Cockatrice

A Cockatrice is a small Dragon-like creature, easily distinguished by its chicken head. Although one should be thankful that it is not a Dragon, the Cockatrice should still be handled with extreme caution as its stare can turn even the most stalwart of ponies to stone! The cures for being turned into a statue are few and far between; beyond finding a magical artifact or remedy, the surest way is to hunt down the offending Cockatrice and convince or force them to release the trapped pony.   It is unclear as to why the Cockatrice turns ponies to stone, though there are two main theories. The first is that it is simply a defense mechanism; the Cockatrice is not the largest or scariest creature, but being able to turn things larger than it into stone allows it to get away unharmed.  

Throughout many studies by many scholars, myself included, it has been deemed uncertain how the Cockatrice came to be, all that can be said for certain it is very strange! Only a select few ponies have ever managed to convince a Cockatrice to remove its curse—most notably Lelishy, the brave Pegasus who actually outstared the beast!

  The second theory is my personal favorite, however, and it is that although the Cockatrice is a grouchy and cranky creature, it does want to have friends. The Cockatrice believes that a creature that stays with it must be its friend, so by turning ponies to stone, it can convince itself that it has lots and lots of statue-y friends.   Either that, or it just doesn’t like the noises that ponies make!