Tangents of Equestria: An Excersise in World Building - Barley's Diner · 10:18am Aug 20th, 2014
Barley's Diner, more properly known as Barley's Diner and Delicatessen, is a small, family run business located just off of Market Square in Ponyville. Not too far from the Hayburger, actually. While not exactly as fast nor as cheep as Hayburger, Barley's Diner has the distinction of being one of the few places in Ponyville capable of serving to the dietary needs of every resident and most visitors, whether they be herbivore, omnivore, or carnivore, and the prices are still considered to be competitive.*
*Barley's was actually the first establishment in Ponyville to experiment with embedding various gemstones and crystals into some of their products once they found out that the current Ponyville Resident Librarian had a draconic assistant. This has had mixed results as Spike is the only dragon in Ponyville, and tends to favor Sugarcube Corner.
The delicatessen side of Barley's sells a relatively small variety of meat cuts, fish, sausages, and other lunchmeats intended for patrons of certain dietary requirements or habits. Their selection of breads and cheeses is wider due to the local customer demographic. They also serve as a distributor for some of Ponyville's local brews. Most notably Zapapplejack Whiskey* and Barley's Own.**
*Zapapplejack Whiskey is brewed by the Apple Family from the castoffs of their irregular zapapple harvest. It is quite flavorful, rather potent, and seldom remains in stock for very long.*** It is mostly clear, with a faint rainbow banding visible. It is not for foals or ponies with weak constitutions. Flying or use of magic is not recommended after the second shot. Overindulgence may cause such side effects as literally pissing lightning and farting rainbows. Foul smelling rainbows, but still rainbows.
**Barley's Own is a dark lager brewed in the cellar of Barley's Diner and thus far only served in that establishment despite it's popularity with the customers. Barley does this mainly as a favor to the other Ponyville brewers he distributes for, figuring that he sells enough of his beer by the pint to not have to worry about selling it by the keg. The only exception being around the holidays, and even then he restricts sales. Oats, Hops, and Rye are trying to talk him into selling Barley's Own by the keg on a more regular basis, stating that the other brewers would understand, but at the moment, if you want a pint of Barly's Own, you have to either wait until the holidays or have it served to you at Barley's Diner.
***Another notable Sweet Apple Acres product is Zapapple Shine. While still arguably a whiskey, Zapapple Shine is extremely potent, frequently delivering a strong inebriating kick from the very first shot.**** Barley's no longer distributes nor serves Zapapple Shine, stating that "any alcoholic beverage that can actually change the color of your coat and mane just ain't right."*****
****Big Mac is the only pony known to drink more than a shot at a time of Zapapple Shine. And when he does, it's often a sign of trouble. The type of trouble that tends to require being taken down hard by Big Boss Macintosh...
*****This odd effect does wear off eventually, but exactly when tends to vary from pony to pony. Big Mac was once thought to be immune to this effect, but testing has since indicated that his coat and mane actually do magically change color when he drinks Zapapple Shine. It's just that they change to the colors that they already are.
Barley, the owner, is an elderly Earth Pony with a slate coat, salt'n'pepper mane and tail, and a frothing flagon cutie mark. He is semi-retired, generally tending the bar while his three grandchildren, Oats, Hops, and Rye run the rest of the establishment, having taken over this duty when their mother (Barley's daughter), Clover, went missing, along with her husband, Whiskey Sour. Oats is a somewhat lanky tan stallion roughly the same age as Big mac, while his sisters, Hops and Rye, are twins about a year younger than Applejack.
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Barley's Own is intended as a background feature for a Ponyville with a more mixed population with at least some omnivorous and/or carnivorous residents. It also distributes and serves various locally brewed alcoholic beverages, but Barley's main product is its food.
So, it's good to see some world building OUTSIDE of the story, because it helps keep the story flowing during read, but then again, not many casual readers are willing to go out of their way to learn this stuff outside the story of origin (mumble, grumble....)
2385441 Well, as you might have seen, this explanation of Barley's Diner is pretty much an extended version of the notations I had put into the story itself. Largely to make it available for anyone wishing to use the concept for their own fics.
2386045 Actually, I might use it as an idea for a tavern for a D&D campaign I'm about to start up...
2387182
A Ponyverse campaign, perhaps?
Or the Barley's Diner idea is simply well suited for adaptation into your campaign?
2386045 Ah, that's nice, is it ok if I use Barley's Diner when my story eventually reaches canon?
Also personally, my headcanon involving all "applejack" liquors is that Applejack may not have invented them or been named after them (or have them named after her) but rather that the original recipes were already pre-existing family recipes made by her ancestor Applejack (who she was named after) so actually the Apple Family is really stinking rich, but always prefer to live simply and live off their personal efforts rather than rely on their booze money, which is left gathering dust and even more value over time for family emergencies (as in WHOLE family, everypony in the family has to have a say in it). So aside from their cider (which is alcoholic, only alcoholic cider foams a thick head) and other personally made home-brews, official brewers are the ones who make the rest, and pay the Apple Family royalties.
2387863
Hey, part of the reason I started Tangents of Equestria was to make a common resource pool for those who found any of my ideas interesting enough to use. So go right ahead!
The other reasons are as a resource for myself to use in my own stories, and as an addendum for bits that I think are interesting but which are better off being expanded upon outside whichever story I happen to be working on at the moment.
As for the Apple Family booze money, I think the Orange branch of the family has gotten into it...
2387885 Ha! Actually yes, the Oranges did dip into the emergency funds during a desperate time when they wouldn't have been able to make a transaction for a big shipping export deal for their oranges to outside Equestria, which if they did without doing so they would go broke, and couldn't turn down the deal since local consumption of their products had declined in favor of the traditional apples. They appealed to the rest of the family on the matter and got the go-ahead since they didn't want their city-slicking relatives to fall on hard times
So actually, their well-off and well-to-do lifestyles are from their big-time business deals outside the country, and they've already put back the money they used from the emergency funds when they earned enough back.
Also, let's not forget the orange alcohols too like Triple-Sec and orange wine, that stuff has a ZING I tell ya
2387274 No, not a pony campaign. My players like memorable NPCs, and these fit the bill. I do have the Ponyfinder book and would like to use some bits of it, but it does work better in Pathfinder. My home brewed campaign world is 3.5 at this point and would be a hassle to retrofit. I think my next world I put together will be Pathfinder, I tried running recently and seems pretty smooth.