During the two week period following the arrival of the creature known as Vegeta, events unfolded that caused our glorious leaders of night and day to realize that the information on ki users passed down to each generation of monarchy was terribly biased, and horribly inaccurate. The goals of this research was to discover the effects, if any, that advanced ki use had on the effects of each pony species inner magic. We have carefully observed, and questioned, the ponies released from Tartarus by Lunalia: Titan Hoof, Star Binder, and Thundering Sky. Special notes have also been taken on General Bladewing, General Iron Horn, and Rainbow Dash. This report has been compiled at the request of Princess Celestia, and contains information acquired over the last eleven months of extensive research. May future generations benefit from this report.

ALICORNS

At this time, we have  been unable to study the effects of ki use on alicorns. We hope to rectify this in the future.

EARTH PONIES

At first glance, earth ponies seem to gain the greatest boon from ki training. The inner magic of earth ponies gives them a natural edge in strength and stamina over the other races, and this especially holds true in the case of ki users. While their strength does not increase any faster than the others, they do have greatly increased stamina. The more proficient they become with ki, i.e. the stronger they become, the more their stamina increases beyond pegasi and unicorns. This allows them to train for much greater lengths of time before showing signs of fatigue, therefore creating the illusion that they get stronger, faster. (This is believed to be the reason as to why Titan Hoof is much more powerful than his two allies.) This also means that they are able to sustain much more damage in combat before succumbing to an enemy assault.

UNICORNS

Unicorns gain two distinct abilities as they gain advanced proficiency in ki use. First, an incredibly strong natural defense against raw magic. While elemental magic still affects them normally, attacks consisting of nothing but raw magical energy must be incredibly powerful to even affect them. And even if it can harm them, the damage from the assault will be severely reduced from what it normally would be. (This is possibly the only reason Star Binder was capable of surviving Captain Shining Armor's Pulse Blast, and the final part of General Iron Horn's Five Point Element Break.)

Next, unicorns are able to grasp the capabilities of ki based abilities much faster than earth ponies and pegasi. This gives them the ability to create a much wider array of attacks than their counterparts, and are even able mix raw magic and ki to create devastating attacks (as displayed by Star Binder's Magicka Helix).

PEGASI

Where earth ponies gain increased stamina, and unicorns acquire greater defense against magic, the pegasi see a drastic increase in speed. According to Thundering Sky, he possessed roughly one-fifteenth the strength of Titan Hoof, but was still faster. To the untrained eye, this difference in speed is almost unnoticeable in combat, but becomes quite obvious in full flight.

Also, after extensive study, it has been discovered that the mixture of the pegasi's inner magic and ki, after reaching a certain flight speed, is what results in the creation of the fabled Sonic Rainboom. A full burst of ki around the pegasus, after reaching a certain speed, causes the visible light spectrum around them to shatter, and temporarily doubles the user's speed. Due to this drastic increase in speed, the Sonic Rainboom can be used as an incredibly powerful offensive maneuver (though the user will sustain extensive damage, as demonstrated by Rainbow Dash). Unlike what was previously believed, the Sonic Rainboom can be triggered at will.

The Sonic Rainboom will be explained in greater detail later.

SPECIAL NOTES: GENERAL BLADEWING

The effects of General Bladewing's Lightning Form do not decrease with her increased power. Prior to her training, her Lightning Form would boost her strength and speed by approximately fifty times what she possessed in her normal form. This form does not increase her defensive capabilities, ergo she will still sustain heavy damage from stronger opponents.

All of the above information applies to her increased strength. The stronger she becomes, the more powerful she becomes when using her Lightning Form.

SPECIAL NOTES: GENERAL IRON HORN

Though his pool of magical energy is no greater than that of any other advanced spell caster, the unnatural length of his horn (which is almost the same length as Celestia's) allows him to magnify the power of his spells to ten times their normal level. Though, more powerful spells do drain his reserves of magic faster.

SPECIAL NOTES: RAINBOW DASH

Other than the other abilities pegasi have been noted to have, Rainbow Dash has one ability that is unique to her. During situations of heightened emotion, she seems to erupt with an incredibly strong power that she can't normally call upon. The first time this phenomena was observed was during her battle with Thundering Sky. Despite not even being as strong as General Bladewing or her brother, the power that she displayed surpassed that of her foe. This is also believed to be the reason she has been the only pegasus in the last few thousand years that has been capable of performing the Sonic Rainboom, and also the reason she did not have control over it until recently.

At this time, we have been unable to ascertain just how deep this power runs. The stronger she gets, the stronger this power seems to get.