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Ah, no. I can see where you're coming from with this.
I'm semi new to pixeling and have been trying to figure out things like limited pallettes and stuff that work/don't work for each piece.
Deviant art members seem to like to add white outlines to their icons... to make them "pop" i suppose.
But for here, I'll make sure to pick and choose, or altogether learn how to work the white outline out completely from all of my pieces.
[[If you have any suggestions on how to make things read better on a 50x50px restriction or less, I'd love to hear from you or if you could share links, that'd be nice too.]]
While I generaly like it I find the white outline irritating on a dark background (and useless on a bright one). The character has white chunks that are seperated from the white border only by a(nother) 1px outline, which causes some irritating effects on my eyes and makes the otherwise good piece hard to read.
The white outline works better on your other pieces, but not this one (imho at least). 
Note that this more general advise for readability and less a specific suggestion for you or for this piece (I don't see any problem, except the white outline (I tested it myself and this reads much better without it (imo
))).
I don't know about any particular stuff concerning 50x50px, but a good general read is helms ramble-thread on pixelation.
It's quite theory heavy and opinion based (being a ramble and all) but it's where I learned most about good clusters and banding. It also has some good practice ideas, my favorite is to re-do some very simple photos (or real life objects) in 16x16, 24x24 and 36x36 in both 2 colors and 4 colors.
Other than that, color-theory and composition, while not being pixel-specific, are important factors for readability.
Just make sure you don't become over-self-critical and banding-paranoid or color-phobic, the most important part is to have fun!
ps.: Re-looking at it I have to add that the more complicated shape plays a role with the outline, too. I can't really describe it but I think you will see it for yourself when you look at this and your other pieces.