- Catharsis Factor: Twilight killing Cheerilee just as brutally as she killed her victims, while tearing apart all her claims of being a Knight Templar, will have most readers cheering.
- Harsher in Hindsight: You'd think that a well loved teacher murdering/attempting to murder her students for misbehaving/not living up to their expectations would never become canon in a children's show. It already is.
- Ho Yay: After Twilight's trial, Celestia's words to Twilight, at several points, sound like those of a passionate young lover pleading that their beloved run away with them.
- Jerkass Woobie:
- Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon might be bullies, but they get horribly tortured while the other is Forced to Watch, with Silver having to choose between getting tortured or hurting her friend. They get a rather emotional death, as Diamond manages to get to Silver despite her own appalling injuries, and comforts her just before Cheerilee kills them anyway.
- Celestia ultimately becomes a ruthless Knight Templar... because she's crossed the Despair Event Horizon over Twilight's fate and wants Revenge for it.
- Squick: Plenty, although Apple Bloom being made to drink Scootaloo's remains and the deaths of Twist and Fluttershy stand out.
- The Woobie: All of Cheerilee's victims. Well, except maybe Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. By the end of Scarlet Harvest, Twilight even more so.
