 Conic discriminant

In characteristic different from two, a local equation for a conic bundle is $z^{\mathsf{T}}Mz=0$ with $M$ symmetric. A fibre is singular exactly when the determinant vanishes. Changing the fibre coordinates multiplies that determinant by a nonzero square, so its zero locus is intrinsically defined even when the quadratic coefficients belong to twisting line bundles.