The Fire Dragon, The Monkey, And The Ox

is the 2nd episode of the Fairy Tail anime. It first aired on October 19, 2009.

Lucy Heartfilia joins the Fairy Tail Guild with the help of her new friends Natsu Dragneel and Happy. They set out for a mission at Mt. Hakobe to search for and recover a missing Mage of Fairy Tail, Macao Conbolt, and bring him back to his son, Romeo Conbolt.

Synopsis
In Era, the Magic Council's headquarters, the council is having a discussion about the Fairy Tail Guild and its destructive nature. The majority of the Council thinks that the members of Fairy Tail are a bunch of idiots with the exception of Siegrain, who apparently likes idiots like them. Eventually the Council is left with a dilemma. Fairy Tail is destructive, but at the same time a strong and competent Guild. So they decide to leave them be, for the time being. Meanwhile, Natsu and Lucy arrive at Fairy Tail and Natsu immediately kicks the door open while screaming "We're home!" The Mage who had informed Natsu of the appearance of "Salamander" (who Natsu thought was Igneel, but was actually Bora) in Hargeon Town immediately shouts to Natsu, "Seems like you really messed things up again at Hargeon!" Natsu responds by kicking him across the hall while shouting to him that the Salamander they found were fake.

The Mage kicked then screams that it isn't his problem and in the blink of an eye, a fight throughout the whole guild is raging. Gray Fullbuster is introduced as the Mage with extreme stripping problems while he goes to beat Natsu up but is stopped by Cana Alberona, who is presented as the ultimate drinker of Fairy Tail. She points out that Gray has stripped again. Elfman and Loke enter the fight too. Mirajane is also introduced while Lucy points out that the guild does not have one single sane person. The fight is stopped by Makarov, Fairy Tail's Master, by means of his Titan Magic. After crushing Natsu under his foot, Makarov sees Lucy and transforms himself back to his original form as a small old man. He greets Lucy then jumps up on the second floor of the building. From there, he shows the angry reports from the Council about them, but then decides to burn them and throws them at Natsu to eat, stating that they shouldn't be afraid of those watchful eyes from above while Fairy Tail cheers. Lucy later gets her Fairy Tail stamp and goes to show it to Natsu who is standing in front of the request board looking for a job. He overhears Romeo Conbolt (the son of Macao Conbolt) talking to Makarov about his father not coming home for a week, but Makarov suggests that he should go home and wait patiently for him to come home because Macao can take care of himself. Natsu hits the request board and quietly goes after Macao. Lucy wonders why Natsu became so upset and Mirajane explains that Natsu probably saw himself in Romeo.

Later, Lucy and Natsu are sitting in a wagon on the way to the mountain where Macao was supposed to do his job. On the way there, Natsu gets motion sick again. The wagon later stops and the driver explains that he cannot go any further into the mountain. Lucy complains about the storm and low temperature of Mt. Hakobe and calls one of her spirits, Horologium, to encase her and keep her warm. Natsu screams for Macao, but a Vulcan ambushes him. The Vulcan then senses the smell of Lucy and happily kidnaps her. He puts Lucy in his cave and starts to dance around her. After a while, Lucy’s spirit disappears, but Natsu comes for the rescue in a "pathetic entrance" as Lucy said, due to the fact that he slips. He asks Vulcan where Macao is and Vulcan points at a hole in the wall. Natsu goes there to look but instead gets kicked down the mountain. Lucy screams after him and calls out another spirit, Taurus. The first thing he does is point out that Lucy has a nice body and then goes to fight Vulcan for Lucy, but before he can inflict any damage, Natsu comes back and kicks him in the face, causing Taurus to fall unconscious as Natsu thought that he was another monster.

Vulcan takes Taurus' axe and fights Natsu with it. Natsu slips again and just barely manages to block a hit from Vulcan's axe. He melts the axe and then eats it to get more energy. He uses the Fire Dragon's Iron Fist to finish the Vulcan off. Vulcan transforms back to a wounded Macao. Macao thinks that it's pathetic how he managed to take out nineteen Vulcans, but was Taken Over by the last one. However, Natsu assures him that nineteen is a number he can brag about.

Back in town, Romeo sits on stair steps while remembering the other boys teasing him for his dad and Fairy Tail about being Mages who sit around and do nothing all day but drink. He remembers that those bullies are the reason why he forced his dad to go out on a job. As he cries tears of regret, he is interrupted by Natsu shouting his name and a happy reunion between Macao and Romeo takes place. Romeo yells his joyous thanks to Natsu, Happy and Lucy for bringing his dad back home.

Fights and Events

 * Lucy Heartfilia joins Fairy Tail (started and concluded)
 * Search for Macao (started and concluded)
 * Natsu Dragneel & Lucy Heartfilia vs. Vulcan (Macao Conbolt) (started and concluded)
 * Conbolt Reunion (started and concluded)

Magic used

 * Beast Soul (ビーストソウル Bīsuto Sōru)
 * Summoned the Clock, Horologium
 * Summoned the Golden Bull, Taurus
 * Beast Soul (ビーストソウル Bīsuto Sōru)
 * Summoned the Clock, Horologium
 * Summoned the Golden Bull, Taurus
 * Summoned the Clock, Horologium
 * Summoned the Golden Bull, Taurus
 * Summoned the Clock, Horologium
 * Summoned the Golden Bull, Taurus
 * Summoned the Clock, Horologium
 * Summoned the Golden Bull, Taurus
 * Summoned the Golden Bull, Taurus

Spells used

 * Beast Arm: Stone Bull
 * Rampage

Abilities used

 * Hand to Hand Combat

Items used

 * Magic Stamp Tool
 * Magic Card
 * Two-bladed Ax
 * Celestial Spirit Gate Keys
 * Gate of the Clock Key
 * Gate of the Golden Bull Key

Manga & Anime Differences

 * Few minor characters (such as Laki Olietta and Miki Chickentiger) were introduced later in the manga, but are introduced in this episode of the anime.
 * Mirajane was hit by a bottle and bled in the manga, while she was hit by Elfman and knocked out in the anime.
 * Makarov had listed out the complaints that the councils had for Fairy Tail in the manga, but went straight into burning it in the anime.
 * The anime didn't include Natsu eating his Fiery Food.
 * No Recap was included in the Anime.
 * All references to Lucy's 'breasts' aren't included in the anime.
 * Natsu only ate and shot one drop of Taurus' melted axe in the manga, while he ate and shot multiple drops in the anime.
 * Macao falling through a crack followed by Natsu, Lucy and Happy resulting in Taurus saving all of them was removed in the Anime.
 * In addition to having an adequate amount of First Aid Supply, the anime didn't include the fire surgery to stop Macao's bleeding.

Trivia

 * In some scenes the vulcan's tail appears and disappears repeatedly.