Time: 21st Century

Location: Prehistoric Park

It's been over an hour since Fluttershy, her team, and a female woolly mammoth returned from the Late Pleistocene. The day before, Fluttershy found two mammoths after several hours of searching. Unfortunately, only one was alive, as human hunters had trapped and killed the other not long before she had arrived. The surviving mammoth wasn't doing much better, as the hunters had attacked and left her injured. Fortunately for the surviving mammoth, Fluttershy and her team found her in time to save her from the hunters and the infection taking over her body. This allowed them to earn some trust from the mammoth, and it was enough to get her to the safety of the 21st century at Prehistoric Park. Unfortunately, her troubles are far from over.

One of the Park's jeeps pulls up to the holding facility. Exiting the vehicle was the veterinary team. When Sunset first heard Fluttershy over the radio about a mammoth, she and her team were quickly filled with excitement. However, just as quickly, they were alarmed when Fluttershy informed them that she was injured. They wasted no time gathering what they needed before heading toward the holding facility. Once they arrived, Sunset ordered for the mammoth to be sedated. After several minutes, the mammoth finally went down, allowing Sunset and her team to get to work.

Prehistoric Park's head vet, Sunset Shimmer, hasn't looked after a mammoth before, but she's hoping that what she knows about elephants will help.

Fluttershy had already informed Sunset of what she had witnessed and pointed out where she needed to look. Thankfully, when she was fully sedated, the mammoth had landed on the side Sunset didn't need to examine.

"We've just given her a light sedative, so she'll lie here and let me do this. She's got this deep, horrible, looks like an infected wound, and she's got this thing stuck in it. I'm just seeing if I can try and get it out."

Embedded in the mammoth's shoulder is an object of sorts. Sunset won't be able to identify it until she gets it out, which is much easier said than done.

An important difference between mammoths and elephants is the layer of fat beneath the skin. In mammoths, it's an incredible three inches.

"She's got this thick layer of fat, just, I guess, because she's an Ice Age creature just to keep her warm. But it's making it hard to get this out."

Sunset continues to pull on the object. The mammoth's thick layer of fat makes it difficult, but thankfully, the object is slowly coming out. After several more pulls and more discomfort for the lightly sedated mammoth, Sunset successfully removes the object.

"It's like a spearhead or something," Sunset examines before handing it over to Pinkie Pie. The spearhead is bagged up to be examined later. Now that the worst is done, Sunset moves on to clean the wound.

"We'll treat it like we would with an elephant wound. We'll just leave it open, not stitch it. Elephants, it's best not to stitch them; they'll just heal up, but it takes a long time. But, she'll just form a scar there," Sunset explains as she finishes cleaning the wound. "We'll need to give her another shot of antibiotics in a couple of days."

Once Sunset is done cleaning the wound, she and her team do a quick routine check on the rest of the mammoth to see if she has any more injuries or other health issues. They even take a sample of her blood and hair for further examination. The mammoth's infection is not gone yet, and Sunset and the veterinary staff need to ensure that whatever infected the mammoth can either be cured or managed. After a while, they finish their work and inject a reversal to the sedative before leaving the pen.

"The camera's working?"

"Yeah."

Elsewhere in the Park is the security center. Inside is Fluttershy, watching the progress of the mammoth's medical examination. After Sunset and her team finished their job and injected the reversal, the mammoth was starting to regain full consciousness. Not too long after, the mammoth manages to get back on her feet, no longer feeling any pain. Fluttershy is very pleased to see her feeling better.

With the spear tip removed and the mammoth back on her feet, it looks like she's on the road to recovery. Fluttershy hopes that now she'll be able to start a new life at the Park.

Later that day, she's moved to her enclosure.

The enclosure the mammoth is moved to, labeled 'Mammoth Mount,' is located in the grassy fields where the elephant herd resides. The enclosure itself is a bit on the smaller side, but it's designed that way to let its new residents get used to her new home. It is one of several enclosures in the area, but this one was built to hold large animals, such as the Park's new mammoth. It comes with a soft soil to walk on, a shaded structure, a pool, a few large piles of dirt to help keep cool, and even a barn with air conditioning if the heat becomes too intense. There's no grass inside the enclosure, but it's intentional since the staff want to ensure she doesn't eat anything that could harm her. It's only temporary before the mammoth can be released into a larger field.

The move was a little difficult, given the mammoth's reluctance around humans. Luckily, thanks to Fluttershy, they were able to move her quickly and with as little stress as possible. When she arrived at her enclosure, she explored it for a bit. Despite her only being in Prehistoric Park for only a few hours, the staff had already fallen in love with her. They even gave her a name.

The team decided to call her Martha.

It's feeding time at Prehistoric Park.

All over the Park, keepers are bustling to get to work. The T. rex family, siblings Terrance and Matilda, and parents Elika and Hank receive their portions of meat.

The T. rex are putting on weight.

The new enclosure for the Ornithomimus, recently named "Ornithomimus Pond," has drastically improved the quality of life for the Park's emu-like theropods. They feed on the plants inside the enclosure and the feed that headkeeper Applejack was throwing out to them. After a short bit of trial and error, Applejack finally found one they liked. She plans to experiment further on what to feed them, but this will have to do for now.

And the Ornithomimus love their new pond and new feed.

