66: You're as cold as ice, willing to sacrifice. (Hv)
You're as cold as ice, willing to sacrifice.
Chapter published 27th April 2014
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Lero was tired. Really, really tired.
Over the last - what, day or so? - he’d been gassed, kidnapped, dumped in a cell, forced to... well, do something he really didn’t want to think about in order to escape, sent his child away with one of his wives, then fought his way back into the hive along with his second wife before finally passing out against the bars of his third wife’s cell.
On the whole, it had been a pretty crappy weekend so far.
When he’d finally come to for the second time that day he’d found that he’d been moved, along with Twilight and Lyra, to some place that was certainly in the running for the most decrepit, dilapidated and just downright dangerous throne room he’d ever seen.
In the running? Ha, it was winning hands down.
The large domed room? ...cavern? Heck, hole was about the only way to describe it... Whatever it was, it was lit by a small number of dimly glowing orbs mounted around the curved walls, bathing the room with a sickly orange glow that slowly ebbed and pulsed over time.
Scattered around the room were clusters of mismatched furniture, some in half decent condition while most were battered and unfit for purpose. While he knew it certainly wasn't the time or the place for it, some small part of the human’s brain had been studying each piece to see if it would be worth trying to repair them. In most cases, he’d decided it’d be easier, safer and kinder to just burn them and start again.
At every entrance to the room stood groups of changelings while many more patrolled its dimly lit walls in groups of twos and three. They were playing a waiting game, that was obvious, but they couldn’t wait forever..
From beside him came a pained cough, drawing Lero’s attention back to his two wives.
Laying next to him on the cold stone floor, Twilight was propped up against a large throne... if it could even still be called that. Whatever resin or stone it had originally been crafted from had long since started to deteriorate, leaving more of a misshapen mound that once upon a time must have been an breathtaking display of regality, but was now heading its way to becoming not much more than a pile of rubble.
By Twilight’s side, Lyra was doing her best to tend to her herdmate, using what small amount of magic she still had left to ease her discomfort. The almost constant casting of the last few hours had drained her to near exhaustion and, while she was easily one of fastest casters Equestria had ever seen, unfortunately she wasn’t particularly swift when it came to recharging her own magical battery.
When he had first come around, Lyra had filled Lero in on what had happened while he’d been out, about how she’d spent the last of her magic to tend to his wounds whilst also trying her best to free their trapped herdmate from her cell, neither endeavour being particularly successful.
Once the changeling army had finally tracked down their two escapees - they really hadn't expected escaped prisoners to be fighting their way back into a jail - they’d unceremoniously carried all three of them here to this ‘throne room’ and deposited them at the feet of their queen.
Not long after that the Queen had recalled what Lyra estimated to be almost all of her remaining drones back into the throne room, sealing the doors behind them so they were all trapped in here together. Quite what the Queen was expecting to happen next was a mystery, but either way it certainly didn’t bode well for anyone involved.
“How is she?” Lero whispered to Lyra, the minty unicorn's horn glowing erratically as she quickly used up what little amount of magic she'd managed to recharge since her last ministrations. Valiant though the effort was, it didn't seem to help with her fellow unicorn’s discomfort.
“Well, at least she’s stopped getting worse,” Lyra hissed back, her tone coloured with equal measures of desperation, exasperation and anger, “and sadly that’s about the best I can say right now.”
Since their relocation, Twilight had been having trouble and was obviously in some distress. Her breathing was laboured and she was wracked by abdominal pains which came and went in waves. Something was troubling the child within her, causing the tiny filly to kick and wriggle in fits and spurts. Lyra was doing what she could to help but, without Princess Luna to provide her with a top-up of magical energy or to share her thaumalogical expertise, the unicorn was quickly running out of options.
Reaching out with his good hand, Lero stroked at his seething mare’s minty mane.
Since their recapture, Lyra had been like a precariously balanced boulder, teetering on the edge of a cliff, ready to trigger a deadly and unpredictable rockslide at any moment. In all the years he’d known her, the human had never seen his herdmate as... angry as he had this day, though taking the situation into account it probably shouldn't have been all that surprising..
But it hadn't been just anger, and that’s what had him worried about her. In the midst of the fighting he’d seen something in her eyes he’d never seen outside of her more... energetic sparring sessions with either Rainbow or Luna... she had actually been enjoying the battle.
