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The very presence of the Cockatrice in this episode gives me fond memories of a book my mother read to me when I was little, The Talking Parcel, in which the chief villains are the Cockatrices. 

Fluttershy finds the CMC and, whilst trying to get them out of the forest, warns them about the Cockatrice – but the CMC seem to disbelieve the existence of such a creature. One might think they’d learn about dangerous animals in school, but it’s not so unbelievable to me – during evacuation of London (owing to the Blitz), there were evacuee children who were reported to be unfamiliar even with the concept of a cow. On top of this, the commonality of Cockatrices in this world is unknown, with Fluttershy being a particular expert in the field it’s quite possible that Cockatrices are so rare that their existence is not common knowledge – I could easily see even modern-day students doubting the plausability of, say, a Komodo Dragon if it was described to them verbally. As they express this, Fluttershy interjects to tell them never to look into the eyes of the Cockatrice – which presents the sort of duality of this episode, represented in the title. Both Fluttershy and the Cockatrice are bestowed with a somewhat-supernatural gaze, although I suppose given that Fluttershy eventually triumphs over the Cockatrice, the Staremaster must inevitably refer to her rather than the Cockatrice. The group then, of course, promptly run into the Cockatrice. The CMC’s flip from cocky disbelief to shrieking panic is both appropriately childlike, and appropriately annoying for Fluttershy. The snail crawling across Twilight’s stone face is a rather bold piece of striking, slightly scary imagery for a kid’s show. As the cockatrice approaches the group and Fluttershy orders the CMC to get behind her, we see that what gives her the strength to stand up to the Cockatrice is the sight of the CMC’s terror. Perhaps her affinity for animals belies an underlying desire to protect and care for the relatively defenceless, which flows quite naturally from her characterisation as a shy and nervous person: as someone who knows what it feels like to be defenceless, it’s only natural that she develop empathy for those who are defenceless. Her central flaw is also the source of her central strength, which actually seems to go for most of the Mane 6, thinking about it. Then we have the staring match between Fluttershy and the Cockatrice, with the Cockatrice increasingly alarmed at how confrontational Fluttershy is managing to be in spite of his fearsome appearance and reputation. I don’t think the length of time it takes the Cockatrice to be turning Fluttershy to stone is necessarily tied to willpower or resilience, as we see that when he turned Elizabeak to stone, it was not an instantaneous process there either, and it’s only natural that such a process should take longer on ponies. If the rate Fluttershy is turning to stone is normal for ponies, then there must be an element of the Cockatrice’s stare that forces it’s victims to make eye contact, because I cannot imagine Twilight being unable to figure out what was going on, close her eyes and deal with the Cockatrice using her magic or otherwise do something to prevent being turned to stone in that amount of time. With the Cockatrice sufficiently cowed, it frees Fluttershy and goes to follow her instructions of setting Elizabeak and Twilight free, too. I like the little detail that you can see the silhouette of the Cockatrice flying away as Twilight enters the shot. As we have the episode wrap up with reflection on the lesson, I reflected that this episode had two lessons in one, in a way, as it was appealing at once to two different type of viewer: slightly older girls who might have to babysit younger siblings whilst parents are out in Fluttershy, and of course the younger siblings themselves in the CMC.