Neon Lights

Neon Lights, or Rising Star, is a background unicorn pony who appears in several episodes throughout the series. He has a bluish gray coat, dark gray mane, blue eyes, and a cutie mark of three white stars. He is not named in the show, but he is named "Neon Lights" with a trademark symbol and "Rising Star" in various depictions and merchandise.

Development and design
Neon Lights shares his coat and eye colors, cutie mark, sometimes tail, and sometimes pony kind with "Sir Pony Moore", resembles "Top Notch" in color scheme, cutie mark, pony kind, and sometimes mane style, shares his mane and tail styles, eye color, and cutie mark with Twilight Sky, shares his design with Dark Moon, S02E26 Unnamed Unicorn Stallion #1, S02E26 Unnamed Unicorn Stallion #2, and "Flank Sinatra", shares his mane and tail styles with "Cosmic", shares his mane style and sometimes tail style with Star Hunter, and shares his tail style and sometimes pony kind and some of those times mane style with Shooting Star.

In a storyboard by Sabrina Alberghetti for Call of the Cutie, an episode of the season prior to Neon Lights' debut, he appears instead of the finished episode's Cherry Fizzy.

More than two years before the release of either Hasbro's mystery packs naming the character as "Neon Lights" or Enterplay's collectible card game card naming the character as "Rising Star", the character was given the same names by fans.

Season two
Neon Lights first appears in The Mysterious Mare Do Well watching Rainbow Dash stop the out-of-control baby carriage and cheering for her afterward. In Sweet and Elite, he appears at the Wonderbolts Derby, wearing a hat. Later in the episode, during Rarity's fantasy and Becoming Popular (The Pony Everypony Should Know), he wears a jacket and sunglasses. He then appears briefly in Hearth's Warming Eve, listening to Spike as he narrates the pageant.

In The Last Roundup, Neon Lights is in the crowd when Applejack gives a speech before leaving for the rodeo competition. In The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, he watches the cider competition between the Apple family and the Flim Flam brothers and later refuses the brothers' cider after they win. He also appears briefly in A Friend in Deed, It's About Time, and A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2.

Season three
In One Bad Apple, Neon Lights is seen polishing the cucumber float that Dr. Hooves, Royal Riff, and Amethyst Star ride on, and he later drives the float during the Summer Harvest Parade. In Magical Mystery Cure, he appears both sunburned and frostbitten during Rarity's verse in What My Cutie Mark Is Telling Me.

Season four
Neon Lights appears in Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1 and at the Summer Sun Celebration at the end of Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 2. He also appears at various points in Rarity Takes Manehattan; at one point, he appears as an Alicorn pony due to an animation error. He attends Rainbow Dash's birth-iversary party in Pinkie Pride and the Cutie Mark Crusaders' play in For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils. He appears again in Leap of Faith, Trade Ya!, Inspiration Manifestation, Equestria Games, Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1, and Twilight's Kingdom - Part 2.

Appearances
Times are approximate.

Other depictions
Neon Lights, wearing his jacket and sunglasses, appears in the My Little Pony Friendship is Magic animated short "Rarity's Fashion Police".

Neon Lights is a playable character added in the Bugfix update in Gameloft's mobile game.

Merchandise
A mini-figure toy of Neon Lights has been displayed at the 2014 American International Toy Fair. The toy was released as part of the eleventh wave of mystery pack toys and collector cards and named with a trademark symbol. It uses a similar mold to that of DJ Pon-3.

In Enterplay's collectible card game, Neon Lights is named "Rising Star" on his own card α #75 C, which attributes to DJ Pon-3 the quote "Rising Star? Yeah, his music is pretty sick. And the louder you play it, the better it sounds."