Twilight Velvet and Night Light

Twilight Velvet and Night Light are the married parents of Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor who live in Canterlot. They first appear in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, and have made very few appearances in the show since. They are not named in the show, "Night Light" being a placeholder name, but Twilight Velvet is named in 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.

Other depictions
Twilight Velvet and Night Light appear in the fourth story arc of IDW Comics' Friendship is Magic 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..."

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.

Quotes

 * 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