Macao arc

The Macao arc is the first story arc of the Fairy Tail series. It centers around two events, Lucy Heartfilia and Natsu Dragneel stopping Bora's criminal actions, and them rescuing Macao Conbolt from the Vulcans of Mt. Hakobe.

A Heinous Criminal and The Fated Meeting
A group of Mages known as the Magic Council meet and discuss the problems that the Fairy Tail Guild has caused for them. Meanwhile in the town of Hargeon, a teenager named Natsu Dragneel and his blue talking cat named Happy have arrived, looking for an individual named Igneel. At the same time, a young girl named Lucy Heartfilia is milling around shopping, she runs across a few girls pining over someone named Salamander, who are literally throwing themselves at his feet. Lucy also nearly get swayed into falling for him but is brought to her senses when Natsu bumps into her from rushing into the crowd upon hearing Salamander's name. However finding out it wasn't who he thought it was, he goes to leave the scene which earns him the animosity of Salamander's fans. Salamander himself calms the crowd down before departing, inviting the crowd to a party on his private yacht.

Lucy goes to Natsu, thanking him for breaking her out of Salamander's spell, explaining that he was using Illegal Magic to make the girls fawn over him. Lucy offers Natsu a meal as a reward, which Happy and he gladly accept. At the cafe, the two get to know one another. Natsu explains his quest for looking for Igneel which as it turns out is not a person, but rather a dragon, much to Lucy's surprise. The two then parts ways, and Natsu vows to pay Lucy back. Lucy then looks over a magazine with pictures of Fairy Tail Mages and expressing her wish to join their guild. Salamander suddenly appears and, infatuated with Lucy, invites her to join him in the party on his yacht. Lucy is initially suspicious, but agrees to come when Salamander promises to show her the way to Fairy Tail. Night soon falls and Natsu and Happy are having no luck in their search. As they're resting for the day, they overhear some girls talking about Salamander and his relationship to Fairy Tail peaking Natsu's curiosity.

Meanwhile Lucy is on Salamander's boat, whom constantly flirts with her. He then used his magic to make the liquid in the wine float and tries to get Lucy to drink it. However she realizes its another one of his tricks, specifically he laced the wine with sleeping drugs, and confronts him on it. Indeed he comes clean revealing himself as a Mage named Bora who was using his magic to lure girls to his boat, drug them, then sell them into slavery. His henchmen soon reveal themselves, restraining Lucy and tossing her Celestial Keys into the water to keep her from trying anything. Just as Bora about to brand Lucy, Natsu suddenly crashes onto the boat and confronts Bora about his relationship to Fairy Tail. Happy carries Lucy off to safety using his Aera Magic, but it wears off mid-flight and both Lucy and he fall into the ocean.

Natsu finds himself hampered by his chronic motion sickness. Lucy manages to find her keys and summons Aquarius who, despite her moody attitude, uses her powers to sweep the boat onto shore with a tidal wave. Those on board survive the crash and what more with the boat no longer rocking, Natsu can now focus and use his full powers revealing that he is a member of Fairy Tail and has never seen Bora before at the guild. Bora tries to attack him with some Fire Magic but Natsu simply eats it then goes on the attack. While Happy explains to Lucy his magic is that of a Dragon Slayer which was taught to him by Igneel himself. The Fire Mage soon beats them but goes overboard and end up destroying the port in the process. Soon the military arrives to which Natsu, Happy and Lucy run for it. Along the way, Natsu promises to show Lucy where the real Fairy Tail is much to her joy.

The Magic Council soon receive word on their antics but one of the members, Siegrain, defends them and tell the council to leave them be as the world wouldn't be fun without them.

Welcome to Fairy Tail
Natsu, Lucy and Happy soon arrive in Magnolia Town where the Fairy Tail Guild lays and Lucy experiences first hand the rowdy atmosphere when Natsu starts a brawl by kicking Krov who gave him the supposedly false information on Igneel. Among the members introduced are Gray Fullbuster, an Ice Mage and a rival to Natsu that unconsciously strips, Cana Alberona who drinks rum by the barrels, Elfman, who preaches about manhood then unceremoniously gets knocked out, Loke, a womanizer who instantly hits on Lucy but backs off when he realizes she is a Celestial Spirit Mage. And finally Mirajane, the poster girl of Fairy Tail and bartender of the guild who assures Lucy that brawls happen all the before getting decked with a bottle and gains bloody head, though it doesn't seem to flinch her.

