One sleepless night at Carrot Top's place later, the family searched their home. Time Turner went over everything for the third time, frowning in confusion.

"They didn't take anything," he said to himself. "I have several things of value here. Why didn't they take anything?"

"Because that's not what they wanted," a voice answered from the door. Phillip walked through the door, rubbing his eyes blearily. "You should've called me earlier."

"We were a bit panicked at the time!" Turner replied, a bit more loudly than he meant.

"I understand," Phillip said. He examined the room, lost in thought, frowning.

"The thief from the store," Turner said. "D-did you find him?"

"Yes. It was that seedy pony, who talked about getting a watch for his marefriend." Phil grunted softly. "Clumsy thief, left behind a lot of evidence. I found all your stolen clocks at his place, but he was a bit harder to find. That's why I was gone most of last night." His eyes sparked as a thought came to him. "The pocketwatch. Do you still have it?"

"Er...yes, yes, I think I do." Turner raced back to his study. He came back moments later with the pocketwatch, which he carefully gave to Phillip.

"This was expensive," Phillip muttered. "At one point. The pony who bought this might have cared for it, but whoever inherited it didn't."

"You think he was telling the truth about getting it from his father?"

"I don't have a reason to think that he didn't," Phillip said, sitting down on the couch (Dinky winced: she'd just sprayed that and most of the floor and furniture with a bottle of disinfectant). "Multiple scratches...looks like he carried it in his pocket with his spare change."

"What are those numbers on the inside of the case?" Ditzy asked.

"Pawnbroker's numbers," Phil answered. "This watch was pawned and bought back at least three times." He frowned. "Straight Flush might be a gambler. He sold the watch when he was low on funds, then bought it back when his luck turned around."

"There's something else," Turner said. He gently took the watch from Phillip and opened up the back. "There's this part here. I don't know what it's for, but it's not a normal part of a clock."

Phillip stared at the mysterious part for a while, then closed the watch back. "I think I should hang onto this for a while."

"B-but—" Turner stammered.

"Turner," Phillip said. "I think this might be the reason your family was endangered. You're all safer if I have it."

Turner gazed at the unfinished watch with a longing gaze, but Ditzy touched his shoulder. He gazed at his family for a moment, then nodded at Phillip, who pocketed the watch.

"I'm going to make some inquiries," he said, exiting. "The three of you watch your backs."

Ditzy frowned in thought, then tried to twist her head around to look at her back. "Why? What's my back going to do?" giving Turner a wall-eyed look of bewilderment.

Turner laughed softly, shaking his head. "Oh, Ditzy, sweetheart, never change," he chuckled, giving his wife a kiss.

"Now, come on, Dinky," Ditzy said, her cheerful attitude bubbling to the surface again. "It's time for school!" She bustled her daughter down the hallway, play-chasing her into the kitchen and eliciting a few giggles from the filly. "Everything's going to be all right now!"

Ditzy might not have realized, but that was just tempting fate.

That afternoon, Dinky bounded out of the schoolhouse with a happy grin and a song on her lips. She hardly reacted when her mother tumbled out of the sky and crash-landed in front of her. "Hi, muffin!" Ditzy said, twisting upright and giving her a smile. "How was your day?"

"Great!" Dinky replied, hopping after her mother as she guided her down the streets of Ponyville back home. The two chatted happily, enjoying the warm sun and cool breeze on their faces.

But as they turned the corner onto Drury Lane, they saw three strange ponies in front of them. All of them were rather tough-looking, scowling as they looked around at the cottages.

"Where's this doc live anyway?" one of them, a large dark blue unicorn with a black eyes that were set a little too close together said as he squinted at a house number.

"How should I know?" snapped back a skinny cream-colored pegasus with dark glasses, chewing compulsively on a toothpick.

"Shut up, both of you," ordered the apparent leader, a mean-looking earth pony with a black coat and venomous green eyes, wearing a loose brown vest. "We just gotta find this guy, get the watch, and it'll be good."

"Excuse me," Ditzy said, approaching the trio with a smile. "Who are you looking for? Maybe I can help, I—"

"Bug off," the earth pony said to her. "We don't need your help."

Ditzy simpered, her ears flattening against her head. "I was just trying to help—"

"I said shove off," the earth pony said, shoving her. Ditzy stumbled and wound up tumbling backwards several feet and crashing into a mailbox, which toppled over and got stuck on her head. The three ponies fell about laughing as Ditzy, after some struggling, managed to get the mailbox off her head, spitting letters. Her mismatched eyes were wide and she looked close to tears.

