Twilight Velvet and Night Light

Twilight Velvet and Night Light, also called Mrs. Sparkle and Mr. Sparkle respectively, are the married unicorn parents of Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor and paternal grandparents of Flurry Heart who live in Canterlot. They first appear in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, and have made very few appearances in the show since. They are named varyingly in credits, merchandise, and other depictions.

Development and design
Both ponies feature unique mane designs. Twilight Velvet's mane and tail bear a slight resemblance to those of her daughter Twilight Sparkle, and she also resembles the G1 unicorn mare Twilight. Night Light bears a resemblance to the G1 Earth pony mare Nachtlicht (German for "nightlight").

Depiction in the series
In all of their series appearances, Twilight Velvet and Night Light appear together. Their first, and as-of-yet most prominent, appearance is in Twilight Sparkle's flashback in The Cutie Mark Chronicles. They show a filly Twilight her enrollment letter into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and they are also present at her entrance exam into the school. When Twilight loses control of her magic as a result of the sonic rainboom, they are briefly transformed into an agave and a cactus respectively. When Princess Celestia calms Twilight down, they return to normal. They are then seen urging their daughter to accept Celestia's offer to be her personal student.

Twilight Velvet and Night Light appear again in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, attending the wedding between their son Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. Velvet is seen crying tears of pride over her son getting wed. The two make a similar appearance in Magical Mystery Cure at Twilight's princess coronation. They both appear in the crowd in the stadium in Equestria Games. They appear in The Crystalling - Part 2 visiting Flurry Heart. In this appearance, the two have spoken dialogue, and Velvet's aura color is different.

Other depictions
A promotional image posted by the official European Spanish My Little Pony Facebook page on May 3, 2015 uses fanart of Twilight Velvet.

IDW comics
Twilight Velvet and Night Light appear in the fourth story arc of the IDW comics' comic series, with spoken lines. They leave a filly Twilight in the care of her foal-sitter Cadance while they attend Shining Armor's flugelhorn recital. Twilight Velvet is shown to have a tendency of smothering her son with affection, calling him "Shiny". Shining Armor's flashback in Issue #11 implies Twilight Velvet to have what could be "a Daring Do Award for Authors... or an award for a book about the character rather than the DD series..."

On Issue #3 cover A, a list for a Twilight Sparkle birthday party includes a pair of names at least starting similarly to Twilight Velvet & Night Light. On page 3 of the My Little Pony Holiday Special comic, Night Light appears reading one of Twilight's books.

Twilight Velvet and Night Light are in. Night Light is also mentioned on page 1.

Software
Twilight Velvet and Night Light are available as playable characters in Gameloft's mobile game. They were added to the game as part of the Canterlot Wedding update on April 15, 2013. In the game, Twilight Velvet is named and Night Light is referred to simply as "Twilight's Dad". Their house in-game is named "Night Light Book Binding House".

My Little Pony mobile game description
''Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor's mother. Her cutie mark is three purple stars. She loves writing stories about adventures.''

''Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor's dad has a crescent moon for a cutie mark. He is married to Twilight Velvet.''

Merchandise
A glittery Twilight Velvet mini-figure toy and collector card were released in May 2012 as part of the fourth wave of mystery packs. According to the European collector card, Twilight Velvet "loves writing stories!" The U.S. collector card has a longer description and reads, "TWILIGHT VELVET loves writing stories about adventures!"

A special edition Twilight Velvet with a 3D cutie mark was released in November 2012 as part of the sixth wave of mystery packs. The U.S. collector card uses the same description as the previous U.S. collector card.

Card #66 C of the Enterplay collectible card game's expansion set Canterlot Nights gives Twilight Velvet the description "Her son was Captain of the Guard in Canterlot, and is now Prince of the Crystal Empire. Her daughter was personal protégé of Princess Celestia, and is now a princess in her own right. Twilight Velvet deserves to be proud!" Card #51 C of the game's expansion set The Crystal Games names Night Light and lists the quote "I helped Twilight study for her entrance exam into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I love her to bits, but I hope I never, EVER, see another flash card as long as I live."

Twilight Velvet and Night Light are shown on Acidfree's first art print.

Quotes

 * Night Light: You would not believe the crazy weather that delayed our train. Came out of nowhere.
 * Twilight Velvet: But it was all worth it to see this peaceful little angel! Awww, so sweet! Come to your grandmare!
 * — The Crystalling - Part 2

"Cadance, darling, aren't we gonna name the poor little dear, or are we gonna spend our entire visit just calling her 'the baby'?"

- Twilight Velvet, The Crystalling - Part 2


 * Twilight Velvet: I'm so glad you brought me Cadance's flyer, honey! She was free tonight to foal-sit so we can all go to your flugelhorn recital!


 * Twilight Velvet: Oh! You know my Shiny? We're going to his flugelhorn recital tonight. He's just so talented!
 * Night Light: He's going to make some young pony very happy one day!
 * Shining Armor: Eep.
 * — Friendship is Magic Issue #11


 * Twilight Velvet: Now we'll be a little late. Shiny will want to go out for ice cream after the recital or he'll get all cranky-wanky!
 * Twilight Sparkle: Very "cranky-wanky".
 * Princess Cadance: *giggle*
 * — Friendship is Magic Issue #11 and


 * Twilight Velvet: Oooohhhh! My Shiny winey is so handsome-wandsome!
 * Night Light: It's too bad your date couldn't come here for photos!
 * Shining Armor: Yep. Too bad.
 * — Friendship is Magic Issue #12


 * Twilight Velvet: Oh, I'm so excited to meet all your teachers, Twylie!
 * Twilight Sparkle: Ha ha... Yes! My teachers...
 * Night Light: And the princess, too! I can't wait to talk to her!


 * Twilight Velvet: So! Twilight! Why don't you tell us about your classes? Your letters home have been a little... short.
 * Twilight Sparkle: Um... ...They're ...good.
 * Night Light: ...Can you be more specific?
 * — Friendship is Magic Issue #40

"I helped Twilight study for her entrance exam into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. I love her to bits, but I hope I never, EVER, see another flash card as long as I live."

- Enterplay collectible card game The Crystal Games expansion set card #51 C of Night Light