I'm writing a Sci-fi fic right now which focuses on this aspect and I wanted some input on the idea. Where do unicorns actually get their magic from?

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From the magical essence in the air, that only their horns can channel.

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Fat.
More advanced unicorns that study in the art of spell casting and god mode unicorns like Twilight can draw their magic from the magical laylines all around their world that are integral to the processes under the earth that cause their gravity, volcanoes, plate tectonics and such.

Think of it like mana and the core of their planet is solid mana and the spinning of which cases the laylines to exist.

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I like mine better.
Though it is kind of the same thing.

Depends on where you, as an author, want it to come from. A sort of inner reserve? Or perhaps using the natural magics around them? It's up to you. Just try to make certain that it makes sense in the context of the story.

2115583 I think of magic as an extension of food energy, personally.

If you want me to present an imaginary biological perspective, then here is what you can do:

Unicorn magic comes from within the pony like every other pony. However, their magic comes from a special gland on their brain (you can make up the name of this gland) and their horns are deeply rooted into this gland. This gland converts nutrients that pass through it into pure, magical energy. This energy is triggered when the unicorn engages in a form of concentration. The better that the gland can process magical energy, the more effective the unicorn would be at magic.

I hope this helps.

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I actually asked a question of unicorn magic, though it wasn't about their reserves. I would say it depends on their specialty. For example, Twilight can draw magic out of pretty much everything, whereas Celestia would draw most of it from the sun.

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The Noosphere. Which would explain why humans and Earth have no magic, too.
Have a link.
And another.

My theory is that their magic is sourced from the conceptual plane in the sense of Cartesian dualism. When a unicorn floats an object for example, gravity is acting on it in the physical plane, but the unicorn's mental force overrides.

2115649 I would say Rarity uses Telekinesis when it comes to designing dresses or using gems to make existing dresses shine, like when Sapphire Shores came to purchase outfits for her show. I think it had to do something with when Rarity's magic drew her to a geode, chalk full of gems, which she gathered and used to spruce up costumes for her school's play.

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Weeeeell, rather depends on the brand of sci-fi you want to go with. If you want to try to use some sort of scientific-sounding explanation, I'd go with them channeling some sort of ambient energy found omnipresently in space. A pony body doesn't exactly account for a huge reserve of available energy, unless you're going to start positing that they just convert their own mass directly into it.

If you're keeping the 'it's magic, so shut up' side of fantasy. Then whatever serves your story best, as SilentBelle said. The options of internal vs external vs metabolic sure as hell aren't all equal when it comes to what you'll be wanting to do, I bet.

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Innate magic, it's like their life force. Earth pony magic makes them stronger, a connection to the land, and a wider range of talents. Pegasi magic allows them to walk on clouds (not sure if flight is purely physical, considering the physics involved...). Unicorns are just able to actively channel their magic, at the cost of having less passive abilities.

Given that the use of prolonged or high-intensity magic seems to physically fatigue unicorns in the show (as well as the rest of the main six when the Elements of Harmony are initially used), I generally assume that magic draws from the energy of the unicorn employing it, as opposed to some sort of ambient energy pervading the world. Against my own point, however, you could argue that the fatigue could come from the strain of attempting to tap and channel those ambient energies when producing magic. Personally, I think 'innate' access to magic is more compelling.

I wonder, though, if that means there's a sort of 'life-force' quality to said energy, or whether its simply a question of tapping into the body's more conventional energy reserves.

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The way I look at it, unicorns draw their magic from the natural magic in the air around them, then channel it through their horns. However, dragons have an internal magic ergo their ability to breath fire.

Hopes this helps.

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Short answer: From the same place Zebra, earth ponies, pegasi, dragons, and others draw it from.

Long answer: It is drawn from an extra-corpular dimensional pocket which functionally possesses infinite matter and energy, and 'magical' items and organisms are entangled with the pocket in order to draw upon resources of both energy and informational processes to specific functions depending on the method of tapping into that dimensional pocket. For unicorns, the tap is provided via the horn and ancillary organs attached to it, and is noted for requiring high-levels of conscious thought and recognition of physical laws in order to manifest complex spells. The tap, being integral to the unicorn, rather than the pocket itself, can be worn down, fatigued, or even damaged.

2115638 The problem with that is that metabolic processes cannot account for some of the things the ponies do. Produce explosive forces of luminesscence like the sonic rainboom? Make a door out of nothingness? Teleport? All these things require energy and processing that is beyond that of what an organic cell by itself can produce.

2115688 Ooh, I'm going to have to remember these ones later.

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Midichlorians.

...But seriously, all ponies seem to be more or less magical - pegasi can walk on clouds and control the weather, and earth ponies presumably have a connection to nature. So it's unlikely the unicorns are doing anything in particular to generate it - they just have a natural magic wand connecting to their brains that let them channel spells easily. So, there are two main possibilities here:

1) All ponies, and likely other living beings, have a personal, internal source of magic, or
2) There is a universial source of magic power that all living things tap into, similar to the Force in Star Wars.

I don't have any particular headcanon on this issue since the show hasn't given us a lot of hints about it, plus I don't think figuring out exactly where magic comes from is very interesting or important. So, it comes down to what works best for your story.

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How about...

"Raw" magic exists in a field around the planet, not unlike the Earth's magnetic field. Magic in this form is useless - any spell-like effect it has on an object is purely random occurrence. However, through a lobe in their brain, most organisms are able to interact with the field and process raw magic into "refined" magic. The larger this lobe, the more magic it can process per unit of time, and the more powerful the organism is.

All ponies have a magic-processing lobe - but only unicorns (and alicorns) have one that is large enough to process a sufficient amount of magic for spells. The horn is made of a magic-conducting material and is linked to the lobe. It serves as a pathway for spells and refined magic out of the lobe. The larger the horn, the more refined magic the unicorn can release per unit of time, and the more powerful the unicorn's spells.

