"Spike! Spike!" shouted Twilight, "Come here! Quick!"
Spike groggily climbed out of bed and walked down the stairs, "What? What is it?"
"It's… that…" Twilight said, pointing a hoof at a small silvery bug on the floor.
"That's it?" grumbled Spike, "I got woken up for a roach?"
"Not a roach… it's a silverfish!"
"So?"
"So?!" screamed Twilight, "Don't you know what silverfish do?!"
"Crawl around?"
"No! They sneak into your library under the cover of darkness, silently eat away at the glue holding together the pages, and when you wake up to read it, it falls apart, ruining the priceless tomes I have stored here!"
Spike sighed, "If it's such a big deal, why don't you just do this?" Spike picked up the insect and set it free outside, "There, problem solved."
"No Spike, problem not solved, that one was just a scout, a larger force will be moving in soon. Quick, where's the bug spray?"
“I threw it out. Fluttershy was going door to door giving out free copies of this book yesterday. I couldn't bear keeping it." Spike said, beginning to cry as he recalled the book.
"Gassed, the story of a crippled cockroach" Twilight read the book title aloud.
"If it weren't for kind ponies like Fluttershy, his story would never be heard and more insects would continue to be heinously murdered!" bawled Spike, "WHY IS THE WORLD SO CRUEL?!"
"Get a hold of yourself, Spike; we need to find some way to get rid of these things."
Pulling out a pamphlet, Spike said, "Did you know that 95% of ponies consider insects a lower form of life? And listen to this, 80% of ponies admitted to deliberately harming an insect in some way. Now let's talk about prejudice, ever heard the saying 'couldn't hurt a fly'? Are they implying that hurting bugs isn't as bad as hurting ponies? And the phrase 'you catch flies easier with honey than with vinegar', what's that teaching the little fillies and colts? Slave labor, that's what!"
Twilight put her hoof over Spike's mouth, "Cool it Mahoofma Gandhi."
"Sorry"
"Now, where's the exterminators house?"
"That's not gonna work, Fluttershy chained herself across the door, nopony's been able to get through all day."
"Oh for Pete's sake! Is everypony a part of this?!"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"I can't believe this. Let's go see if there's any bug spray in the basement."
"No Twilight! How would you feel if you were the bug about to get sprayed?"
"Well for starters, I wouldn't have broken into houses and eaten the books."
"C'mon Twilight, it's just in their nature."
"No, I'm not going to let my books get ruined because a bunch of ponies read a
depressing book!"
"It wasn't depressing! It was inspiring! A roach just minding his own business, suddenly enveloped in a toxic cloud and tossed into the trash. We follow him as he journeys all the way from the dump back to his home, persevering through it all to rejoin his family."
"Spike! Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?"
"Huh, strange question to come from a genocidal maniac."
"A genocidal maniac?! I just want them to stay out of my house! This is the only way!"
"Where are they supposed to live then?"
"I don't care! Somewhere else!"
"Okay, if some dragon flew into Ponyville and declared it his land, would you just agree and find somewhere else to live?"
"Ugh, there's just no reasoning with you!"
"You can't argue against their right to live!"
Just then, there was a soft knock on the door, only audible due to the pause in the argument resulting from Twilight's shocked and openmouthed expression. Twilight opened the door to see a cross-eyed cheery mail-mare handing her a package, "Hi there Twilight, I've got a couple pamphlets for you from the 'Equestrian Anti-Insectist Guerilla Regime' and 50 copies of 'Gassed, the story of a crippled cockroach'."
"Spike…" Twilight glared at Spike.
"I may have signed up for the mailing list…" Spike said nervously.
"And the books?"
"Fluttershy asked me to help hand them out. All of Equestria must hear of this injustice!"
"That's it, I need to have a talk with Fluttershy…"
Twilight pushed through the crowd gathered in front of the exterminator's house. Chained across the doorway was Fluttershy, looking nervous due to the large gathering of ponies.
"Alright Fluttershy, what's with all this nonsense about the Equestrian Anti-Insectist Guerilla whatever?
"Um… well… it's all kind of a funny misunderstanding…" Fluttershy said, "I just recommended a really good book to Spike and he started this insect rights movement."
Twilight glared at Spike, he chuckled nervously and ran back to the library, dreading what would happen to him if he stayed.
"Wait… if this was all Spike, then why did you chain yourself to the exterminator's house?"
"That was Spike too. After reading the book, he suggested I chain myself to the door because other famous activists did. I tried to ask him to stop, but he couldn't hear me over the chains clanking. Then he ran off somewhere else and a bunch of ponies came over."
"Okay… I need to go talk to Spike and finish this silly problem once and for all." Twilight ran off towards her library, leaving Fluttershy behind.
"Wait! Twilight! I'm still tied up! Help!"
Twilight burst through the door of the library to see Spike covered completely in silverfish.
"They have accepted me as their leader!" Spike said happily.
"Yeah, that's great. Fluttershy says that you started all this and you were also the one who chained her up. I can't believe one little book got you so riled up!"
"If anypony knows the power of books, it would be you!"
"Come outside where I can get all these things off you."
"My inherent draconic magic paired with the silverfishes' reflective exoskeletons render me immune to your magic."
It didn't. Spike was levitated outside, had the bugs shaken off of him, was brutally lectured, and sent to bed.
Meanwhile, the silverfish grouped together and planned the next assault on the library.