At times, through the cracking of skulls and bucking of flanks, he’d even thought that she might have been enjoying causing these creatures pain a little too much to be healthy. Not that he could say much himself - he wasn’t a fighter by nature, but by god smashing some of these... bug things.. in their stupid ugly faces had been sooo satisfying deep down in places he didn’t like to think too much about.
But Lyra... the look in her eyes as she’d swung her foes around with her magic or trampled them with her hooves... he’d thought at first that she had just been letting off steam, allowing some of the pent up emotions that she usually kept so tightly locked away to bubble to the surface, but pretty soon it had obviously become more than that.
No, it was more like she was releasing her inner demons upon her enemies, wringing from their bodies some kind of revenge, extracting some kind of payment from her victims in the shape of their defeat. More than once he’d had to stop her from outright killing any drones that she’d already knocked unconscious or left incapacitated in some other particularly gooey fashion.
At any other time the look in her eyes would have scared the life out of him. Today, he was just glad she was on his side.
If that’s what fighting these changelings had done to the most composed and self-possessed mare in Canterlot, what would it have done to the rank and file troops, the young mares and stallions of the Royal Guard? Lero was reminded of his college years, the parts of his studies of human history that had covered times of war, the young soldiers of his own race, often going away to war as little more than children, many coming back as broken men and women, empty shells of their former selves just going through the motions of as normal a life as they could manage, and that was only if they came back at all.
Lero knew that Lyra had some kind of history with changelings, back from when some other changeling queen had invaded Canterlot many years ago, months before Lero had even arrived in Equestria. From what she had told him about it - and he didn’t push her on it as it was one of the things in her life she was reluctant to discuss - she’d been part of the small group of ponies who had been directly mind-controlled by Queen Chrysalis, forced to play the role of the imposter princess's happy little bridesmaid, even go so far as to attempt to attack Twilight herself, an event that obviously still troubled her deeply.
Regarding this particular hive, Twilight had filled them in on what she’d learned as best she could. The general gist of it though was that these changelings were dying, their only source of sustenance had become tainted and was slowly killing them from within. Lero wasn’t sure what to make of all this - Lyra had already expressed her opinions and they hadn’t exactly been conciliatory - but one thing was for sure... this was a hive swiftly coming to the end of its life. Those that hadn’t been struck down already, either due to the general decay and disease pervading the hive, or to meeting the wrong end of a makeshift baseball bat, were certainly on there way there anyway.
Opinion between his two present wives was torn as to what they should do next. Lyra was still for biding their time until an opportunity arose, then fighting their way out, preferably causing as much damage as possible on the way out. Twilight was more for waiting for help to arrive and then trying to negotiate some kind of accord with the queen. Currently Lero’s own thoughts were more on their short term survival. What happened after that would be another matter.
One thing was for sure though; this would not end well, not if it didn't end here, today.
Looking about, the human soon spotting just the thing he was looking for. Shuffling himself sideways on his bottom, away from his herdmates, he pulled himself abreast of an old table wooden table. It had obviously seen better days as two of the legs had come off, leaving one end of the tabletop sitting directly on the stone floor. Grabbing the closest of the detached table legs - not as meaty as the leg he’d earlier been using as a weapon but up to the task ahead of it nonetheless - Lero used it for support as he carefully and painfully dragged himself to his feet.
Leaning heavily on his makeshift cane with his good hand, he slowly limped towards the changeling queen, several of her guards watching him closely but making no movement against him until he was a scant few body lengths away. The Queen stood with her back turned, her attention fixed on a darkened stained glass window in front of her. If she was aware of his presence she made no acknowledgment of such.
While the two closest drones watched him carefully, neither of them made a move to stop him as he came closer to their queen. He was almost close enough to reach out and touch her before one of the guards growled at him, an unmistakable warning that he should not try to get any closer.
“It’s not too late you know,” Lero said, “you could just let us go, clear out the hive and make a run for it.”
He lifted his left hand - his aching shoulder complaining the entire time - to gesture around the room at the few dozen changelings that surrounded them. The movement was pointless, the queen could not see the gesture, her back still turned to him as it was.
