Garble

Garble is a red teenage male dragon. He first appears in Dragon Quest as the leader of the gang that Spike encounters. He is not named in Dragon Quest, but he is named in the episode's script, in Gauntlet of Fire, and in other materials.

Physical appearance
Garble is a tall teenage dragon with dull red scales, pinkish freckles, and yellow spikes which end in a webbed crest on his head similar to those on the helmets of Princess Luna's royal guards. His eyes are yellow with purple pupils, and he has yellow, slightly torn wings.

Season two
He appears as the main antagonist of Dragon Quest and is first seen fighting another dragon. As Spike confronts the gang, they start mocking him for being such a young dragon. Garble challenges Spike to a belching contest to prove he is not pathetic, but he ends up coughing a letter from Princess Celestia, and Garble throws it in the lava.

He then challenges Spike to tail wrestling. He wrestles "Crackle's cousin," who is really Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity in disguise. Garble declares Spike the winner after their "wrestle," and he begins to take back his mocks at Spike and calls him a "real dragon." When Spike starts acting cocky, Garble chooses another dragon for Spike, one of which has an enormous and dangerous tail. Spike gets thrown to the wall and loses.

Afterwards, he challenges Spike to a game of "King of the Hoard," where he must knock Garble and other dragons off a pile of gems to be on the top. Other dragons fight their way up to the top too, but Garble throws each off to keep his place. Spike accidentally pushes Garble over, and he falls off the pile. Spike, after declaring himself the winner, falls off the pile and Garble calls it another fail.

Garble challenges Spike and the other dragons to one last game: Lava Cannonball. He announces that whoever makes the biggest splash is the ultimate dragon. He dives first, followed by more dragons. Garble torments Spike for being too afraid to jump off, but he ultimately does. Spike makes a belly flop onto the lava and impresses Garble and the other dragons for living through the belly flop, calling him a "tough little dragon."

For his effort, Garble dubs Spike "rookie dragon," and he accepts him as one of their own. He gives Spike a noogie as an initiation ritual, and has a party to celebrate Spike's addition to their horde. Garble says Spike should stay, and learn what he can do as a dragon that he couldn't do in Ponyville.

Garble offers Spike to go on a dragon raid, where they will steal from a nest of phoenix eggs. Garble instructs Spike that he, as a rookie dragon, must lure the parents away from the nest. After Spike lures them away, Garble looks inside the nest to find the eggs have already hatched.

He tries to take the hatchlings, but fails as they manage to get away. He and two other dragons from his gang chase the hatchlings, and he unintentionally causes an egg to fall from the nest. The phoenix parents find out about Garble's raid, and they get their hatchlings back. As the phoenixes are flying away, Garble tries to stop them, but the male phoenix counter-attacks and knocks him and his friends into a tree. They fly back to the nest to find Spike holding the egg Garble knocked down earlier. He is impressed by this, and tells Spike to smash it. Spike refuses, and Garble is angry that he said "no" to him. Garble and the two other dragons close in on Spike, but Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity come and threaten the dragons if they try to hurt Spike. Garble and his friends laugh at this, completely unafraid at the ponies' threat. He asks Spike if these are really his friends, and he proudly answers yes, and even insults him and tells him to back off. Garble is annoyed as Spike runs away from him, so he and his friends chase the ponies, but they get away and Garble and his friends crash into another tree.

Season six
Garble appears again in Gauntlet of Fire as a minor antagonist, still harboring a low opinion of both Spike and ponies in general. He is summoned to the Dragon Lands by the call of the Dragon Lord to take part in the Gauntlet of Fire, the winner of which will be crowned the new Dragon Lord. Garble wishes to be the Dragon Lord so he can get revenge on the ponies who crossed him.

Throughout the Gauntlet, Garble mocks Spike for his small stature and pony-like characteristics. However, he under-performs at multiple times during the race. In the final dash for the bloodstone scepter that decides the winner, Garble faces both Spike and his partner Princess Ember. As a result of their teamwork, Garble loses. As punishment for his actions, Spike—the winner and temporary new Dragon Lord—commands him to go home and hug every dragon he passes along the way without disclosure, much to Garble's humiliation.

Other depictions
On page 8 of, Garble is shown when Spike mentions that Twilight and her friends have defeated teen dragons. On page 1 of, Garble and two of his dragon friends appear in Spike's dream.

In a British magazine's "5-page magical story" version of Dragon Quest, the story's narration refers to Garble by name.

The Elements of Harmony guidebook
''GARBLE is the teenage leader of a gang of fire-breathing dragons who challenged Spike to a series of trials to test his mettle. But these bad-natured bullies didn't take into account Spike's friends, who defended him using the power of friendship!''

Merchandise
Garble appears on the Chaos is Magic and Season 2 posters.

Pages 57 and 177 of Little, Brown's My Little Pony Friendship is Magic official guidebook My Little Pony: The Elements of Harmony refer to Garble by name.

On the DVD My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: Season Two Disc 4, the closed captions for the episode Dragon Quest refer to Garble by name.