The Fraternity

by Equestrian

John was extremely nervous that night. Only he and one other pledge had "survived" the ordeals of the Delta Gamma House's initiation week. As they rode blindfolded in the back of a van, he could only guess what further troubles awaited him.

Twenty pledges had started in all, but by process of elimination only the three remained. The Delta Gamma House was pulling out all the stops. They had done practically every clichéd prank in the book so far, and only the most determined now stayed among the ranks of possible frat members.

After a week of washing the wooden floors of the the frat house in diapers, running along the whacking paddle line, and singing embarrassing songs in loud colored clothes in front of the whole cafeteria, it was finally the last night of the initiation process. And John was determined to make it through the night.

He was only joining the fraternity to impress a girl he had met. Her name was Julie, and she had taken quite an interest in him. She probably wouldn't mind if he wasn't in any organizations, but John felt that he at least owed it to her to try something really hard and then succeed at it. She had even been with him that day, asking him if he was actually going to go through with the final stage of the initiation. Apparently the last test was something of a foreboding lore around school, but nobody knew the exact details of it, because no one who had passed it could be coerced into explaining any of the details.

He had become a buddy with Arnold, his one fellow remaining pledge. They first met while scrubbing the floors, a little after most of the potential pledges had already been disqualified from proceeding. They had made a promise to each other that they would both help each other try to remain focused on the task at hand, and support each other whenever they had to compete in the different trials of the induction process.

The van came to a stop, and he, Arnold, and the third pledge filed out of the back.

"Okay, move it," said Jack, the head of the "initiation committee". He was joined by five other members of the fraternity, all of whom were brandishing flashlights and wearing dark clothes.

They pulled the blindfolds off John and Arnold, and walked them over to a wooden fence. John looked around, and made an observation that they were in farm country. On the other side of the fence was a large horse pasture, and barn next to it.

All the horses must be in the stable at this hour, thought John as he checked his watch. It was past midnight.

"Listen up, ladies," said Jack with a smile. "This is the final test to see if you're worthy to join the Delta Gamma brotherhood. If you feel like chickening out, then let us know and we'll drive you back to your comfy beds for a good nights sleep."

John and Arnold just looked at each other, without showing any sign of hesitation or fear. They were both resolute in their decision; neither one was backing down.

"Well, well Jack," said one of the frat brothers, "We just might have to let these two sissies into our little club."

"We'll see," said Jack mischievously.

"What do we have to do?," asked Arnold boldly.

"Aren't we in a hurry?," laughed Jack. "Okay, let's see if you're Delta Gamma material. This will be the final phase of the initiation. It is the worst test, but let me assure you, no matter what other trials any other member of Delta Gamma has gone through, every member had to participate in this activity before they were allowed to join. So listen up."

John swallowed nervously, but he hid his fear and anxiety inside, remaining cool on the surface.

"One of the horses in that stable over there," he said, pointing to the horse stalls by the barn, "has already been marked by one of us earlier. You'll know which one when the time comes. Your job is to let it loose and then chase after it wherever it goes. You have to catch up to it in less then ten minutes, otherwise you'll be hitching a ride back to the campus among other things."

"That's insane," said John.

"Hey, everyone in the Delta Gamma house including me has done it," said Jack. "You just have to be creative."

"We can do it," said Arnold to John optimistically.

"All right," said Jack. "Marvin is going to take you back to the van and blindfold you for about fifteen minutes."

"What about the rest of you?," asked John.

"We'll be watching from a safe place, making sure that you're giving it your best shot," said Jack. He turned to Marvin, who smiled and took John and Arnold to the van. Jack and his friends walked off snickering to themselves, waiting to see if John and and Arnold could pull it off.

John and Arnold were finally released from the van at the end of the the time limit, and they made their way to the stable. Once inside, they saw the line of different horses in the stalls, all watching them as they walked by. It was sort of spooky. At the end of the the stable, John and Arnold saw an appaloosa mare with a ribbon tied around its tail.

"This must be it," said John, and he and Arnold opened the door to the stable. The mare slowly walked out, and then made her way over towards the entrance the led to the field. She stopped and turned to face John and Arnold, almost as if she was waiting for them.