“You really think you can take on the might of Equestria with this bunch?” Lero let his left hand fall on top of his right, both hands gripping the top of his cane as it held him upright. “If this is all you’ve got left then, to be honest, you couldn’t even take on a Little League squad.”
“Quiet, fool!” the queen snapped, still not turning to face the human. “Every one of my subjects would fight to the death for this hive.“
“You know, when my wife gets back, that’s kinda what I’m afraid of.” Lero sighed, “please, just end this now. I know you're desperate but this course you're on, the only place it’s going to take you is to a disaster.”
“Desperate?” the queen span in place, her face coming down so it was mere inches from Lero’s, the scent of her breath filling the human’s nose as she hissed at him, the smell reminding him of trash cans in summer, “What do you know of desperation? In your comfy homes with your loving families? With your bellies full and your children’s futures secured?”
The queen eyed the human carefully before turning her attention back to her portrait of glass.
“You speak of desperation... you know nothing,” she said, “you know nothing of us, nothing of being hated just for who, or what, you are.”
Stepping back, Lero leant on an ancient high-backed chair in order to keep his balance. Lyra had done what she could about his exhaustion, his blood-loss and his dislocated shoulder but she was almost completely out of magic and what energy she could spare was going in Twilight. Only time and rest would help him now, and neither of those were in plentiful supply right now.
“Do I look like a pony to you?” Lero countered, “I wasn't born here, on this world. I wasn’t exactly ‘Mister Popularity’ when I first got here. And believe me, the world I came from wasn't as nice as this one. Oh yeah, we had our own share of problems.”
After testing the arm of the chair to see if it would take his weight, Lero sat back on it, stretching his legs out in front of him and letting his hands rest on his repurposed table leg between them.
“We had wars, disasters, intolerance, murder, corruption.” Lero continued, not sure that the queen was even listening but letting the words roll on out anyway, “I’ve seen desperation at work, I’ve seen what it can do to otherwise good people. Hell, the world I come from makes this place looks like some sort of saturday morning kiddie’s cartoon. Before I was even two years old I lost my uncle to the biggest act of terrorism our planet had ever seen. Over two and a half thousand humans died in a single morning.”
The queen turned her head, eyeing the human carefully, looking for signs that would give away the fact that the human was just making all this up. Using these outlandish claims to try and sway her opinion. Two and a half thousand people? Even in it’s heyday the population of her own hive had never reached even close to that number. To lose that many would be like losing one of the largest hives, the kind not seen on this world for many centuries now.
As she watched the strange biped as he sat there, his attention on his own hands as he held onto that stick thing that he seemed to need to walk about, she was surprised when he lifted his head to catch her own gaze. he didn’t look like he was lying, he just looked... tired.
“All gone, just like that,“ the human said, “and if you carry on like this, that’s what’ll happen to you. If you push these ponies too far, they’ll lash out in return. If I’ve learnt anything about herd creatures, it’s that threatening them as a group is not a good idea. In small numbers they’ll panic and scatter, but get enough of them together and they’ll crush you underfoot. You can’t win, not like this. This road you’re on only leads to ruin, trust me on this.”
Letting himself sag, Lero leant his right shoulder against the back of the chair, the side of his head against a number of intricate carvings now hidden under layer upon layer of encrusted dirt.
“But, maybe you never meant to win.” Lero’s eyes never left that of the queen. “I may not have been able to pick up the musical accompaniment to that little song and dance you did for us a while back, but I know a funeral dirge when I hear one. Maybe what you’re really wishing for is just an end to your suffering, any end. Better to go out in blaze of glory that just fade away, eh? Better than just dying in a gutter somewhere? Better than just slipping away unnoticed and unremembered? Is that it? Is that what you were looking for?”
“NO!” The queen shouted as she moved towards the impertinent human, stamping a imperious forehoof against the rocky floor, “We WILL live, we WILL fight, we WILL survive! I don’t care of the cost! I will do WHATEVER it takes!”
“Whatever it takes, eh? And ‘whatever it takes’ means starting a war?” Lero responded, not flinching, not moving at all as the queen came closer, “did you think to ask for help? Did you even consider coming forward, stepping out of the shadows, explaining what’s happened to you and just asking for a helping hand?
“A queen does not ask!” Queen Auriela snarled as she pulled herself up to her full height in an effort to belittle the silly biped, “A queen does not beg! She takes!”
