Nightmare raises both eyebrows. "I would rather hope the name does not imply as much as it seems to," she says mildly. "Here, then; now the spell will only affect you when you are in contact with me. We should take care that you do not appear out of thin air, but aside from that, one young stallion asking directions should not cause a stir. Or, I suppose not a stallion," she adds. "Whatever you call a grown male of your species. Bull? Jack?"

As she speaks, she glides lazily over the town, then spots an open plaza and angles more directly towards it, landing with a quiet thud of hooves in an alcove on the side of a church.

"I'm a Man."

He climbs off Nightmare Moon and runs off. He returns after a few minutes with directions to Experiment House.

"Is it nearby? Lead the way, then."

Experiment house consists of a number of rectangular brick buildings among lawns and hedges.

"Have you a faster way to find Jill and Eustace than asking at the administration office?", Peter asks as they approach.

"Not without something of theirs." Nightmare looks around. "All of these buildings look the same. I hope you've been here before."

"I have not. There will be maps at the reception, 'though, which should be here."

And indeed there is a reception here.

Nightmare Moon approaches the woman at the front desk, figuring that the arrival of alicorn royalty ought to put her off-balance and therefore produce results faster. "Excuse me," she says. "Where may I find Jill and Eustace--" She pauses, realizes she doesn't know their full names, and turns to Peter for them.

"Eek!"

"Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb."

"You're looking for. Jill Pole and Eustace Scrub. Yes, I should have. Their schedules here. What year are they in?"

She is visibly trying not to look at Nightmare Moon. If the princess were more familiar with human facial expressions, she would also see that the clerk looks utterly terrified.

"Year Six."

The clerk hurries to a filing cabinet and begins looking through.

Nightmare Moon has to bite the inside of her lip to keep from either laughing or sighing in exasperation. Neither would help. At least the woman's shock didn't make her useless. And, Nightmare Moon has to admit, if only to herself in a quiet corner of her mind, her staff probably would not have done much better, had a human walked into Canterlot Palace.

If she even still has staff. Nightmare conceals a frown. She's going to have to play that delicately. She can flout the unicorn nobles all she wants, since they don't do anything but whine, but if the ponies who actually run the city day-to-day oppose her, she'll be out of power before she can say, "But I'm an alicorn!" Luckily, the general population isn't that fond of the nobility either. Maybe that can work in her favor.

Nightmare shelves the thoughts for later, drawing her attention back to the receptionist, who is turning back to face them.

"Eustace-will-be-in-history-class-in-room-1-1-5-in-the-Excellence-Building, And-Jill-will-be-in-science-class-in-room-2-0-3-in-the-Happiness-Building, Sir!"

Peter, who was already looking at a map, leads the way to room 1-0-3-in-the-Happiness-Building, where he informs everyone that Jill Pole is "needed urgently elsewhere" and does not give the teacher time to object before he immediately heads for the Excellence Building.

"Narnian business, I take it?"

"I'll explain once we find Eustace."

Nightmare waits in the hall while Peter ducks into the classroom, and inclines her head to the person he emerges with as they begin walking. "Well met. You are Jill Pole?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"I am Nightmare Moon, ruler of Equestria." There's a half-second's pause before "ruler," as though she'd substituted the word in at the last minute. "At the rate today is going, I assume you must be a duchess of some sort," she adds, not without humor.

"Not at all, Your Majesty. Unless Peter wants to create me one?"

Nightmare starts to laugh, then stops as a thought strikes her. "Actually, Peter, do you think it might give her more of a tie to Narnia? Land that she considers hers?"

It being a school day, the halls are largely empty. One person sees them, turns an unattractive color, and flees in the other direction. Well. Not her problem.

"Hmm. That might be worth trying, but not currently having passage to Narnia will complicate things."

"Perhaps if the current plan fails to work unadorned."

"Perhaps."

And here is the door.

"Excuse me, Master Scrubb is needed urgently elsewhere. Eustace."

"Do you have..."