It started with a leak. Way back in the early 2010s, the "Brony" subculture was exploding, and a small team of developers known as Mane6 decided to do something insane: build a high-quality, competitive fighting game featuring the cast of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. They called it MLP Friendship is Fighting. It wasn't just some clunky Flash project or a low-effort reskin of a MUGEN build. It was a legitimate, frame-perfect fighter that caught the attention of the entire fighting game community (FGC), including the organizers of EVO.
Then came the "Cease and Desist" letter from Hasbro.
Honestly, it’s one of the most famous heartbreaks in indie gaming history. One day, the project was the talk of the internet, and the next, it was legally dead. But the thing is, games like this never really stay dead. Between the leaked early builds and the eventual spiritual successor, the DNA of that original project still influences how people think about fan-made games and intellectual property rights today.
The Mechanical Genius Behind the Ponies
If you actually sit down and play the leaked builds of MLP Friendship is Fighting, you realize something immediately. These developers weren't just fans of a cartoon; they were hardcore fighting game nerds. They were building a game that felt like a mix of Marvel vs. Capcom and Guilty Gear.
The combat was fast. Brutally fast.
Most people expected a game about ponies to be soft or simplified, but Mane6 implemented complex mechanics like "Magic" gauges that functioned differently for every character. Twilight Sparkle was a zoner who could teleport and fire projectiles, while Applejack played like a heavy-hitting grappler. The animation was the real kicker, though. They didn't just trace the show. They hand-animated every frame to ensure that the hitboxes were precise and the movements felt impactful.
It felt "heavy" in all the right ways.
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When you landed a hit in MLP Friendship is Fighting, the screen shake and the sound design made it feel like a legitimate impact. That’s a rare feat for a fan project. Most fan games feel floaty. This felt like a professional product that just happened to feature colorful equines.
The Hasbro Shutdown and the EVO Factor
In 2013, everything changed. MLP Friendship is Fighting was gaining so much momentum that it was actually winning polls to be featured at EVO (Evolution Championship Series), the biggest fighting game tournament in the world. This was unprecedented. A fan game based on a children's toy line was about to share a stage with Street Fighter and Tekken.
That’s likely what triggered the lawyers.
Hasbro sent a C&D right before the game was finished. It was a PR nightmare. The fans were furious, and the developers were crushed. However, this is where the story gets weird and, frankly, awesome. Lauren Faust, the creator of the Friendship is Magic TV show, saw what happened. She reached out to the Mane6 team and told them she loved their work. She even offered to design brand-new, original characters for them so they could keep making their game without infringing on Hasbro's copyright.
That’s how Them's Fightin' Herds was born.
But even though Them's Fightin' Herds is a great game—and it is, you should play it—the original MLP Friendship is Fighting remains a "holy grail" for collectors and fans of lost media. People still hunt for the "Tribute Edition," which was a fan-finished version of the leaked assets. It’s a strange, underground scene where people keep the original vision alive in the shadows of the internet.
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Why the "Tribute Edition" Still Matters
You can’t talk about MLP Friendship is Fighting without talking about the Tribute Edition. Since the original developers had to scrub all pony assets to move forward legally, the community took the leaked Pre-Alpha builds and ran with them. They added music, finished some of the backgrounds, and balanced the characters based on the notes the original team had left behind.
It’s essentially a piece of digital folk art.
The community refused to let the work go to waste. They saw the potential in the engine. They loved the "Level 3" super moves that referenced specific episodes of the show. For many, it wasn't just about playing a fighting game; it was about the defiance of corporate overreach. It was a way to say, "You can stop the official release, but you can't take the files off our hard drives."
What the Roster Felt Like
- Twilight Sparkle: The quintessential "Shoto" character but with a heavy emphasis on projectiles and teleportation mix-ups.
- Rainbow Dash: A high-speed aerial specialist. If you weren't good at blocking overheads, a Dash player would end the round in thirty seconds.
- Pinkie Pie: Pure chaos. She used "cartoon logic" that broke the traditional rules of the game's physics, making her a nightmare to predict.
- Rarity: A mid-range poke character who used gems to control space. She was arguably the most difficult character to master because of her reliance on precise spacing.
The Legal Legacy of Fan Games
The MLP Friendship is Fighting saga changed how indie developers approach fan projects. Nowadays, you see fewer people announcing their "big fan project" years in advance. They’ve learned from Mane6. Most developers now wait until the game is 100% finished before they drop it on a server somewhere, knowing that a C&D can’t stop a file that’s already been downloaded 50,000 times.
It also highlighted the "Grey Zone" of fan art.
Companies like Sega have famously embraced fan games (look at Sonic Mania), while others, like Nintendo and Hasbro, tend to be much more protective. The Mane6 situation proved that even with the support of the original creator (Lauren Faust), the corporate entity owning the IP will always prioritize brand protection over fan engagement. It's a cold reality of the industry.
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How to Experience the Game Today
If you're looking to actually play MLP Friendship is Fighting in 2026, it’s a bit of a trek. You won’t find it on Steam. You won't find it on any official storefront. You have to go to the corners of the web where fighting game preservationists hang out.
- Search for the Tribute Edition: This is the most stable version of the game. It includes the full "Mane 6" roster and mostly functional menus.
- Look into the Fighting Is Magic: Aurora engine: Some fans have ported the assets into newer engines to allow for better online play and controller support.
- Check Discord Communities: There are still small pockets of players who organize matches through private Discord servers. They use "Rollback" netcode plugins to make the game playable over long distances without lag.
Honestly, it’s worth the effort just to see the craftsmanship. It’s a reminder of a very specific era of the internet—a time when people were willing to put thousands of hours into a project just because they loved a show and a genre.
Actionable Steps for Fans and Creators
If you’re a developer inspired by this story, the lesson isn't "don't make fan games." The lesson is "protect your work."
If you're working on a project using someone else's IP, keep it quiet until it's done. Or, better yet, do what Mane6 eventually did: build a solid engine, and then pivot to original characters. Them's Fightin' Herds is now on consoles and has a dedicated following because the core mechanics were so good they didn't actually need the ponies to be a success.
For the players, if you find a copy of the original MLP Friendship is Fighting, back it up. Cloud drives, external hard drives, whatever. Digital history is fragile, and games like this—ones that technically "don't exist" in the eyes of the law—are the first things to disappear.
The game is a testament to what happens when hobbyist passion meets professional-grade talent. It’s messy, it’s complicated, and it’s legally "taboo," but it remains one of the most impressive feats in the history of the fighting game community. Whether you’re a fan of the show or just a fan of tight frame data and complex combos, the legacy of this project is something that deserves to be remembered.
Next Steps for Exploration:
- Download the Them's Fightin' Herds demo to see how the mechanics evolved after the legal shift.
- Research the "Fighting is Magic" documentary videos on YouTube for a frame-by-frame breakdown of the original animations.
- Join the Mane6 legacy forums if you are looking for technical patches to get the original build running on modern Windows 11/12 systems.