While the mechanics and style would remain the same, Faust would assist by providing original character designs unrelated to the My Little Pony franchise. On March 1, 2013, Mane6 announced on their website that they were ceasing attempted negotiation with Hasbro, but that Lauren Faust would indeed be helping to finish the game. Sweetiebotatdd Not MLP OCs, something totally new.- Lauren Faust (Fyre_flye) February 9, 2013 Manesix want some original characters to make a new game with?- Lauren Faust (Fyre_flye) February 9, 2013 The following week, news of the legal issues appeared on Destructoid, Kotaku and VG24/7. The day the cease and desist was issued, Friendship is Magic's creator Lauren Faust reached out to the Mane6 over Twitter, offering completely new original characters for them to make a game with. Mane6 announced their intention to attempt negotiation with Hasbro, although the project remains indefinitely suspended as of February 18th, 2013. They were ordered to discontinue development as well as remove all My Little Pony-related content from the game, effectively terminating the project. On February 8th, 2013, it was announced that Mane6 had received a cease and desist letter from Hasbro, owners of the My Little Pony franchise. The attention from EVO lead to an in-depth look at the game's creation and future on Gamespot. However, by the end of the tournament battle, Fighting is Magic was removed from the contest so it could be highlighted in the Indie Games Showcase, while an exhibition tournament would be held if the game won the overall drive. A donation drive to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Fund was established to determine the eighth tournament title was won by Super Smash Brothers: Melee, despite Fighting is Magic raising more than $5000. The staff also learned that the game was in the running to be part of one of the eight official tournaments at the event.
In January 2013, it was announced that Fighting is Magic was to be showcased in an exhibition at the Evolution Championship Series (EVO), an annual fighting game tournament held in the United States, later that year.
We won't answer any questions relative to it, we won't give technical support to it, we won't discuss mechanics or graphic details from it, given its status as a leaked, unfinished, internal testing build, which happened to be leaked just right before a major update was pushed to our now closed QA test program." Mane6 released an official statement on their website, removed as of February 19, 2013, saying, "The unfinished version of Fighting is Magic is, needless to say, unsupported. That day, footage of the leaked game was posted to YouTube, and on August 3 the torrented file was made available on the Pirate Bay. On August 2, 2012, Equestria Daily reported that a testing build of Fighting is Magic had been leaked after its use in a QA session. Though all of their official videos have been since removed, there are more than 17,000 search results for “Fighting is Magic” on YouTube, featuring the music from the game as well as recorded livestreams of beta playthroughs.
A wiki about the game launched in August 2012 and there is also a TV Tropes entry chronicling details about the game. In August 2011, an unofficial fan page for the game was established on Facebook, gaining more than 2,600 fans as of February 2013.