From The Mind and the Mirror by Dr. H. D. Charm; published spring 1380.
The second stage of the process begins with repeated or lasting exposure to source of concentrated magic of considerable intensity. As the changeling's core captures and stores as much of the magic's energy as it can, it undergoes a dramatic transformation.
During the span of this change, the pre-noble changeling is intensely vulnerable. Its mundane and magical organs must adapt to and recover from the new magic surging through them, leaving the changeling weak both physically and magically, and though its internal magical reserves are flaring brighter than they ever has as a common changeling, the pre-noble has only the barest of methods available to disguise the presence of that magic.
Among their own kind, changelings in this state are almost always intensely protected by the rest of the hive. The rare pre-noble changeling that has managed to begin this ascension without the assent and aid of the reigning nobles might flee or even provoke a sort of civil war to preserve its existence, securing the aid of common changelings that have decided the pre-noble would better perform noble duties than the existing leadership.
A pre-noble that has somehow begun the ascension process without its normal entourage of common changelings is driven towards whatever sanctuary it can achieve, often using the most helpless-seeming or personally attractive of its practiced personas in order to achieve the sympathy of members of the other races. By imitating a pony, griffon, or other being, and displaying only incomplete if any control of magical ability, it can try to pass as a civilian of normal or vulnerable demeanor while avoiding the more in-depth magical examinations that would reveal its true nature.
However, any attempt at disguise during this time finds the pre-noble's own ascension working against it. While the changeling's magical core undergoes the change that will eventually lead into the third stage of the ascension and eventually the realization of a new noble changeling, the changeling itself is mentally separating from its fellows and beginning to develop its own distinct personality.
During this time the changeling draws on the most vivid, practiced, and knowledgeable of its copied personas, mixing their natures to serve as a template for its mental development. As this blended but more permanent adjustment to the changeling's psyche comes to a balance, the changeling shows contradictory and sometimes bizarre behavior, even drastically changing attitudes and behaviors between the scope of its forefront personas.
As the changeling's magical and mental changes stabilize at the terminus of the second stage of the ascension process, it begins to gain full control of its expanded magical reserves, as well as a rudimentary grasp of the unique abilities that only fully blossom after it has become a noble changeling. Most importantly to its survival, as it enters the third stage of the ascension process and declares its own identity as more than just a common changeling, the pre-noble changeling is no longer casually vulnerable to the magical examination that might before easily pierced its disguise.