"Alright now, that's it, you can do it!"
The Lady of Nature watched, hands clasped together, with a big smile on her face, as the last of the racers inched into view. True, having a tortoise was about as far removed from the idea of a "racer" as one could get, but that didn't mean the little guy wasn't putting his all into it. With determination, he took slow step after slow step, walking along the path that so many others had run and sprinted down. Fluttershy watched him eagerly, as happy to see him as she would be with any other creature. But she did not watch him alone, as Rainbow Dash was also present. And while she was always up for a good race, here she was completely relaxed. Not disinterested, but simply so confident about what was going on that she didn't need to even do anything.
"Okay now, Tank, you're on the home stretch now!"
Tank smiled to the Goddess, and actually upped his speed by a full step per minute because of it. Chuckling, Rainbow looked to her fellow Goddess.
"You gotta admit, he's doing pretty good."
Fluttershy smiled sweetly to her.
"Oh, absolutely! Tank is such a sweetheart! It really was nice of him to participate in this today."
Rainbow scratched the back of her head, chuckling nervously.
"Yep. I mean, yeah, he is technically the last one in this race, but hey, he'll finish it, and that's what matters!"
Fluttershy nodded in agreement, looking back to Tank quickly and clapping as he closed the still-sizeable gap between himself and the finish line.
"That's it, Tank! Go on! You're almost there!"
She sighed, looking again to Rainbow.
"If nothing else, it was nice to have a polite animal take part in this. I swear, the animals get so rowdy with these competitions sometimes. It's like someone just tells them they need to be as competitive and aggressive with one another as possible!"
Rainbow's coughed, looking away from her and appearing just a touch guilty about something.
"Er, yeah, um...can't imagine who."
Fluttershy, oblivious to her friend's obvious tone here, began to count off her fingers.
"Let's see, I had to disqualify the dragon and the tiger after they got into a fight. I had to send the rabbit away after he tried tripping up the wolf, and you don't even want to know what happened with the cat and the rat!"
Rainbow looked back to her, curiosity taking hold.
"Wait...what happened?"
Fluttershy rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"Oh, it was truly silly of them. At first, the rat convinced the cat to carry him through the racetrack. And I was fine with that, helping one another and all. But then, right before the finish, the rat jumped off the cat so he could get ahead first."
She placed her hands on her hips, frowning deeply.
"And he actually thought he'd be counted among the winners because of that! But I'll have no cheating in this race, so I told him he didn't count!"
Rainbow folded her arms, raising an eyebrow.
"And...the cat?"
Fluttershy looked to her, shrugging her shoulders.
"Well...she tried to eat the rat...because she's a cat."
Rainbow stifled a laugh, nodding slowly afterwards.
"Oh, right, that. Yeah, should've seen that coming."
Then, after taking in this whole story, her smile vanished, and she looked to Fluttershy with uncharacteristic worry.
"Er, Fluttershy? Exactly how many animals did you say not to be in the race for bad behaviour and stuff?"
Fluttershy considered that, thinking back to the day's events.
"Oh, quite a few. Can't have naughty animals picked for something this important after all, right?"
Then, she too started to look concerned.
"Actually...I think I might have had to disqualify almost all of them."
Rainbow, though nervous, still asked the next question.
"But...but you did make sure we have at least twelve in this race, right? Because we kinda need twelve for this!"
Fluttershy smiled back to her.
"Oh, don't worry, we definitely have at least twelve."
Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief, wiping away some sweat from her brow.
"Phew! That's good to hear. How many?"
"Twelve," Fluttershy answered quickly.
Rainbow stared at her with disbelief, leading to another shrug on Fluttershy's part.
"What? They were really badly behaved."
She leaned closer to Rainbow, whispering in her ear.
"But don't worry, I made sure none of them are going to feel bad for it. I made an arrangement so that we can all have a nice tea party afterwards, and I asked Pinkie to help me make cakes for all of them."
Rainbow smirked slightly.
"A tea party for almost every animal in the world? Yeah, good luck with that."
She turned, looking over to Tank, who had actually managed to get within one foot of the finish line as they'd been talking.
"Shame he's gonna be last on the zodiac, but hey, at least he's in it."
Fluttershy giggled, giving another clap of her hands.
"Agreed! He's been such a good boy! You should see how nice he is to Mrs Turtle's newborn hatchlings! He's the perfect babysitter for them!"
Rainbow snorted out a laugh.
"Yeah, Tank's pretty awesome alright. I gotta find a nice turtless to set him up with one day."
Fluttershy beamed at that suggestion.
"Oooh! I think I have a few he might like!"
Though still smiling, Rainbow glanced away from her.
"Save it for later, Fluttershy..."
A victorious smile crept onto her lips.
"...because I think we have a winner on our hands!"
Sure enough, as Fluttershy looked down, she saw that Rainbow was correct. Tank was indeed crossing the finish line, though it took almost a whole minute for him to get his leg all the way over. But as soon as he'd done so, Rainbow whisked him off the ground, spinning him around and cackling with her usual triumphant laugh.
"Haha! Oh yeah! Who's the bestest, baddest tortoise around? That's right, it's this guy!"
Fluttershy grinned at her friend's enthusiastic support of the speed-challenged animal, and the sentiment of joy only deepened when Rainbow set him down on the ground again, getting down to one knee, and offering a closed fist to him.
"Gimme some love, Tank!"
Slowly, the tortoise raised its paw, gradually bringing it closer to the Goddess' fist. Eventually, after five minutes in fact, they made contact, and Rainbow, after having displayed an extraordinary amount of patience for that, stood upright again, looking to her fellow Goddess with utter satisfaction.
"Alright then! Guess that's the zodiac all picked out then?"
Fluttershy, clasping her hands together, nodded.
"Yes. We have all twelve now."
Rainbow, getting down to a knee, leaned over to Tank, whispering to him with a sly look.
"Hey, don't worry about coming in last. Everyone knows the last slot on the zodiac is the best slot!"
Tank gave a slow-to-form smile to her, to which she gave him a private wink. After standing again, curiosity returned to the Goddess, and she slapped a hand down on Fluttershy's shoulder.
"Alright then, now that that's all settled, let's run down the list."
She rubbed her hands together, showing obvious eagerness.
"What do we have? A lion?"
Fluttershy shook her head.
"Oh, sorry, no lions."
Rainbow shrugged.
"Fair enough. What about hawks?"
Again, Fluttershy shook her head.
"No, no hawks either."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow.
"...Bears?"
"No."
"Eagles?"
"No."
"Sharks?"
"No."
"Cheetahs?"
"No."
"Rhinos?"
"No."
A silence passed between them, and after Rainbow blinked a few times, she started to look a touch confused.
"So...what animals do we have in our new zodiac?"
Fluttershy smiled, then raised her hand and started to count off her fingers.
"Oh, we have some wonderful creatures! We have the penguin, the butterfly, the robin, the puppy, the hippo, the duck, the flamingo, the worm, the platypus, the goldfish, the hamster..."
She smiled more happily as she looked down to Tank.
"...and finally, the tortoise!"
Rainbow stared at her, half-hoping her friend was joking about that selection. When it became clear to her that Fluttershy was being completely serious, she let out the longest groan of exasperation she'd ever had.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh! Okay, new plan...just command the mortals to take this zodiac seriously!"