@Latecomer
A plausible end I’ve seen in a fanfic is that Celestia one-shot kills Garble after he moronically accepts a one-on-one with the princess, lets her choose the location, after asking if he wanted cake, which he refused. (of course, Spike immediately sent a scroll to her in the wake of him winning)
And then Ember gets the role, as per usual.
Point is, when you’re some overconfident idiot teenager, I’d definitely be more scared of someone who has half a brain, even if you’re a
dragon, and they’re an egomaniacal former queen, because the latter has less of a window for outsmarting them, and being a teenage dragon only gets you so far without brains.
Spike on the other hand could actually be dangerous. He’s an
intelligent dragon, and has done cool things even at such a young age.