@Background Pony #E201  
Considering unicorns can pick things up without incinerating them and can alter reality using spells I’m pretty sure that whatever their magic is it does not fit into the confines of our world’s science

@Background Pony #E201  
Evolution takes millions of years to work, typically. Plus, few unicorns can self-levitate, this would mean unicorns could never lift anything flammable, and finally, evolution would imply hundreds of thousands if not millions of unicorns had burned themselves to death trying to levitate and failing. Oh, and that’s assuming that organic biology is even capable of making such a heat shield…
 
More likely if it’s plasma, it’s somehow colder. I’m not sure if/how that’s possible, but I know neon lights are plasmas that aren’t exorbantly hot - at least I don’t think so. You could try reading into it.

@Cirrus Light  
You forgot, the history of Equestria goes at least 1000 years, and probably more. Evolution can heatproof unicorns to their magic.

@Background Pony #E201  
I think if you tried to levitate like that, though, the hot air would sear you.

And for another scientific theory: Unicorn magic is actually the formation of plasma.  
Looking at Matpat’s investigation of the Kamehameha wave, it seems that the kamahameha blasts shot by the DBZ characters are very similar to the magic blasts commonly employed by unicorns/alicorns. Since Mat seems to prove that the kamahameha attacks are plasma beams. He also explains how the blasts can be blocked by plasma. This explains both the magic blasts and the magic shields.  
Also, in the lightsaber vs. energy sword episode, Mat recites from the Halo lore that the energy sword’s blade is plasma held together by magnetism. Levitation spells, then, can be cast by creating a plasma field around an object. This field can then be manipulated by magnetism, and the object can be moved.  
Also, notice that horned ponies with cosmic cutie marks are the most powerful. The reason is that since 99% of the universe seems to be plasma, these ponies’ marks represent the ability of said ponies to access all of this plasma.  
So, a unicorn’s horn superheats the air around it, and the hotter the horn can get, the more air that can be heated. This range of heatable air is the ‘magic aura’ of each unicorn. Their power comes from the ability to control the plasma they generate, either with magnetism or some other force.

@TarivGy  
That’s also accepted fanon. Feel free to pick either or.
 
I prefer this because it doesn’t go the cheap magic route. And as far as I remember, in Twilight’s Kingdom, ponies could pick things up even after drained by Tirek.

I mean, all ponies have their own innate magic of different types. What’s to say that all species of pony aren’t capable of projecting a short range telekinetic field from their fore-hooves? It makes sense in universe.

@NostalgiaSchmaltz  
It’s actually linked in the Deviantart description :p
 
@Background Pony #01B3  
Lol, there’s actually a book called “Mormon Scientist.” It’s about an apostle in the church that was, I think it was a nuclear physicist, iirc. What else would you expect from a church that wears suits? ^^ hehe. The church leaders actually strongly encourage a lot of education.
 
@Whimsey  
On the deviantart description, I actually mentioned that sources were taken from a variety of places. The difference in-between plagarism and research is the number of sources, and in this case, I made this from a large number of different sources. That was, in fact, one of them, though. Problem is, a large number of the others were conversations I had with friends and things I hardly even remember it was so long ago.
 
And as others have pointed out, that wasn’t the first place the idea was put forward. I could equally claim you stole the idea from Equestria Daily.

Idea stolen from >>287228. This version explains the anatomy in a better way.  
!derpibooru.org/287228!

inb4 upvotes galore tag.

The guy who made this is a scientist. A freaking Mormon scientist.

@Ferrotter  
It was only the contemporary iron horseshoe that was invented in the middle ages. Ancient civilizations did recognize a need to protect a horse’s hoof from wear and came up with a variety of precursors to the horseshoe, such as the hipposandal.

Horseshoes weren’t invented until the middle ages, because they weren’t needed prior to the proliferation of Roman roads. It’s only with constant travel on hard surfaces that hoof wear reaches a point that it’s bad for the horse. Like rodents needing somethkng to gnaw for keeping their teeth from growing through the opposite jaw, horses walking on varied natural terrain keep their hooves in good trim just by walking. With the exception of Canterlot, there’s nowhere in Equestrian that horseshoes would make any sense. They’d “protect” the hooves from healthy wear, and cause them to overgrow, leading to ankle problems and rot. It’s very common in neglected horses.
 
The Romans for their part never invented horseshoes to go with their roads. They just figured the lifespan of a horse was short, and they were supposed to die when their hooves wore out.

Now I definitely believe in the sticky hoof!

That…. actually makes a lot of sense. I always wondered how hooves worked, now I know.

I do like the Universal Gripper, but I don’t think this really works for pony hooves. We’ve seen them use hooves for not only delicate work, but complicated work, such as playing a violin.
 
My guess is that since a hoof is probably made out of a similar keratin structure as a Unicorn’s horn (alicorn) that it has some magical ability of its own.

@Background Human  
I’d say that’s just by virtue of it being a cartoony setting rather than there being some fundamental difference between Equestrian ponies’ hooves and pony hooves in the human world. Remember that Equestria Girls was also drenched in cartoon physics/logic.

Horse hooves do have a soft, rubbery part called a sole on the bottom. Within the scope of the show at least, this does make sense.

@Trachyon  
Indirectly. The EQD link I posted above has a more recent edit of that video embedded.

It’s a neat idea, but we’ll never know anything for sure about the hooves of Equestrian ponies except that they are definitely not like the hooves of Terran ponies.

I’m not sure that diagram is correct. When a jamming grabber grabs something, air is PUMPED OUT. This jams the particles together. To unjam it and drop the object, the device releases air back in.
 
This diagram makes it look like the particles just jam together whenever you press it into an object and then lets go when air is applied.

Has anyone plugged the *UNIVERSAL JAMMING GRIPPER video yet?

I always figured it was van der Waals force.