Millennia: Eye of the Storm

Millennia: Eye of the Storm is a dark adventure-mystery military story by Thunderblast, and a direct sequel to Millennia: Beginning.

Plot
Struggling through two-week medical leave, Star Shooter copes with nightmares and stress created by recent traumatizing events. On his fourth day, Star heads out to get something to eat when he bumps into Rose. The two talk for a moment, and then leave. He goes to a local cafe, and while waiting in line, he is stopped by a curious pony who asks him numerous questions, which then causes Star to turn on the pony and go into a small outburst in which startles the whole place. When Star realizes his mistake, he goes to apologize, but is then bombarded by multiple ponies. He wakes up from a nightmare, fully accepting he needs help.

The following day, Star writes a letter to his commanding officer, also his friend, informing him on his progress during leave. He lays back down, then out of the blue is struck with yet another nightmare. When he wakes back up, it is dinner time, and he heads out to go grocery shopping, only to find it closed, and that it was actually morning. He goes to the cafe where he had his 'outburst', despite it being a dream, and is confronted by a royal guard, and then Ray Blitz, a pegasus he met just days earlier in Whitetail Woods. The two discuss plans, and later determine to hang out with one another at Star's apartment. Star prepares for the night, then when Ray comes, the two relax and watch a movie, when Star finds himself in the middle of another panic attack. This time, Ray comforts him in a way Star never expected would help.

Leave passes, and Star returns to Manehattan, immediately checking in with Doctor Haywalker. He explains to the doctor about what had happened while he was on leave, and Haywalker refers him to a psychologist in the city to further help his situation. After the appointment, Star returns to the barracks, laying back down in bed. He encounters yet another nightmare, but it is cut short when he wakes up. He heads into Manehattan, locating the psychologist's office and checking in to see the mare. He enters the mare's office, being introduced as Doctor Pastel, and the two talk for a bit as an introduction. Star initially feels iffy about her, but warms up when Pastel learns Haywalker sent him.

That evening, Star lays in bed reading a book while his roommate, Nightpath, cooks dinner. The two reconcile in discussion. The following day, Sergeant Hardstaff hosts a meeting that informs the platoon about a battle simulation taking place at Fort Fetlock, an Equestrian Army base near the city, and the rest are sent back to prepare for their departure, which would last just over a week. During a ruck run at the base, Star meets a soldier from Appleloosa and befriends him.

Days later, the Marines are brought to the practice range for live fire exercises. While operating machine guns, Star experiences a nightmare out of the blue and comes to find out he did not shoot at all. They then switch to grenades, which Star quite nearly accidentally kills everypony after smacking his hoof into Ash's when preparing to toss. Ash jumps atop the grenade after fumbling to reinsert the pin, relieved when the grenade does not explode. Embarrassed, Star parts himself from the others and stays in the tent. There, Ash confronts him, and Star lies about feeling fine after the incident earlier. At night, they are awoken by an alarm that an air raid is imminent, only to learn signals had been crossed and it was a false alarm. At the end of the week, Star says his goodbyes to Skillshot before him and the other Marines return to Manehattan. Once back, he visits Pastel for a follow-up appointment. Back on base, Nightpath informs Star of Hardstaff, as well as Shadow requesting him at the conference room. There, the two hire Star to aid with investigating mysterious earthquakes around Manehattan.

Days later, Star receives a letter from Ray, who states he will be in Manehattan soon, and upon realizing the message was sent days ago, he scrambles to meet Ray at the train station, but he does not come. He becomes worried, and goes out for a walk, only to bump into him at a construction site by accident, learning he arrived by airplane rather. The two go off to spend Hearts & Hooves Day together.

Main characters

 * Star Shooter: Star is a young pegasus in the New Lunar Marine Corps and the main protagonist in which the story takes place from his point of view.
 * Nightpath: Night is a large earth pony and one of Star's best friends, despite their rough start in the first story.
 * Silver Edge: Silver is a unicorn Lunar Marine and another one of Star's good friends. Originally a trainee for the Lunar Navy, he is mixed up and is made a Lunar Marine instead.
 * Ashfall: Ash is a muscular earth pony and a Corporal in the Lunar Marines. Despite constant arguing, like siblings, he is best friends with Anchorage. Between them, Ash is the toughest.
 * Anchorage: Anchorage is a pegasus sailor in the Lunar Navy, ranking at Petty Officer 2nd Class. He has northern-Equestrian roots, making his accent most notable about him. His best friend is Ashfall, and the two constantly argue. Between the two, however, he is the most intelligent.
 * Shadow: Shadow is the Captain aboard the L.R.S. Eclipse, the largest aircraft carrier in the Lunar Fleet, and is also Star's friend whom inspired him to enlist. He is also Star's commanding officer. The origin of their friendship remains unknown.

