The Crystal Empire had been exiled and shunned by the world due to the 9 September 996 Coup D'etat and civil war, which led to King Sombra I going into self-exile and appointing a bunch of military leaders to run the now-isolated country. They remained so until the 1930s, when they decided to adopt a communist society and renamed The Crystal Empire into The Socialist Crystal Union, with Sombra retaining power in exile as the dictator, his only decisions being which military leaders would run the country for him. They developed a strong bond with the Soviet Union on Human-Earth, acquiring military hardware from them.

Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and The Crystal Empire's economy crashed, providing a ripe opportunity for The Equestrian Empire to act. They sent out the Imperial Equestrian Royal Guard's Black Operations Team to help sabotage the government and incite rebellions.