"She must be used to this by now," said Arnold. He set the timer on his wristwatch for ten minutes, and then walked with John over to the mare. The minute they were only a few steps from her, she turned and ran into the field. Arnold started the countdown on his watch, and then turned to John.

"Let's get this done," he said.

John and Arnold ran after it, first both charging directly at the horse. She managed to speed up and leave them both in the dust. After the failure of their first plan, they attempted a little strategy. John went go on the left side of the mare, and Arnold flanked her on the right. They both ran toward her, trying to sandwich her between them, but she just ran straight forward and again left them to themselves. They tried several different variations on the last tactic, but nothing could work.

"Do you have any food to lore her over to us?," asked John.

"No, I didn't think to bring any," answered Arnold.

"It's just as well," said John. "They probably would have taken it from us anyway."

"Well, we better think of something fast," said Arnold, inspecting his watch. "We only have five minutes left."

"I know. We just can't catch it. She's too fast," said John, hopelessly. Then he looked back at the stables. "Wait, I have an idea."

He and Arnold ran back to the stable, and they started searching through the stalls. They found two horses with saddles already on them.

"Kind of convenient, huh?," said Arnold suspiciously.

"Who cares?" asked John, mounting a brown stallion. Arnold hopped the other, which was a tan color.

They rode the horses out of the stable, and galloped after the mare. She was still determined to remain free, and she ran over towards a woods growing next to the far side of the field. She leapt over the fence with a single bound, and John and Arnold leaned back in awe. They tried to stop their own horses, but the creatures animals continued after her, jumping the fence as well.

The mare ran into a secluded grove in the woods, and John and Arnold rode after her. They finally caught up with her, and they both moved in close to her. They gently grabbed her muzzle, and started leading her back to the farm.

But the mare stopped and leaned over to drink from a small spring that was running through the grove. The way she kept looking up at them after every sip, it was like she was inviting them to join her. John and Arnold were feeling a bit parched, so they dismounted their horses and walked to the creek. When they got there, they clasped their hands under the water and then drew up some of the water, lifting it to their lips.

"I can't believe it!," said a voice from behind them. "You actually figured out how to do it."

John and Arnold turned around, and to face where the voice came from. When they saw the source of the sound, they took a few steps back in terror. Jack was standing there staring at them, but there was something very different about him.

From his chest down, he now had the body of a brown horse. A saddle was on his back, and John realized that Jack had been the horse he had ridden on. The head of the other horse started changing, and then took the form of the top half of another of the Delta Gamma house members.

"What in the world?" asked Arnold, staring at the two "creatures."

Then two other creatures like Jack and the other trotted up to meet them. They had the bodies of the two other frat brothers.

"You two were great," said Jack. "In fact, you guys broke the record."

"Yeah, great," said John, looking back and forth at all the creatures.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know where my manners are tonight!" said Jack. "I'd like you to meet Julie, from our sister house."

John turned around to face the mare he and Arnold had chased, which now had the upper body of his girlfriend Julie where its head and neck was.

"What?!" demanded John, now completely stumped.

You're in!" said Jack. "You passed. In another few minutes, the initiation will be complete, and you'll be full brothers in our fraternity."

"I don't understand," said Arnold. "What in the world happened to you?"

"We're centaurs," said Jack. "You see, one day the original members of this fraternity were in this grove, and they drank from that spring over there. The water transformed them into centaurs, but they found out that they could change back to human form or completely into horse form when they drank water from it again."

Jack pulled out a canteen from his saddle bag, obviously full of water from the spring. John and Arnold looked at each other. They couldn't say anything.

Jack continued. "They knew if they told anyone, they would be captured and experimented on. But they also agreed it would be the ultimate way of showing loyalty to the fraternity. So each year, more pledges are transformed into centaurs as a way of devotion to the Delta Gamma house. It should start for you two in a second or so."

"Wait a minute!" demanded John, trying to figure out all the details. But before he could say anything else, he started feeling a strange pain coming from his lower back.

