"Um, what just happened?" asked Twilight, confused.
"I helped," said Discord simply. Discord pointed at Nova, who was now examining himself in a wall mirror that had most certainly not been there a second ago. "See? All coherent and everything!"
"Which is great and everything, but..."
Nova abandoned the mirror, walking back towards the group. "Um... Discord?"
"Yes?"
"Well, I know it looks kinda cool, but... was there any real reason for the fangs?"
"Yes."
"...So what's the reason? Other than an awesome Halloween costume, of course."
"Halloween?" Twilight asked, confused. "What's that?"
"It's just another name for Nightmare Night," Celestia told her.
"I haven't heard of that name before in any of the books I've read about it."
"It's the name ponies used for the festival before Luna's... affliction."
Nova raised a hoof. "Anybody care to answer my question?"
Discord raised his paw in defense. "I was just being polite. Trying to talk over somepony is just rude. All right. I'll be blunt. You aren't exactly an herbivore."
Twilight gasped. Nova ignored her. "What do you mean? I got turned into a pony, didn't I?"
Twilight gasped again. Discord dismissed it, rolling his eyes (this time keeping them in his face). "The Tree of Harmony is... limited in what it can do. It can't do anything chaotic. It doesn't know what to do with memory, something inherently chaotic, and it can't create anything new. So it made your pony body out of anything it could find. And magic, of course. Lots of that. Otherwise nothing would work. But your digestion is quite the same as before. More importantly, you have the same blood as before."
"What does that have to do with it?"
"You're type O."
"My question still stands."
Discord sighed. "All right. I usually just ignore biology in general, but you humans have fascinated me for centuries."
There was a soft "Oh" from Celestia.
"So I know a few things. Like, for example, people with a type O blood type can't be vegetarians. Or, at least, it's incredibly unhealthy."
"Oh. So..."
"It was a practical change. For once."
"And the color?"
"That's just because it's cool."
"All right." Nova looked at Twilight, who was looking very queasy. "Why couldn't you just change my blood type?"
Discord scoffed. "You think I paid that much attention?"
"Okay. I get it. It was just a thought."
Discord looked around himself. "Well, it looks like I'm done here. Bye!" Discord split into two halves, joined himself into a hole, climbed through it, then disappeared in a flash.
Nova and Twilight blinked. Celestia shook her head. "Does he ever do subtle?"
---------------------------------
Nova stepped off the chariot in front of Twilight's library, rubbing his head. With his memories back, he could distinctly recognize two sets of memories. It didn't help that one of those sets belonged to a thousand-plus year old inanimate object. It wasn't as much memory as... feeling. Thousands of years of feeling. He wanted to go home.
Wait, wasn't I supposed to be running away from that? It's only been... Oh, wow. An entire week.
Good enough. I can officially want to go home now. He looked down at his hooves. Unfortunately, that's not an option.
Nova followed Twilight, walking into the library. Maybe I could write my parents a note or something. Let them know I'm okay and not dead or something.
But I'd have to walk all the way through town like this. A pony. A very distinctly alien pony.
He looked around at the books surrounding him. Wait, I remember they said something about the Element of Magic. Maybe that can help me stay unnoticed for long enough. Or maybe even turn me back permanently! Nova looked at Twilight again. She seemed to have recovered from the shock she had been in before. He still felt something strange from her, a sort of... connection. It was hard to describe. It was the same sort of feeling he remembered from the Element's memories. Was it that she was particularly good at magic? He did feel something similar from Celestia, albeit subdued.
It was worth a shot, in any case.
"Um... Twilight?"
Twilight jerked her head up from the book she was reading. "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to ignore you, I just got kind of behind in my studies... and you seemed to be better now... But never mind that. What did you need?"
"Oh, I'm sorry... I was just... I don't want to be a bother. You're really busy right now."
Twilight got up fully from the desk she was sitting at. "No, really, it's fine. I'm not technically required to do any of this, now that I kind of graduated in my studies. My schedule's kind of messed up anyway. What is it? Really, you're more important than a couple of books."
Nova shuffled his hooves slightly. "Could you teach me magic, please?"
Instantly, Twilight was about four feet in the air. "Yes!" she shouted enthusiastically.
At his shocked look, she quickly checked herself. "Um, I mean, yes. That would be perfectly fine. Great, in fact. I always did want a student of my own."
After a moment, Twilight looked back at him again. "Wait, wouldn't you already know a lot of magic? From your Element, I mean."
Nova looked back down at his hooves. "No, not really. I just have these... sort of... feelings. It's weird."
"So... you could say that you know absolutely nothing about magic?"
"Uh... yeah?"
"Good!"
"Huh?"
Twilight gained a huge grin. "Then I can teach you from the start!"