"Mom, let's just go," Dinky said, helping her mother up and guiding her away, compulsively scrubbing at her hooves in a display of her nervousness.

"Yeah, that's right, run away!" the unicorn called after them. "Go cry and take your dumb kid with you!"

As soon as she heard that, Ditzy froze as suddenly as if she'd been turned into stone. Her eyes widened, pupils shrinking into dots. One of them twitched a couple of times.

Uh-oh, Dinky thought.

Ditzy whirled around and faced the three bullies, her eyes now blazing with fury. "What did you say about my daughter, you stupid jerk?!" she shouted. The trio hesitated, looking slightly taken aback, before the unicorn spoke up again.

"I said that she's a dumb kid, from a dumber mother," he sneered. "You should be real proud of yourself."

"That's it!" Ditzy screeched, spreading her wings and taking flight, charging right at the bullies with a furious roar. The astonished thugs, to startled to move, braced themselves for the impact.

The impact never came, however, because Ditzy somehow tripped in midair and did a faceplant, skidding a few feet before ending at the hooves of her would-be victims. The stallions stared down at Ditzy, who was groaning in pain and holding her head, then burst into loud laughter.

"Stop laughing at me!" Ditzy shouted, rolling along the ground. She hit the legs of the earth pony with the vest, sending him tumbling over and landing face down, abruptly ending the laughter. Coming up between the other two thugs, Ditzy stood up suddenly, but staggered as if off-balance. Her hoof struck the face of the pegasus as the back of her head smashed into the unicorn, sending them both flying back. Ditzy went after the pegasus, staggering into him like she was struggling to keep her balance, smashing into him with her head, shoulders, elbows and hooves. The thug tried to put up a defense, but it was too late. A wild uppercut to his jaw sent him spinning away and tumbling to the ground, unconscious.

Behind her, the unicorn had just grabbed a length of wood and was charging at her. With a bellow like an angry manticore, he swung his makeshift weapon at Ditzy, who ducked out of the way. Again and again, the thug swung at her, but Ditzy somehow managed to dodge every time, stumbling and staggering.

"Hold still!" the unicorn yelled, slashing at Ditzy's legs. Ditzy jumped over the attack, landing on her forehooves in a hoofstand, spreading her wings out for balance. Bizarrely, she began to walk towards her attacker on her forelegs, kicking at him with her hind legs. Her hooves pummeled into his face mercilessly, causing him to drop his weapon. A final upward kick to his chin sent the thug up into the air and crashing down to the ground. Ditzy flipped back to her hind legs, wobbling.

"Mom, look out!" Dinky warned, almost too late. The earth pony had gotten back into the fight, pulling a knife out of his vest. He began to slash viciously at Ditzy, who backpedaled rapidly, her flailing limbs somehow deflecting every attack. She ducked beneath a swipe at her head, only for her attacker to seize her by the hair. "Got you now!" he shouted, aiming the knife right at her neck and stabbing.

Suddenly, Ditzy spun around so that she was standing with her back to his chest, twisting his hoof and forcing him to let go of her hair. Ditzy's forehooves slammed into his leg, knocking the knife from his grasp. At the same time, she sent her hips back into his hips, knocking him backwards. The earth pony suddenly found himself being lifted off the ground: Ditzy's tail had somehow got entangled with his legs.

As he fell, Ditzy spun around once more and with a yell, jumped off the ground and dropkicked the thug right in the chest with both legs. He sailed backwards across the street and crashed into some trash cans, where he lay in an unconscious heap. Flopping to the ground, Ditzy used her wings to lift herself back up, panting.

"Mom, are you okay?" Dinky shouted, rushing over to her mother and hugging her.

"I'm fine, muffin," Ditzy said, embracing her trembling daughter with her wings. "I'm fine."

Attracted by the sound of the commotion, several ponies rushed out to see what was going on. They gazed in mute astonishment at the sight: three unconscious ponies with Derpy herself standing in the midst of them. Time Turner and Phillip themselves appeared, staring open-mouthed.

The unicorn groaned and raised his head slightly. "I just don't know what went wrong," he murmured, then flopped back down onto the ground.

Author's Notes:

And the moral of the story is: don't mess with mama bear. Especially when mama bear is Derpy.

But who are these thugs, and what did they want with Turner?