"Oh, ya’ll like this, don't ya?" Applejack chuckles as she throws more feed out to the Ornithomimus. The flock, while still wary of their caretakers, are starting to like Applejack’s company. This is great for Applejack and the rest of the staff because it is a step closer to building a bond with these animals, which should help care for them more easily.

"Oh, I was right about the pond. The Ornithomimus love it," Applejack says happily as she watches some of the Ornithomimus wallow and search inside their pond. "Look at them. It's like they're in paradise. We've given them a real home from home. Oh, they'll love it."

Other animals throughout the Park are devouring their meals, both prehistoric, like Theo the Triceratops, his Edmontosaurus roommates, and their Pachycephalosaurus neighbors, and modern, like the Nile Crocodiles, elephants, and a wide assortment of birds alike.

Everyone is enjoying their food. Everyone, that is, except for Martha. There's a big problem; she hasn't eaten since she got here.

At 'Mammoth Mount,' inside her enclosure, Martha stands idly to the side. Ever since she arrived here, all she's done is walk around her enclosure while occasionally drinking from her pool. While this was expected, it's concerning due to her refusal to eat. Currently, Pinkie and a couple of the keepers are in her enclosure, piling hay for her to eat.

"Just keep piling it in," Pinkie orders. While they didn't expect Martha to eat right away, they became concerned after several attempts over the past few days to get her to eat with no success. They called in Sunset to come over to assess the situation, and she's just now arrived.

Vet Sunset is very concerned.

"Hi, Sunset."

"Hi, Pinkie. How is she?"

"Not too well, unfortunately."

"What's happening?"

"Well, she's just not eating anything at all."

"Nothing? What are you trying to her with?"

"We're trying her with new hay every day."

"And she's not interested. She really should start eating. Can you get Twilight to get some fresh grass? We'll try that. Is that ok?"

"Yeah, I'll go and see."

"Ok, thanks."

Martha released a grumble, but it was not out of aggression. It was a sound of depression. Sunset watches Martha, who huddles herself in the corner of her enclosure. Martha turns around to look back at the humans bringing her food, but it's only briefly as she turns back into the corner. Martha's behavior has Sunset and the rest of the staff stumped. Granted, Martha's relationship with humans has been complicated, especially over the past few days, but even when they leave her alone to feed, she refuses to do so.

"I'm not sure what the problem is at all. We moved her up here because we thought it would be a suitable enclosure for her. It's where the elephants are, and they seem to like it up here. But she doesn't seem very happy. Her clinical examination is normal, her blood test results have been fine, her temperature is normal, and her wound is ok; it's not infected. I just don't know what the problem is, and if she doesn't start eating soon, she's not going to be ok."

Martha needs to eat well to regain her strength. If she doesn't, the infection might take hold again, and that could kill her.

Twilight sits at a desk at the clinic. She's examining something on her computer when one of the vet staff comes in to have her sign a document. Once she does, she turns her attention back to her desk.

At the clinic, Twilight does some research.

On the desk were two teeth. However, these teeth were as big as bricks, and both looked similar but different.

"This is a fossilized mammoth tooth, and this is a real elephant's tooth. And you can see that they've got similar grinding wear patterns. So I don't think it's her teeth that are the problem. I think it still might be the grass, or it might be that mammoths have a different digestive system to elephants. I'm just not sure."

Back at 'Mammoth Mount,' Martha is becoming lethargic. Elephants need to eat over 300 pounds of food per day for sixteen to eighteen hours a day and can go up to a week without food. Martha, unfortunately, is about to push that last bit to its limit. The longer she goes without eating, the more and more likely the infection will come back, and no amount of antibiotics will save her.

Martha's getting weaker. Something needs to be done.

Later that evening, over at the Base, Fluttershy is on the move. Just like everyone else, she's worried about Martha. She still refuses to eat the hay or the grass brought to her. What's worse, she's getting weaker by the minute. Earlier, she had talked with Twilight, who had expressed her thoughts that Martha's problem may be dietary. Her research showed that mammoths fed on grasses and sedges, but Martha won't eat what is here. After hearing her theory, Fluttershy immediately came up with a plan. Once she reached the base, she hurried toward her office.

"Martha's seriously sick, and we've gotta move quickly. I plan to go back 150,000 years. At that time, mammoth populations were flourishing. There'd be lots of healthy animals. I can get data, find out what they're feeding on, what makes them healthy, and maybe we can save Martha."

This plan is sudden, and assembling a team would take too much time. In urgent need, Fluttershy has opted to go by herself. While it's not ideal, they don't have much choice with the little time they have. With Martha getting sicker and sicker, something needs to be done quickly. Gathering her equipment, Fluttershy heads to the Time Portal.

150,000 years ago, the world was in the full grip of the Ice Age. Woolly mammoths were everywhere, from the east of Europe to the west of Asia.

At the holding facility, the Time Portal is activated. Fluttershy slips on her dense coat again and prepares to go back even further into the Pleistocene. She steps through the Portal, hoping to find what she'll need soon.

Author's Note

So, focusing on modernizing Prehistoric Park, I based Martha’s enclosure on what you would expect from elephants in modern zoos and sanctuaries. Even as a kid, I wondered why she didn’t just step over or knock down the fence since it was a small wooden one. Additionally, I added features to help keep Martha cool while she’s there. Yeah, I know they acknowledged it in the next episode, but I wanted to make it seem like the Park planned out that they’ll need to build some things to keep Ice Age animals cool. Don’t worry, I’m still going to do Martha’s haircut.