“DID YOU EVEN TRY?” came the bellowed reply from the angry human.
Shocked by man’s sudden increase in both volume and ferocity, the queen stepped back, her brain struggling to comprehend what had just happened. She’d never had her actions questioned before, and certainly not like this, by an angry biped, and a male at that... and she’d most definitely never been shouted at by one before.
“You say you will do whatever it takes?” Lero pressed on while the queen was on the backhoof, lifting his head from the chairback, leaning forward as best he could, resting his weight on his cane. “You want to know what to do for your people? Well if you have to beg and bow, if you have to put your face to the floor and throw yourself at their mercy, if that’s what it takes to save her people then that’s what a queen should do.
“But I know you, you and your kind. My people have had many leaders like you. Rulers, dictators, kings and queens, all like you, claiming to be working in the best interest of their people... but when it comes down to it it’s lies, it’s all lies. I know your kind, it’s all about power and control. Inside their hearts they’re just black and they’re hollow and they’re cold.”
Lero was running out of strength, all this shouting was taking it out of him, He had to save what he had left.
“Don’t be like that, be better than that.” Leaning back, his head once more against the chair back, he closed his eyes. “Twilight told me about your sister. I heard what she tried to do in Canterlot years ago. It didn’t work... what makes you think this, any of this, will go down any better?
“You sit here in your hive and you look out at the world and all you see is what you want to see. Your sister looked at all the little ponies and she saw a nation to be enslaved, you look and you see a future to be stolen, to be cajoled, to be blackmailed. Both of you, all your eyes see is something to take. You look and you see and you want... you have to look with better eyes than that.”
Though Lero couldn’t see it through closed eyes, the queen was conflicted. None had questioned ever her before, none had ever suggested that there might be a different way, an opinion that mattered other than her’s. The path had always seemed so clear, so plainly laid out before her. But no, she was on a course, there was no turning away from it now. Best to see it through to the bitter end.
“No, you seek to confuse me, to test my resolve,” the queen stated, “but my choice has been made and I will not waver from it, we will see it out to its conclusion and that is final.”
Even though he barely had the energy to open his eyes Lero made to speak again, but before he could the queen turned her back on him, marking the end of the conversation.
“So speak no more foolish human, for your words fall on deaf ears. Close your mouth before I close it for you... permanently.”
“Then we’ve failed... both of us.” Lero whispered, not caring if his words reached her or not. He was tired. so tired. Maybe a nap would help. It couldn’t hurt, could it? “There are none so blind as those who will not see, and none so deaf as those who will not listen. I think we’re done here.“
And they were, they were done. Whatever transpired next was out of his hands. At least Sweetie was safe. He’d made sure long ago that if anything were ever to happen to the herd then Big Mac, Cheerilee and Fluttershy would take Sweetie in and raise her as their own. Plus, Princess Luna would move heaven and earth to keep her safe, of this she had promised, hoof over heart, and when the princess of the night made a solemn oath then not even a pinkie promise held more weight.
So, the changeling queen had made her choice, the die was cast, the fate of her hive inevitable. For right or for wrong she had done what she thought was best for her children, as he had done the same for his.
As he could feel the soft warmth of unconsciousness start to take him, to wrap his very being like a blanket, Lero’s ears twitched, actually twitched. He could swear.. yes, it was faint, but at the very edge of his hearing he could swear he had heard Scootaloo’s voice.
Let’s Roccccck!
Before he knew what was happening there was a pair of deafening roars, the twin booms, so close together they blended into one, were so immense that the shockwaves alone threw him from his seat.
As he lay in a dazed heap behind what was until very recently an antique chair, his ears ringing from what had to be an explosion, his lungs filling with dust as it billowed in clouds around him, he could hear his sister calling for him, telling him to get out of bed or he’d be late for school.
“Move, move, move!” Nausicaa shouted as Lero’s right arm, still clutching at his table-leg cane, waved in the general direction of his bedroom door, letting her know he’d be up in just five more minutes... maybe ten.
But wait, that wasn’t Nausi... that was...
...that was Rainbow! Rainbow was here... and Scoot! Scoot was here too!
