Twimac anybody?

@Background Pony #645B  
Certainly not. I hope she meets a nice stallion in season 9. Limestone too. Everyone deserves a chance to find that special somepony who makes them happy.

@Background Pony #645B  
Most definitely no

Am I the only one who actually feels kinda bad for Marble Pie?

@Darth Shy  
To complain about… a show… they don’t even watc– Ya that’s a good question.

@Darth Shy  
Good point.

@Background Pony #D751  
Then why the hell are you even here?

@Background Pony #71CE  
So do I. Hell I didn’t know this was a thing until now. But that’s because I stop watching that dumb show anyway.

Hahahahahahaa

Sums up my feelings perfectly. I’m happy for Big Mac and Sugar Belle, but I feel sad for poor Marble. I was hoping this episode would see her meet a new stallion as a background event. Season 9, please be kind to her! And Limestone too while you’re at it.

Why have I only just seen this now?

@PaintEdits  
The problem is that your view of it is going under the concept of Cheerilee and Big Mac meeting but their first line of dialogue together indicates a pre-existing friendship. They even laugh at the notion of dating as they completely saw through the ruse.
 
It’s made very clear and very quickly that Cheerilee and Big Mac just don’t have that relationship and don’t want that relationship. They were already friends. The CMC didn’t introduce them to each other or the concept - they just tried to push it. The CMC didn’t help anything with what they did and that was the point - you can’t force two people to love each other.
 
However, Cheerilee and Big Mac getting together after the experience would undermine this because it made the experience spark up a start. It justifies their actions by saying they needed that nudge in the first place to get started.
 
It sends the message that it worked out anyway so what’s the harm in doing it? The fact that it didn’t work out at all in any romantic way sends a far stronger message about trying to force people together just because you want it.
 
In essence, let’s say the message was to not kill someone - what would send a stronger message, me killing a person who ends being a terrorist or me killing an innocent person. By not having a beneficial outcome in the end, it gets the message across and makes it stronger.
 
It’s the same with CheeriMac - because they were positioned to not like each other like that from their first second of screen time together and then added a love potion, it’s essentially saying that in the end the means were justified because they needed a nudge in the first place since there was no initial spark before that.
 
Sugar Belle was different - there was already a spark so the CMC came off as trying to help, not force when they gave him the nudge. He had a choice and needed a pep talk to try. The CMC further interfering blew up in his face since that was them trying to force it again, and only when Big Mac took care of it himself and did it right did it work out.
 
So the difference is, in essence, that Cheerilee and Big Mac did not have a spark prior to being drugged so the nudge working sends a bad message to the viewers.

@Copper Knight  
I argue that it wasn’t how the love potion was intended to bring them together. By this logic I’ve forced my two friends who are now married into doing so simply because I introduced them at a party. If I hadn’t done that they may not have hit it off. If the love potion still had an effect sure, but they were completely cured (obviously, as they’re not together) so it inadvertently sparked something.
 
It had a benefit towards their romance even if it were just a nudge like the CMCs introducing them to each other (kind of like how the CMCs HELPED with Sugar Belle).  
Sure there are extra steps, but with the love potion’s effects nullified all the CMCs did was bring them together. They didn’t even implore them to go out at the end. They did that of their own free will.
 
“It flat out says”? I can respect your opinion, but you’re dealing with love/the plot of a tv show like it’s an exact science. The writer’s could’ve just as easily took this arc and made Cheerimac canon and I’m positive people would’ve accepted it. What would use have to say then? That the writing’s shit? That it shouldn’t happen?
 
Let’s use your logic again. Have you seen “The Ugly Truth” (2009)?  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ugly_Truth  
Sorry to spoil, but long story short:  
Guy and girl are polar opposites and hate each other. They end up loving each other. You’re telling me that if some kids magically wanted the two to get together, used a love potion, it failed and they went on to love each other it flat out shouldn’t because it was helped along the way by some dumb kids that shouldn’t have messed some love potion? A happy accident can’t occur?
 
Our interpretations go two different ways because you’re sold that the CMCs actions to try to force this relationship, failing to create a relationship then and there, and Cheerilee and Big Mac actually growing to like each other afterwards isn’t right. While I feel after the love potion was nullified, even being brought together by it, if they were to have gone out and “think and decide for themselves what they wanted” and fell in love then I’d say that’d be perfectly fine.
 
