know this via the fight with the Ursa Minor. She just got it angrier.

When she had the Amulet on she displayed many high level spells Twilight could do herself.

So did the Amulet give Trixie the knowledge of those spells or just the power?

Even Twilight was surprised by her power. She said as much to Zecora.

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Yes, the Amulet is power booster. And the moment she took it off, her powers returned to normal - much to Rainbow Dash's good fortune.

(I don't think it taught her spells, though - she can be pretty creative.)

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So we can use Trixie as a base line. If her show was normal for most Unicorns then the crowd wouldn’t have been impressed.

The Amulet enhances the magic well in her body and we can assume kept her well full. Giving her near unlimited power similar to an Alicorn.

When that amulet was removed it’s corruptive magic went too.

Now my theory is her mana well still was expanded after the duel. Just empty except some of her own magic.

Think of adding water into a balloon then inflating it with air the rest of the way. Removing the air doesn’t mean the balloon deflates to the earlier size. Maybe poor example but similar principles. Trixie magic well was enhanced and stayed enhanced at the end of the episode, just empty of the extra magic.

That why she could do the high level spells later. She has more power.

She creative or knowledgeable about the spells she used during the duel. But didn’t have the power to use them before or she would have during her show.

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It's a possible theory. Depends how much you see the difference as one of power or training - she only started doing impressive magic once Starlight started teaching her.

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One thing too many fanfic writers do with the CMCs is write them as they were in Seasons 1&2. They have grown and changed -- especially since earning their cutie marks. Far too many fanfics continue to portray them as moveable disaster areas instead of the maturing young mares they are later in the series. Sweetie's much improved magic is one indicator of how much she's grown.

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A good portion of it is possibly due to the series not generally focusing on the daily lives of ponies that aren't the Mane Six, if anything, but yeah, we just didn't get much insight of the magical prowess of your average ponies, exactly, by the show's nature.

The closest thing I think we got to that was when a lot of unicorns pooled their magic together to save the Mane Seven (including Spike) with a shield, including Twilight's parents, classmates, Trixie, Flim and Flam, and others. Magical blasts seem to be a quite basic skill for unicorns, like telekinesis, but refinement/power seems like it would vary (for instance, aside from the numerous examples in S9 that would seem to point to that (notably in The Beginning of the End, Sunburst doing it in Student Counsel [on a side note, Starlight's reflexes are great] how the Royal Guards were shooting at a shielded Cozy Glow, a unicorn did try to blast Tirek in S4, which did pretty much immediately end in his magic being drained along with everyone else's, but still).

Sunburst was a case of being highly knowledgeable about magic, but he lacked the power to see it through, though the show did raise the possibility of if Starlight were there to help him through magic school, in that first S6 two-parter.

And yeah, I generally like the thought process of "train to become better at magic," so in a way I never really minded the thought of "Rarity grows stronger in magic," but seeing a sense of progression is generally nice to see on that front (which the show admittedly could've had more of with her, like say, showing her progressing from needing to be precise with her magic to be effective, which would still be of great value on its own, to being able to get away with throwing around power).

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I think that's the first time I've seen that as a headcanon (not going to discount it on principle, because it's not impossible), although I'd argue that being a magician (where sleight of hand/hoof is involved) could be impressive its own right, whether most of them could do that with raw power or not.

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Yeah, for the most part in later seasons, the CMCs greatly matured from how they used to be, and for quite a few authors, their mindsets, traits are based on earlier seasons, whether it's because they actually wrote the stories back then, or because they're consciously ignoring later developments (or just not watching newer stuff), perhaps. Or they just feel more comfortable writing them that way for whatever reason.

I'm not entirely sure.

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Not just fanfic writers.

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Season 9 heavily actionised everyone, although "unicorn as blaster emplacement" dates back to the Season 2 finale.

And I prefer the Rarity with creative magic and a mean right hoof.

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I'm definitely in the "Trixie is more powerful than we give her credit for" camp. Remember, Starlight was really impressed that she managed to learn teleportation in less than a day, which she even described as "Some sort of a record" in All Bottled Up. My personal belief is that Trixie, for whatever reason, just never had a good formal magical education. It's likely because she's more interested in showmanship than in being a scholar, but she can definitely learn pretty high-level spells when she has a good teacher working with her.

My weirdo head canon is that she's smart and powerful, but has a learning disability. Her arrogance comes mainly from her insecurity about it.

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I like that idea. That she has a learning disability and no one really tried to teach her one on one method till Starlight.

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My thoughts exactly.

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Forgive me if I'm being a bit pedantic here, but Starlight wasn't really impressed, so much as she was worried and frustrated over how she dropped the ball by teleporting the Friendship Map, and I wouldn't say she "mastered it" in less than a day, considering she didn't use it for anything since, until S9.

Starlight Glimmer: If you master this spell before the girls get back, you'd be setting some kind of record!

Although I will say that teleporting that thing was impressive.

(and then later, in To Change a Changeling)

Trixie: We need our help! Teleportation spell, go! Teleportation spell, go! [gasps] Teleportation spell—!
Starlight Glimmer: Ugh! Why do you keep doing that? You know it doesn't work that way.
Trixie: I know, but this is my process.

...as far as a headcanon I've seen before (not saying I believe it, necessarily), Trixie used to be in Celestia's magic school, but she ended up getting expelled.

Trixie having some sort of a learning disability/impairment (ADHD? Something else?) does sound like it could be an interesting enough idea, and "more powerful than we gave her credit for, she just didn't fully realize how to apply herself, refine her magic, once upon a time" checks out.

7282831 It's interesting that she went from using no magic at all in S1 to being arguably the most in tune with her species' abilities by S9. Apple Bloom's earth pony magic never seemed to come into play, and we know Scootaloo's pegasus magic isn't enough to get her to fly (though she can hover for a few seconds).