Pushing himself upright Lero found that the throne room had erupted into some kind of chaos. On opposite sides of the room were two large holes in what used to be the domed ceiling, through which was pouring a number of black clad pegasus ponies.
All hell was breaking loose as the ponies sprang from the hole, either tackling any of the confused changeling guards they could get their hooves on or taking up defensive positions behind whatever large pieces of furniture or piles of rock and rubble they could find.
Clouds of dust and dirt filled the air as Lero clambered to his feet, mixed with the chittering cries of panicked changelings and barked shouts of angry ponies. As the queen moved away from him, calling orders to what remained of her guards left and right, the human saw an opening... so he took it.
“Hey, bug queen!“ He yelled at the changeling monarch, her attention drawn away from him as it was by the ruckus. “I’m still here.”
As Queen Auriela turned back to face him, Lero curled his fingers around his cane, sweeping it in an arc behind him before hefting it in a mighty one handed swing directly into his captor’s face. Caught unawares the queen had no time to move, the long lump of wood catching her square in the mouth, twisting her head upon her neck and sending her reeling.
Spitting out green blood, and a single dislodged fang, she turned back to her attacker.
“YOU FOAL! HOW DARE Y-”
The queen’s cry was short lived as Lero charged towards her like a man possessed, his actions fueled by desperate hope and pure adrenaline, his body pulling from reserves of both that he had long though depleted.
Reactions dulled by the pain from her missing fang, the queen wasn't fast enough to move out of the way as the human suddenly dropped the club, using his now free right hand to grab at her neck.
But he wasn't trying to actually grab her, instead he wrapped his right arm around her neck and ran past her, using his momentum to swing himself around her and up onto her back. Once there he wrapped his legs around her barrel and latched the fingertips of his right hand under one of the natural armour plates in her chitinous skin, using it as a handhold as the queen tried her best to throw off her unwanted rider as he pulled and twisted at her neck.
“You fool,” the queen shouted, “you have not the strength to kill me.”
“Oh, I'm not trying to break your neck,” Lero responded, his head tucked under the changeling's chin so she couldn’t see what it was that he was doing with his free hand.
Queen Auriela felt a sudden sharp pain. Craning her neck as much as she could just see the human’s hand against her throat, his fingertips having pried up one of her neck plates. Between the edges of her natural armour, at a point at which two pieces of chitin would move over each other so that she could rotate her head, the human had forced a long piece of coloured glass, obviously taken from the ancient stained glass portrait she had been looking at earlier, before the invader’s shockwave had broken it into a thousand shards.
Whatever colour the glass may have been minutes before, it was now stained red with the human’s own blood, seeping from his fingers as he pushed the shard ever deeper into her flesh. Rivlets of human blood ran down the razor sharp edge of his weapon, mixing with the green of the queen’s own as it oozed up from beneath her plates.
“I’m not the world’s greatest expert on changeling physiology, “ the human admitted, “but I'm willing to bet that another inch or so and I’ll start cutting through something you’re pretty fond of, like a major artery or your windpipe or whatever, so I’d think about staying very still if I were you.”
“You wouldn’t!” the queen hissed.
“Oh, you think so?” the human laughed, “you kidnap my family, threaten my child, threaten my wives, threaten the whole of Equestria and you think I won’t kill you?”
“You’d die too! Even if you could kill me, I’d condemn you with my last breath. My guards would have you dead before my body even hit the floor.”
“You think I don’t know that? You think that even matters to me now? You’ve made this fight of yours an obsession, you’ve let it consume you and it’s never going to end if I don’t do something about you now I’ve got the chance. You wanted to follow this to the bitter end, well this is the end that your actions brought about. You want to know what obsessions bring, well this is it, this is what it brings. It brings you nothing... nothing but heartache and death.”
Letting his face rub upwards and against the side of the queen’s head, Lero pushed his lips up to the changeling's ear. As he spoke she could feel his breath against her skin, each word brushing against her almost seductively.
“So to the last will I grapple with thee.”
Pulling his legs tighter around her barrel, Lero squeezed her tight between his thighs.
“From hell’s heart I will stab at thee.”
Pushing at the exposed end of the glass, the blade digging deeper into his own flesh, Lero moved the tip deeper into his quarry’s neck.
“And for hate’s sake I will spit my last breath at thee.”
