Pumpkin: Mommy why is the wasteland so bad?
Zucchini: What do you mean, Pumpkin?
Pumpkin: Taint and radiation, and stuff, where did it all come from? What went so wrong?
Storyteller: Now that, little pony, is a very loaded question.
Zucchini: Who the fuck!
Stoyteller: Whoa there, watch your language. There is a filly present.
Now, on to your question little one.
There is a ton wrong with the wasteland.
Taint, Radiation, feral ghouls, mysteries 200 years lost and rediscovered by curious ponies.
What did go so wrong?
All roads lead back to The Great War.
Following Nightmare Moon being sent to the moon, Equestria experienced 1,000 years of peace.
Then she returned. It was 6 friends who galvanized to stop her.
Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.
Pumpkin: Those are the ministry mares, right?
Storyteller: They were, but not yet.
Each represented a virtue of friendship...
Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty, Kindness, and Magic, collectively known as The Elements of Harmony.
Relics of the past said to be guarded by a fearsome dragon until new wielders can be found.
Together the 6 friends saved the goddess Luna by returning from the form of Nightmare Moon.
Then the land returned peace. It was not to last.
Equestria began to industrialize at an alarming rate.
The infrastructure was based on coal and when Equestria's stores ran out, they turned to trade with the neighboring Zebra lands.
Zebras needed gemstones to cast their strange brand of magic and ponies needed the coal for everything from electricity to trains.
But as Equestrian needs for coal increased they demanded more and more coal for the same amount of gems.
The situation was very tense and anything could set either side off.
This was only further aggravated when there was a hostage crisis off the cost of the Zebra Lands.
Several ponies were held by Zebra Pirates and there was a lot of red tape to get through to save them.
Ignoring the volatile political situation and the red tape entirely, The Wonderbolts swooped in and saved the day at the cost of four of Equestria’s best fliers.
Thankfully, none of the hostages were harmed.
The Caesar took the rescue as a serious insult.
As a tactic to alter trade agreements and save face with his people, the Caesar withheld a shipment of coal.
In retaliation, Equestria stole the shipment.
Technically, they already paid for it in gems.
The act was all but a declaration of war.
Something nopony had ever experienced,
not since the time of Nightmare Moon.
As the war was fought Celestia sent Twilight and her friends on diplomatic missions away from the fighting.
She also commissioned a school built for her sister in Littlehorn, a section called Crescent Moon Canyon.
It was a joke based on the the fact Luna had been sent to the moon, now her students would.
The joke became less funny when a zebra convoy of refugees was mistakenly attacked by the school’s defenses.
Then the zebras retaliated in what became known as the Littlehorn Massacre.
Pumpkin: What happened?
Storyteller: Littlehorn Agent, more commonly known as The Pink Cloud.
A toxic gas with necromantic properties that burns or fuses things together in small amounts, but can be lethal in concentration.
The same stuff that used to saturate Canterlot.
After the massacre there was no stop to the war.
Overcome with grief, Celestia abdicated to her sister, Luna.
Luna reorganized the government. She offered a government office to each of the 6 friends who saved her.
And so the ministries were formed.
Twilight formed the Ministry of Arcane Sciences.
Applejack formed the Ministry of Wartime Technology.
Rarity formed the Ministry of Image.
Pinkie formed the Ministry of Morale.
Fluttershy formed the Ministry of Peace.
And Rainbow Dash formed...the Ministry of Awesome.
The ministries stretched the bounds of science, magic, and technology.
Creating power armor and Megaspells, among other advances.
All for the war effort.
There was an attempt at peace after years of fighting,
but it was a lie.
It was actually an assassination attempt on Celestia.
She survived, but at the loss of Applejack’s Brother,
Big Macintosh.
From there was the downward spiral that lead to the end of Equestria.
The Megaspells fell and it became the wasteland.
Cloudsdale, Manehatten, Canterlot, Splendid Valley, and many more.
Someponies were spared by gaining admittance to Stables, large underground fallout shelters,
scattered across Equestria that were built by Stable-Tec.
The descendants of these ponies still wander the Equestrian wasteland, fighting day to day to survive.
So what went wrong? Was it the MOP’s creation of Mega spells?
Or was it back when Equestria stole the shipment of coal?
Perhaps it was building an infrastructure based on something Equestria lacked?
It is very hard to say.
But that is how the wasteland was born, the epitome and culmination of wrongness.
Pumpkin: Wait, what did the ministries do during the war?
Storyteller: Well, little one, that is a story for another day.