As the Elements of Harmony stood frozen in place, Mark raised his other eyebrow at Lokoa Hai, silently asking him the same question, and he merely shrugged in reply.

"So, are you going to talk to me, or what?" Mark asked. "I mean, I asked a simple question."

"That was so awesome." said one of the Element Bearers, a pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane. However, she said so quietly mark almost didn't notice it. Mark sighed and spoke again.

"What was that?"

"That was so awesome!" she exclaimed, throwing her hooves into the hair. "You really showed them! Man, can you…urp!"

The leader of the Elements, an alicorn with a lavender coat, had formed a light around her horn and somehow, to Mark's astonishment, zipped the pegasus's mouth shut like a ziplock bag.

"Rainbow, please." she said, slightly exasperated. "Can you keep it under control?"

"Ahem." Lokoa said, coming into the conversation. "Element Bearers, I welcome you to my village. Shall we discuss ourselves more inside?"

As the Elements and Mark followed Lokoa into the village's main hall, Lokoa brought forth a platter of food for them...which was promptly consumed by Pinkie Pie without her breaking a sweat. As they all sat down, Mark collapsed on the floor, sighing heavily.

"Man, that took a lot out of me." he groaned. "Lokoa, do you have any more of that yellow juice you gave me earlier?"

"I have plenty." Lokoa said, offering another goblet full of it to Mark, who sucked it down in a single gulp. He smiled in relief at feeling a rush of energy flow through him.

"Now that we're all here, may I introduce to you, Element Bearers, the Hound of Fire."

"It's Entei." Mark said. "That's what I prefer to be called, though. Too many titles for my tastes."

"Well, I'm Twilight Sparkle." the alicorn said. "That's Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, along with Spike here. And if you're wondering about the guidebook thing, here it is."

Mark peered down at the guidebook to see a large photo of himself, albeit wreathed in flame and ash, engraved in the pages.

"Well, I'll be." Mark sighed. "I just got here, and now I'm in a guidebook? Great."

"Speaking of…" Twilight asked. "Where exactly did you come from, might I ask?"

Mark froze, seeing as the events of his last few hours on Earth and now in Equestria would raise some questions he'd rather not answer, particularly about the fact that he was once human.

"Long story, but I come from a world called Earth." Mark sighed. "It's way too complicated to explain right now. Even though I'm not sure for the most part why I ended up here."

"I see." Twilight replied. "Anyway, we came to investigate volcanic activity here in Marewaii. Mount Kilauwhinny's on the verge of erupting, and if it did, it would be very bad."

"Great." Mark sighed. "So, one problem always seems to replace another, huh?"

"I agree with your sentiment, Entei…" Lokoa said. "But there are more immediate matters we must see to. Those "nobles" will return, and they will not be happy."

"I'd be more than happy to take care of them, seeing as I breathe fire…" Mark said.

"I'm afraid this is a problem we can't solve with violence." Twilight stepped in. "We need to convince those nobles that building on the beach is a bad idea. But they seem pretty dead-set on doing so."

"Yeah, and seeing as I nearly incinerated them…" Mark sighed. "I don't think they'll respect my input on the whole thing."

Then, there were shouts from outside, shouts of anger and violence. Twilight peeked outside to see the nobles from earlier, along with a large portion of the populace with Mayor Tide as well, approach the village, armed with various instruments of an angry mob, including nets used to subdue wildlife. As the Elements formed a half-circle shield around Mark, who growled angrily, Gem Worthy stepped forward.

"There's the creature!" he bellowed. "Princess, get out of our way and let us handle this!"

"And what exactly is needed to be handled?" Twilight replied bitterly.

"That foul mutt is a menace to us ponies!" Gem roared in reply. "Either step aside so we may apprehend it, or you will be arrested, Princess!"

The Elements bristled at that statement, and Mark decided that he had finally hit his limit.

"Okay, that's it!" Mark roared, startling everypony there into silence. "I am not some dumb animal! My name is Entei, and right now, all of you are very close to being incinerated alive."

The crowd blanched, but held their ground as Mark approached, flecks of embers and flame forming at the sides of his mouth.

"I'm considered a God by these ponies, and with good reason." Mark continued. "So, what exactly do you think that I did to get all of this?"

"You attacked us." Gem Worthy scowled. "We were…"

"Trying to scam these people out of their land even after they said no?" Mark finished. "And you insulted me when I got involved. So, I think the crowd here only heard one side of the story, so tell me. What exactly did this idiot here tell you?"

The ponies shuddered, until Mayor Tide came forward.

"Mr. Gem Worthy said a dangerous beast attacked him during some proceedings here, that it was crucial that we apprehend it immediately and...destroy it."

The Elements growled, gasped, or both. Mark gritted his fangs and advanced on Gem Worthy, who now seemed to be regretting his recent decisions quite a bit, judging by the look in his eyes.

"You honestly wanted to kill me?" Mark growled into his face. Gem Worthy nodded, his face pale

"Well, nice try." Mark replied. "You couldn't kill me even if you tried."

"That's enough!" Twilight yelled, drawing the attention of everyone there. "Gem Worthy, you got your answer. Leave and take your angry mob with you."

The mob didn't need to be told twice. As Gem Worthy's posse turned tail and fled, he was left standing alone against a now quite pissed Entei.

"Gem Worthy, we need to talk." Twilight said. "Now."

Gem Worthy was about to protest when he saw Mark form another sphere of flame in his mouth. Swallowing his pride, he nodded as Twilight led him out of the village. Mark sighed and lowered his head, exhausted already.

"Hey, Lokoa?" he asked. "You got anywhere I can take a nap?"

"I will show you." the Elder replied. As the Elements moved to deal with Gem Worthy, Mark proceeded to a grassy field inside the town, and crashed, falling asleep almost instantly.

Author's Note

Update!

Yeah, this took too long.

Next time - A meeting at the city, and Entei is asked to journey to Equestria by Lokoa Hai.