Report from the Royal Guard B.O.T.

HNG7 was the codename for the B.O.T.'s plan to sabotage Changeling Revolutionary Army camps in the Crystal Empire by using agents to place bombs in the camps. The plan went forward on December 8, 1996.

5 Pro-Equestrian changeling agents went to the 5 camps, disguised as CRA terrorists. One of the agents, whose name we cannot reveal due to fear of reprisal against us and him, said, "It was a high-risk operation. We had no clue if the CRA was going to buy the whole disguise. Amazingly, they did. We were all surprised afterwards that they had all fallen for it."

At exactly 17:00 hours, all 5 bombs went off. All had been planted in the control building of each camp. The blasts killed 36 terrorists, including 6 high-ranking CRA commanders. It was a devastating blow to the terrorist group.

The next day, on December 9, the Board of Generals, the leaders of the Crystal Empire's government, announced that in response to the attacks, they had executed 15 political prisoners at random. This was confirmed by spies in the country. This earned the pariah state another round of condemnation from the international community.

On December 17, the CRA blew up the Israeli embassy in the Dragon Empire in a suicide car bomb attack, killing 54 and injuring over 200. Celestia, who had been meeting with the emperor of the country at the time, Hanmen XVI, issued a statement that read, "In response to these recent attacks on Israeli property on Equus, I would like to reiterate that this planet shall not nor will it ever be a staging ground for the Arab-Israeli conflict, and anyone who tries to spread the conflict to our world will be swiftly dealt with through military force. As a response to the recent suicide car bombing of the Israeli embassy in the Dragon Empire, I have authorised the Imperial Equestrian Air Force to bomb a CRA weapons facility in Zebrabwe, with the full consent and cooperation of the President of Zebrabwe." These strikes had been conducted on December 20, a day before this statement had been issued.

Equestria not only had to deal with the CRA, but they also had to deal with a relatively new terrorist group in the Islamic Crescent of Equus. It was called "The Islamic Jihad of the Crescent Peninsula." It was formed in 1992 with the backing of several jihadists from Earth, including Al-Qaeda. In 2002, the IJCP would change its name to "Al-Qaeda in Equus."

In 1993, in the IJCP's first major attack, a gunman killed 25 at a shopping mall in the Saddle Arabian capital of Al Akdim. After this, Equestria proscribed both the IJCP and Al-Qaeda as terrorist groups.

At the same time, a power struggle was developing between 2 factions in the CRA: One was the secular nationalist faction, and the other was the Islamist faction. Due to the population demographics of Changelina, Chrysalis and her father had surrounded themselves with many Muslim advisors, some of whom were growing more and more extreme. Ultimately, after Chrysalis gained the throne, she let the Islamist faction of the CRA do most of the planning and carrying out of attacks due to her favourable opinion on the brutality of their attacks. A coup in 2000 by CRA secular nationalists was put down by Chrysalis, effectively ripping away what little power the secular nationalists had in the CRA by this point.

In the Crystal Empire, the generals that led the country in Sombra's place, growing more fearful of the Islamist faction of the CRA, decided to terminate the country's alliance with them and had them evicted from the country. This was very unexpected, and it threw the B.O.T. completely off-guard. As one former B.O.T. commander said, "When that happened, it was like a freight train just came out of left field at over 200 miles an hour. That's how surprised we were when those generals evicted the CRA."