You can have the last word to this as I feel we’re not going to budge and I hate writing walls of text in English (it’s not my native language and it’s so annoying to get all the “their/there/they’re - your/you’re” correct.

@PaintEdits  
On the contrary, they went off into the sunset at the end of the episode because the love potion situation pushed them to interact that day which means the experience was, in fact, a catalyst towards them growing romantic. Had they not gone through it, they would not have spent the day together at all.
 
The CMC’s interference with the potion would actually be beneficial by getting them to interact thus creating way for the first step.
 
By not evolving in any way towards romance, that day had zero benefits towards their romance. It flat out says, “No, they were not romantic towards each other and the CMC were not right to say they should or could be.” By having them get together, it justifies the actions of the CMC that day because they were right that the two would be good together and just didn’t see it and their actions pushed them to see it.
 
Thus the problem with CheeriMac - it justifies the love potion by giving them something to nudge them in that direction by forcing an interaction they did not want earlier and it justifies the three in interfering in their love life. That’s also why their ideas for Sugar Belle were complete and utter failures, and why Big Mac had to think and decide for himself what he wanted and what he wanted to do that finally won Sugar Belle’s heart.

@Copper Knight
 
But… They didn’t get together as a result of that… If they didn’t, but went out to lunch like they did at the end of the episode and found “hey! We actually have some things in common/I like you!” then set up walks together, Cheerilee watching and enjoying his shows, further dates into a relationship I’d see that as natural. The love potion still had zero benefits towards their relationship beyond being a plot device to start talking to each other in future episodes.
 
It’s character development. Did you watch Pokemon as a kid? Pikachu started off by HATING Ash. Does that mean that’s just how the writer’s will write Pikachu? Or maybe they developed the two into being inseparable? Same with the countless romance movies where the girl doesn’t like the guy, but by the end of the movie they’re happily married.
 
I know this isn’t always how it works, but you’re dead set on dismissing any possibility of a relationship just because before they weren’t lovey dovey and that the CMCs used a love potion.

@PaintEdits  
Yes, that’s the message. Thus the problem with Cheerimac - what would have been seen as the first push towards a romantic relationship was the experience they had of being forced into making it a good thing in the end. By saying, “No, they really are just friends” it sends the message that the love potion had zero benefits towards their relationship (we see them act as friends before taking it and return to that same situation after being cured).

@Copper Knight  
Wasn’t that a significant plot point in the episode where Big Mac first met Sugar Belle?

@Copper Knight  
Being? The message I got was love happens naturally and can’t/shouldn’t be tampered with or forced. Marble didn’t have as much going on (plus them being partially related I didn’t see it happening, as sad as it was to see her broken up about it)
 
I really don’t see how you expected me to interpret this any other way even after this explanation.

@PaintEdits  
Cheerilee and Big Mac would have undermined the message of the first Valentine’s Day Special. Marble has the possibility of family mess to deal with.
 
Also, I didn’t say he said they were just friends, I said they can walk together as just friends as they were already established to be friends in the love potion episode.

@Copper Knight  
I didn’t see the part where they stated they were “just friends” while walking. As for your second point, this is up to the writers, they could’ve easily had either of them make a move and be in a canon relationship. Again, they wrote him to say that otherwise he’d be a two timer.
 
I don’t really ship Big Mac/care who he ends up with. I just felt there already existed candidates for him to be with/it was unneeded to bring Sugar Belle into this when they could’ve developed/built on a foundation for the sake of continuity.

@PaintEdits  
The second picture is just friends and Cheerilee is attracted to FlutterMac singing in the first. And, again, if it’s the case, she knew him long enough to make a move if she wanted to and never did despite knowing he’s shy. Also, it’s made clear in Hard to Say Anything he didn’t have feelings for Cheerilee anyway.
 
I’ve always been under the impression they were exes though.

@Copper Knight  
…Are you ignoring all further context beyond that (and even then in the episode it was just they weren’t ready to be lovers after the forced dating arranged by children)? I know friends who are married to girls who said “I’m not into him/we’re just friends”.
 
 

@PaintEdits  
…You mean the Cheerilee that she and Big Mac made clear they didn’t like each other like that and who getting together would undermine the entire point of that episode in the first place?

@Copper Knight  
I figured it’d be Cheerilee actually. Much more was developed between the two than Marble.

@Silvertune_Pony  
You deserve it.
 
 
@Background Pony #430E  
Who cares?