His lips brushed against the soft edge of her ear, gentle as a lover’s touch. If this was how they were going out, then they were going out together.
“You can’t be serious?” the queen stammered, her voice betraying real unadulterated fear as it oozed from her body along with her very own precious life blood.
Her helpless captive turned overwhelming captor just whispered into her ear, his words as soft as silk on skin.
“Try me!”
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Well... fuck. That was more intense than I thought it would be.
... very nice. Very.
I hope there is going to be a resolution chapter.
excellent chapter was intense and now it happened
I look forward to the next chapter
Dooby doo
On the one hand, good chapter, on the other hand, we already know he lives.
Well... I feel that I must...
KHAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welp, that's the last place you want a human on you. Night changeling queen.
And then they both died from blood poisoning brought about by mixing blood.
Just kidding.
I do have trouble accepting Lero as a fighter considering how calm and at peace his life is pretty much every day.
4299805
also this
4299805
How can you be so sure? Perhaps he died a heroic death and Twilight, mad with grief turns to dark magic and raises him as a zombie with the dark powers of Tartarus muffin after defeating its ancient guardian Derpidella De Derp.
Yeah it's midnight and i should probably get some sleep.
4299670
Agreed, I would love to see this adventure concluded, I am sure there is more to be said after they leave the hive.
4300148 Lero is like any man, really. Even me. We'll fight if what we love is on the line, even if we don't think that we have much of a chance. When cornered, humans are a dangerous beast. Just think of those people on the plane who helped crash it before it reached the White House. Do you think any of them were combat-trained? I doubt it.
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I swear if you make me wait another eight months for the conclusion...
Very nicely done. Needs some editing, but an epic scene. I look forward to more.
4300099
4301553
In my head, Lero said the quote doing a Ricardo Montalban impression.
4300954 I know exactly what you mean, but don't forget that TQM writes what comes to mind or whatever story inspires him at the time. From what we've seen I doubt he can, or should, try to force any chapter in particular out if he just doesn't feel like writing it yet. Though it would certainly be nice to finally see the end of this story arc that started over a year ago, god would it ever, its on par with his Luna and Lero arc tied for first in my opinion.
If Twilight and Lyra were listening, Lero's going to have some serious explaining to do...the cat's out of the bag as it were, and this time he cant force it back in before anyone notices.
Melville - that inestimable gift to authors looking for a really terrifyingly glorious revenge-obsessed exit line.
Khan Noonien Singh quoting Moby Dick was pretty scary in its own right...
Seeing Lero do it in this situation was absolutely terrifying...
BRAVO!
KHAAAAAAN sorry, I lost myself in the moment.
holy s*** that was tense. Wow! good work
4300148 Push a man far enough and hard enough and you'd be surprised just what he ends up being capable of.
As Quark said on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
"Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon."
these updates are so all over the place i'm getting confused. i'm gonna need to re-read this entire story
A proper leroverse expansion. None of that oh and lero was there story stuff
Try to destroy a mans country he will fight.
Try to destroy is friends he may kill.
Try to destroy his family and he will become something the demons of hell do not want to face.
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As best can be explained, the chapters appear as the writer desires and will be placed into the story where they should be. Another way of seeing that is with this phrase. "You will be admitted when you need to be, not when you want to be, and not necessarily in order of arrival."
Just how deep do you believe? Will you bite the hand that feeds? Will you chew until it bleeds? Will you get up off your knees? Are you brave enough to see? Do you want to change it?
Dude: 9/11 is hardly the biggest act of terrorism that the world has ever seen. Plenty of US-backed dictators have done much worse to their own people. And then we can go to Pilgrims and Cowboys performing genocidal campaigns against Indians, Hitler and his concentrations camps, the campaigns of Francisco Pizarro against the Quechua Empire, the Fire-bombing of Tokyo, and the Crusaders razing cities that had surrendered without a fight.
Lets just focus on three "Acts of War" that were mainly psychological in nature: the bomb "Little Boy" for Hiroshima, the bomb "Fatman" for Nagazaki, and the incendiary bombing of the Tokyo slums. The first two ones killed tens of thousands each, but the last one killed some 120,000 people in a single night. Now, how many people died in 9/11?
"If an injury must be made to a man, it should be so severe that his vengeance need never be feared." ~Niccolo Machiavelli