//------------------------------//
// Rough (8/24/2016) 
// Story: A Pony a Day 
// by OfTheIronwilled 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy blinked at her mirror. Her reflection blinked back, and when it did Fluttershy could tell how tired it looked. With the way her muscles sagged, it seemed odd that her reflection was shivering; even shaking used up so much energy, after all.

-- She winced. She remembered earlier that day when she tripped in the market and everypony looked her way.

Oh, they must think I'm such a foal, something said. Something deep and cutting and rough around the edges. She tried to think of that morning instead, when she had successfully patched up that poor little mouse, but the thought stabbed back into place like a serrated blade. They think I'm a foal, I am a foal, I am a--

She jerked away, but the thought followed. Then she remembered that day a couple years ago, when... wh-when she said all those awful things to Pinkie Pie and Rarity, when she--

"No," Fluttershy whispered. She wrapped her wings around herself and gently wiped her tears away. She looked into the mirror and tried to smile, but it came out lopsided, wavering. "My friends were so kind and un-hic-derstanding about the situation. I did make a mistake, but everypony does at some point or another. I am lucky to have such supporting friends who understood and forgave me and--"

I shouldn't have done it in the first place. Oh goodness, I'm an awful pony, I--

"No!"

Fluttershy furiously shook her head, but it just kept going, repeating, adding; it wouldn't stop it-- it wouldn't leave her alone, and even when it did she could just feel herself spiral again, and there was something else in its place she--

She felt like she was going crazy.

Fluttershy sobbed into her reflection. She watched her own face as it twisted up and shook, and that made it worse, she thought.

She tried to stop crying but that made her whole body shiver, and her chest and head pound in stabbing aches. She coughed and sobbed into her chest, curled up into a ball, and smashed her hooves into her crying eyes.

Angel Bunny found her like that half an hour later.