Shadow Spectrum

Have you heard of a Vivid?  While there are many pony races spread far and wide around the world, few have ever heard of these most elusive creatures.  Vivids are living color, sentient light, they are the soul and the power behind every rainbow.  It is their existence that allows the bright and the beautiful to be as they are.
Brilliant though they are, so also are most Vivids totally invisible.  Preferring humble lives away from watching eyes and knowing minds, in turn inhabiting and enhancing all color around them.  But, should the chance arise to see one, they appear much like a living shadow.  Black, almost featureless body, and a blurred cutie mark to show they are not all pony.  In fact, they are more of an echo, light creating an image instead of them appearing as they "truly are."

Shadow Spectrum was one of the first Vivids discovered, Starswirl the Bearded finding a means to make them appear.  While at first angered and cursing Starswirl with a myriad of bizarre colors, Spectrum came to live and enjoy herself alongside the studious wizard unicorn.  She was studied, and did in turn study.  Using the shadow of Starswirl's apprentice, Spectrum eventually crafted herself the form she bears now, and shared with her Vivid kin.
Today Spectrum's influence has pushed magical boundaries in research, the question of what else may be hidden in the light and colors all around.  As for Spectrum, she still lives to watch and wonder, having connected herself to the rainbows that hang over the Everfree Forest, and any towns nearby.  A shadow with brilliant eyes observing from just within a rainbow.  She may even venture out and bid her neighbors hello.  So, should a living shadow with a blurred cutie mark every venture out adorned in brilliant rainbows, do not be afraid.  Much can be gained from this long-lived creature's wisdom... just as soon as you learn how to speak "colors."


[Drawing by the wonderful ]