Tl;dr? Unicorns tap into the "raw" magical field, refine the magic through a lobe in their brain, and then use their horn as a conductor for the outgoing magic (a.k.a. spells).

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Yup. I think the Stalkerverse take on the Noosphere really fits a "sciencey" explanation for magic: conscious thoughts of the people produce that kind of energy field, and the byproducts of interfering with it are oftentimes imprevisible and can break the law of physics (e.g. the Stalkerverse Zone). Magic shares both these traits of randomness (when uncontrolled) and physic-breaking abilities, and given that in Equestria, even animals are sapient, it would make the Noosphere there much stronger than on Earth, and using magic would be much easier.

As a consequence, a pony on Earth would have its magical abilities severely diminished. Unicorns could barely do any kind of telekinesis, Earth ponies would lose their strength/durability, pegasi would have a much harder time flying and alicorns would be reduced to basic magical feats (e.g. telekinesis, weak shields...). There is no telling how that would affect humans.

I guess they have something similar to chi.

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One version I like
Unicorns have some stored energy, but can draw from leylines/ambient magic, though the channeling drains them more than using stored energy. On the other hand, unicorns tend to have less "stores" of energy.
Earth Ponies can very easily draw from the natural magic field, though most of their skills are passive.
Pegasi are somewhere in between, able to summon a bit of mana to their hooves and wings (albeit mostly unconsciously ) which in certain circumstances, they can spread it to cover larger areas, like a chariot.

2115583 Where does gravity come from?

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A unicorn's horn is a phallus, which in itself is an expression of power. The more phallic and "bigger" a unicorn's horn is, the more "powerful" they are.
Joking aside, magic is entirely internal. It's an expression of their will and the way in which they construct their reality, made manifest in the physical. The same is true of more mundane manifestations, such as getting a hammer and nails and building a shed instead of "magic-ing" it into existence. The difference between the two is largely an illusion. How an act is accomplished, whether it be through magic or through technology, is irrelevant. Will is expressed, and the deed is done. How the shed got made in the first place is beside the fact that somepony willed it into being made it.
This has two implications: 1), that any pony (earth, pegasus, or unicorn) has unlimited potentiality (whether or not they choose to ignore that part of themselves or convince themselves otherwise is another story), and 2), that no feat of magic can be accomplished with an "I can't" attitude. The same is true of just about anything, too. This means that magic is inherently subjective.
At least, that's what I work off of.

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Expect Techlogy do thing on it own rather magic most doesn't normal unless you make something like chaos gods of Warhammer 40k

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From within. Unicorns, like any other pony, absorb magic through their skin to add to their reserves; on that note, magic is finite inside a body, and a unicorn becomes overchanneled if they use all of their bodily magic faster than it can be refilled and begin drawing it from the air. The horn is made of alicorn, a crystal that has encrusted a nerve covered in fibrous tissue. This tissue has the ability to alter the angle of the attached crystal to aim and control the flow of magic within the horn, usually to channel it through the point. Standard telekinesis is caused when a beam of magic is passed through an object (note that magic is only visible when acting upon a solid object; a beam most definitely connects the caster to the cast-ee); the magic passing through acts within the object, circulating within and bubbling to the surface, the standard magical field that we see. During all of this, the unicorn saps magic from the air, while the energy used in the spell is burned off in an unusable state.

That's off the top of my head. What do you think?

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The two major types of magical channeling is Nima (from the well of their essence/soul) or ambient (drawing the arcane energy naturally in the area). As the latter would prove to create problems for high concentrations of unicorns, it's generally accepted that they channel their magic from their own essence.

From the dense toxic cloud of wish fulfillment fantasies generated by certain chatty and annoying members of the site.

Im doing a fic right now that has magic explained by sub-femto/plank length technology.

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I like to think that unicorns get their magical energy from the energy stored in their body . Like chi is accessible to humans, so is magic to ponies, though instead of the belly button, a unicorn's power is primarily exerted through the horn. If they got it from an external source Everypony would be as powerful as Celestia with enough study.

The Aether

2115583 The Force. It is strong with them.

2115583 From monsters, duh.

But unicorns never learned the part where they can junction 100 Curagas to their HP for great profit.

My personal favorite is sort of a combination of some of these.

First, terms!
Aether - a pervading field generated by living organisms. Imagine it like the earths electromagnetic field, except generated by the life in a planet, rather than the planets core.
Magic - the forces that generate and affect the aether

All life forms in Equestria contribute to the planets aetheric field, and many have developed ways to shape this contribution, like pegasus flight. Unicorns developed a horn to both sense and manipulate the field outside of their own body. All unicorns can use the magic generated by their own bodies, and with special training, they can use store and use magic from an external source as well. Very talented magicians can draw magic directly from the aether (like it's possible to generate electricity with a copper wire and the earths EM field)

All ponies store a certain amount of magic in their bodies, but there is no chemical reaction that could come close to the forces they routinely utilize. However the nature of the energy in question allows for a living being to store magic directly. In order to visualize this you need to imagine an extra dimension to all life forms. Imagine it like the intensity of their colors, just not related to visible light. Okay, that doesn't really fit but it's really hard to explain in three dimensions...

2115583 It's magic, you ain't gotta explain shit.

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In what way does technology not require someone to be there? If a machine performs a task, then someone somepony had to have made it and given it said task at one point. Same as magical enchantments. Don't let tech's apparent autonomy fool you; we see that Tank's flying device is powered by magic and continues to operate after Twilight cast the initial spell. Her enchantment, a product of magic, behaves much like a computer program in this way. Neither would, however, under any circumstances do anything had somepony not have been there to set things in motion to begin with.