He screamed in pain as his pants were torn off him and a hair growth protruded from behind him. He looked over and saw Arnold yelling as well, as he suddenly fell over.

John remained on his feet, but still squirmed as the new flesh grew farther away from his body. Two long legs extended from beneath the rear of the new body, and once they reached the ground, the bottom few inches hardened into hooves. Long strands of hair streamed out from above his butt, and stretched out about three feet long each. His front feet started hurting as well, and he looked down to examine them.

Arnold was almost completely done with his transformation, and John looked over to see him. His entire lower body was now replaced with that of a horse, and was filling out more to become proportional.

John's legs lengthened, becoming skinnier. Soon they matched the length of the back legs, and his feet grew stiff, until they became hooves as well. Hair sprouted out, completely covering the skin of everything below his abdomen, with a distinct ring of hair encircling the boundary between his human and equine sections.

John turned his head to examine himself. His body was now half human, half horse. He recognized from the golden fur that he had on the horse half that he had the body of a palomino. He turned to look at Arnold, who was now surging to get on all four legs. The white body hair and gray tail made him look like an Arabian horse.

John took a few steps forward, realizing that he could feel the order that his legs were supposed to move in order for him to walk. He felt a strange muscle above his rear end, and then flexed it. His tail flopped up, and then fell back down.

He walked over to a rotted tree in the grove, and then turned his back to it. He leaned his weight to the front of his body, and then shot his back legs out in a mighty kick. The power of his hooves connecting with the dead bark knocked the old tree over.

"Impressive, don't you think?" asked Jack.

"What do we do now?" asked Arnold, who seemed delighted with the way he could trot around on four legs.

"You are now centaurs," said Jack. "You can't tell anyone about yourself, but I guess you already know that. As long as you take a drink of water from that spring once a day, you can remain in human form. We usually come back here once a month to refill our canteens and turn back into centaur form, simply for the fun of it."

John turned to Julie, who seemed to be admiring his new body.

"Come on," she said merrily. "I'll show you how to run."

She smiled and took his hand, and then led him back to the field. Once they got there, she started out with a slow trot, and then broke out into a full gallop. John watched and observed her movements, and then started running himself. She turned and ran next to him, and held his hand as they traveled the length of the field.

John had never run so fast in all his life. The speed was scary at first, but then became second nature. He finally slowed down, and then came to a complete stop. He looked at his horse section again, rather proudly. Julie walked over and smacked his side playfully. He looked up to her, and then finally smiled for the first time since the transformation.

"I'm so happy that you were able to catch me," she said.

"Me too," said John. He turned and realized he had been slightly flipping his tail up and down as he was talking to her. He stopped and turned to face her. She just smiled. She knew it had been wagging, but that was fine with her.

After a few hours, John and Arnold were offered some of the water from a canteen, and returned back to human form. John was almost disappointed. He was just getting used to his new body!

They all traveled back to the college campus, where John and Arnold were given a hero's welcome by the member's of Delta Gamma and their sister house. They were immediately asked questions like what breed of horse they had the body of, and then what was it like to run on four legs, and such. John was exhausted, however, and just wanted to sleep.

The year went by, and John enjoyed all the fun activities he got to participate in, but he especially like the time of the month that he and his fellow frat brothers went back to the grove to transform. Sometimes Julie would come along, but most of the time she went with her own sorority on a separate day.

On some mornings, John wouldn't drink any water first off, so that he could just remain in his apartment and admire himself in front of a mirror. He liked his build, and was almost tempted to snap a picture, but he decided against it. He was just happy enough to stand on four legs and walk around. But he enjoyed the power his new body had most of all.

He and Arnold were still best friends, and occasionally they would worry about what they would do when they left college and were no longer in the vicinity of the spring, How could they change back to human form? They decided that some of the current members of the frat house would have to send the water to the old members.

But those problems could be solved in their futures, and right now they were still at college. Julie was calling John over, and he hopped on his feet. He was going to be going with her to the spring today, and he could hardly wait. He knew he just had to beat her in a foot race today, and this was one centaur who wasn't going to waste a minute practicing!

The Fraternity copyright 2001 by Equestrian.