Secondary characters

 * Arc Nobis: Arc is a Second Lieutenant in the Lunar Marines and Shadow's second-in-command. Out of everyone by far, he has the most experience in battles and missions, and Arc supposedly suffers from multi-personality syndrome created by his post-traumatic stress. He is highly expectant of Star and the rest of his friends, but realizes how well disciplined and trained they are in situations.
 * Snow Storm: Snow is a Lieutenant in the Lunar Marines, and leader of a squadron specializing in eliminating cyber threats and real-world ones. His personal belief is that current Lunar Marines do not receive the same amount of training he did at the start of his military career.
 * Hardstaff: A pegasus sergeant in the Lunar Marine Corps and Star's squadron leader.
 * Ray Blitz: A pegasus voice actor whom Star met in the epilogue of Beginning, the two once more meeting each other in chapter 1. The two quickly befriend over the span of just a few months.
 * Armet Mace: Wealthy and famed CEO of GenTech Incorporated, a company with a recently-constructed headquarters in the city of Manehattan.

Minor characters

 * Rose Shine: Star's upstairs neighbor in Canterlot. The two formerly had interest in each other, but a shift in events changed that and the two decided to simply remain friends.
 * Star Scraper: Star is a rough, stoic former-military stallion and is highly expectant of his son and constantly scolded him, and is the primary reason behind Star Shooter running away to begin a new life.
 * Diamond Spice: Diamond is a caring, worrisome, average mother that despises Star's decision to leave, but accepts of his decisions.
 * Sea Watch: Navigational Officer aboard the Eclipse.
 * Doctor Haywalker: Star's base doctor from Beginning and moving into this story. He refers Star to his old acquaintance, Doctor Pastel, to help handle his post-traumatic symptoms.
 * Doctor Pastel: Owner of a psychology office in Manehattan whom Star is referred to by Haywalker. Both her and Haywalker previously knew each other.
 * Skillshot: A soldier Star meets at Fort Fetlock, who is from Appleloosa.
 * Flawless Rivet: ???

Reception
Millennia: Eye of the Storm has received mixed criticism with 7 likes and 3 dislikes, and has 275 views with over 2,200 total views.

Just like Beginning, it can be assumed the lower-than-average ratings come from users believing that it is another Lunar Republic-Solar Empire war story and leaving dislikes without reading.

Sequel
Although Eye of the Storm is still very much a work-in-progress, Thunderblast has shown interest in further expanding into a third, and possibly later, a fourth story.

He has stated "I don't exactly know what I want to do with Millennia. Quite a bit was left out or altered in the training sequence of Beginning, which I plan to fill in throughout Eye of the Storm in little bits. I have ideas to possibly last the series until a fifth story, but I have to decide what is right, and to me, the right thing is conflicting. Side stories would be fun to write, but they don't give the feel of a full-blown novel, much like what Beginning and Eye of the Storm are meant to be, and I want to keep this series in a pair or trio of consistent-length stories that build atop one another. I do not want to keep the series going longer than it should with ideas that may be recycled from previous stories, but I don't want to end it prematurely, either."

Trivia

 * Eye of the Storm is the direct sequel to Millennia: Beginning.
 * When completed, it is expected to be Thunderblast 's first or second-longest story word-count wise. At its current chapter progress, it rests 6,600+ words ahead of Beginning. Originally, it was expected to be only 36 chapters, but in late 2016, 6 more chapters were added to the list, bringing it to 42 chapters (this includes the prologue and epilogue), much like Beginning.
 * Rather than training and introduction to military life (Beginning 's plot), Eye of the Storm will revolve primarily around the main character struggling with war-related stress, depression, and sexuality acceptance as the primary internal conflict. It is also a major improvement from Beginning in terms of how it is written in first-person POV.
 * While it is not the first story written by Thunderblast to feature homosexuality, it is the first he has written with an extended relationship of said type.
 * Chapter 6 was posted at exactly 12:00:00 on January 1st, 2017 in the United States, making it the first story to be updated in the U.S. in 2017.
 * The P.T.S Alder, as mentioned in chapter 12 and seen in chapter 13, is derived from the real-life USCG vessel, the Alder, based in Duluth, Minnesota, on Lake Superior.
 * The name Eye of the Storm is derived from one of Thunderblast 's favorite songs.
 * The story's theme song is Battlefield 4 - A Theme For Kjell, with the secondary theme being Beyond Music - Digit by Digit.