After a bit of fighting barehanded, the Fairy Tail Mage begin to resort to using their magic but are stopped by their guild leader, Makarov, who complains to the bunch about the complaints he gets from the Magic Council for the members' antics and methods which usually leads to collateral damage. After repriming them a bit Markov goes on to say to forgot the council and to do what they think is right as it is the Fairy Tail way, and the members all cheer in agreement.

Search for Macao
After everything dies down and night falls, Lucy is officially made a member by Mirajane via a stamp on her right hand. Natsu meanwhile goes to the job board to look for work, just as he about to consider one. He overhears a child, Romeo Conbolt asking Makarov when his dad, Macao, will return. He was worried as Macao hadn't been back within a week, like he had promised, after going off to a mission on Mt. Hakobe. Makarov, however says he hasn't heard word from him and tells Romeo to go wait at home. When Makarov refuses to send a search party after him, Romeo punches him in the face and leaves in a huff. Upon seeing this, Natsu leaves intent on going to look for Macao. Mirajane guessing its due to his own parental abandonment of Igneel, who she reveals raised Natsu as a child but suddenly left him alone without warning one day. Soon Natsu, Happy and Lucy, who decided to tag along, are on a carriage to Mt. Hakobe. Which Lucy discovers, much to her dismay, is a snow covered land to which she came ill prepared for. The three continue on, with Lucy using her Celestial Spirit, Horologium, a grandfather clock-like spirit that she able to ride in. Natsu reveals that Macao's job was to subdue a monster known as a Vulcan, an ape-like monster with tremendous strength which terrifies Lucy even more.

Natsu calls out to Macao through the snowstorm, but something finds him in the midst of his search: The Vulcan itself. However rather then fight Natsu, the Vulcan dashes past him and grabs Horologium with Lucy inside and takes it back to its lair. Horologium disappears due to his time limit expiring leaving Lucy to fend for herself. Luckily Natsu manages to find the lair demanding the Vulcan show him where he hid Macao. The Vulcan however tricks Natsu into looking over a cliff, which it pushes him over. Angered at this, Lucy goes to summon the Celestial Spirit, Taurus, to combat the Vulcan. However before he can attack Natsu reappears and attacks Taurus, thinking he's an enemy and knocking him out. When asked how he survived, Natsu shows that Happy caught him using his Aera Magic (and able to counteract his motion sickness as he doesn't consider Happy "transportation").

The Vulcan once again goes on the attack and a battle between it and Natsu ensues. Natsu however triumphs when he manages to melt some of the the metal from Taurus's axe, which the Vulcan used against him, into fire and power himself up to deliver a finishing blow. As the Vulcan lays defeated it suddenly turns into Macao, who nearly falls through a crack in the wall where Natsu knocked him into and over a cliff. Natsu manages to grab him followed by Happy grabbing him, Lucy grabbing Happy and a revived Taurus helping Lucy pull them up. As they treat Macao's wounds, Happy surmises that the Vulcan must have took over his body during the mission. Macao confirms it, having defeated 19 Vulcans before the 20th and final one possessed him. The bunch soon head back to Magnolia and returns Macao to his son. Romeo apologizes to Macao after nagging his dad to do a big mission after being teased by the resident kids. Macao kindly apologizes as well for making him worry, telling him next time the kids tease him, he can gloat that his old man defeated nineteen Vulcans. With the mission completed Natsu, Lucy, and Happy head back to Fairy Tail with Romeo thanking them for bringing back his father.

Anime Differences

 * Originally the manga opened with the council sitting around a table discussing Fairy Tail. In the anime they're not seen till episode 2 and instead are standing in a circle.
 * Bora about to brand Lucy was cut from the anime. Also Lucy initially thinks hes still with Fairy Tail when he reveals his true nature. In the anime, he admits he was lying to her.
 * In the manga the entirety of the fight takes place on the ship after it was washed ashore. The anime takes place on the debris of the ship.
 * Said fight is also extended with Bora trying a few more attacks against Natsu.
 * The Fairy Tail brawl is significantly toned down in the anime. Such as Gray being pant-less is not seen. The camera only stays on his upper body. Also, Mirajane getting hit with a bottle and gaining a bloody head is changed to Elfman landing on her and being knocked unconscious.
 * Macao nearly falling out of a wall and over a cliff forcing Natsu, Happy, Lucy and Taurus to save him was not used.