Nightmare Sequences in Fan Works.
The following have their own pages:
Crossovers
- Children of an Elder God: Shinji has one in chapter 5. It starts quite innocently, looking like a fairy tale where knight Shinji has to move all of Princess Asuka's possessions to become a god, and he is helped by a horde of cute penguins. Then it takes an increasingly unsettling turn when he is led deep underground until he is in a vast subterranean lake filled with a bubbling, seething sludge from which tendrils are formed. Shinji tries to back away and then a horde grabs him, rips his clothes, and throws him naked in the lake. Then it gets really disturbing.
- Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail: In the midst of Act 2's very heavy Psychological Horror based arc, Goh is subjected into something called "nightmare therapy" (based off a wish from Parker to have him learn his lesson on how to be a better friend to Chloe as Goh's insensitivity is the basis of Chloe running onto the Infinity Train) where he is told off by construts of Ash, Tokio and Raboot for how insensitive he was, got to see what happened if Chloe stayed like he wanted (involving her jumping off the school's rooftop) and having him repeat the same scenario that caused Chloe to run away from home, failing every time until his guide simply apologizes as if to highlight how easy it is if Goh was not obsessed over Mew and started being a friend. The events are so horrific, it ends with Goh giving up on life and burying himself alive in the nightmare...and when he wakes up, the stress from it all sends him into a suicide ward. Should we mention that Goh is 10?
- Last Child of Krypton: In chapter 11, Shinji and Asuka suffered several nightmares as they fought Leliel’s psychic assault. Shinji saw his self choking Asuka on a beach under a red sky, and Asuka saw a version younger of herself turning into a monstrous, blood-stained doll and urging her to die with her before strangling her.
- Oni Ga Shiku Series: Nightmares are a common feature in the fic considering how much trauma evreyone goes through; when they're not Flashback Nightmares, they're this trope.
- At one point Izuku has a dream of a giant dog version of Bakugou calling him useless and then mauling him.
- Katsuki keeps having dreams of Izuku chocking him to death after their encounter at the first Battle Trial.
- Fighting Hell starts to take its toll on Team RWBY in Remnant Inferis: DOOM, with each of them (and other characters) having horrific nightmares as a result.
- Ruby has a disturbing one involving a mutilated, deformed version of her mother trying to drown her in a pit of blood and gore; condemning her for following in the Huntress' lifestyle.
- Weiss dreams that she loses her fight against the Gigas first seen in the White trailer, her father Jacques sells Atlas out to Hell and she's dragged away by two Imps wearing SDC vests.
- Blake has nightmares of the Slayer killing off all of the White Fang, including her father and Ilia.
- Cinder has a nightmare remembering her parents summoning a demon that proceeded to kill them and all the other cultists, with her being the only survivor of the attack due to Salem rescuing her.
- Yang has one where an Imp's arm thrusts out of the pancake batter Summer was making and kills her in front of the child Yang.
- Both Yang and Cinder get these in The RWBY Loops, with separate causes and each preying on their insecurities. Notably, Yang's are guided by a specific entity and, eventually, she manages to conquer the issue without losing her mind; Cinder's are portrayed as surreal and mind-breaking, probably because they're caused by Slenderman, and by the time she shakes them off she is utterly insane.
- In Chapter 11 of The Season's My Reason, Rosemary has a nightmare about failing to save Yui after she goes missing.
- There Was Once an Avenger From Krypton: At one point in She Stole My Heart (and most of my valuables), Luz is exposed to the gaze of a dying Gremoblin and suffers a nightmare in which she first finds herself in a schoolroom being harassed by the voices of every teacher she's ever had, then in Hexside where Amity mocks her for not having magic. Then she's informed that Eda has been arrested and her mother's arrived to take her home, with the nightmare ending as her mother starts berating her for running off to the Boiling Isles.
- Thousand Shinji: In chapter 13, Rei has several awful dreams where she kills Asuka and Shinji kills her in retaliation or he kills himself and she tries to commit suicide to join Shinji and Asuka in the Afterlife.
- Universe Falls:
- In part one of "Sock Opera", a sleep-deprived Dipper nods off and has a nightmare about Lapis Lazuli and Jasper, who are trapped as Malachite at the bottom of Lake Gravity Falls.
- "Do It For Them" opens with Dipper having a nightmare inspired by the events of "Sock Opera". Dipper is reunited with Lapis Lazuli, only for her to turn out to be possessed by Bill Cipher. As Bill taunts Dipper, Dipper falls off a cliff and turns into a wooden puppet. Making it worse is that it's the latest in a series of nightmares Dipper has been having, and it's ambiguous as to whether they're happening on their own or if Bill Cipher is deliberately tormenting Dipper in his dreams For the Evulz.
- Morticia's Nightmare
is a fanfiction in which Morticia has a nightmare that her husband Gomez dies.
- War Games begins with Tom having a nightmare where he's a Controller again and is forced to kill his family.
- The Bolt Chronicles: Mittens's lack of sleep in "The Insomniac" stems from a series of bad dreams that wake her up and upset her.
- Chapter 5 of Distance Wakes The Heart Up starts with Isabela having a nightmare based on her lingering guilt for being a bad sister to Mirabel.
- Chapter 4 of Reflections in a Cloudy Sky takes place in a mightmare where Pepa can't find Camilo.
- Everyday Craziness in Pontypandy: "Sam's Promise" opens with Elvis having a fever-induced nightmare about being surrounded by a fire that won't go out, and a silhouette of who he believes is Sam collapsing in the distance.
- Intercom originally had one, where Riley sees a future version of herself, driven mad by the voices in her head. This was cut after the author saw the movie and realized that Dream Productions doesn't work like that.
- Gaz: FORMER Mistress of Nightmares is mostly composed of a prolonged series of nightmares that Gaz has after she accidentally offends Hypno, the god of sleep and he decides to punish her. They start off fairly ridiculous (finding herself in Toon Town, the cheerfulness of which grates on her gothic personality), move to more serious material (being rejected by her family as a Replacement Goldfish of her Missing Mom), and finally become outright horrific (being eaten alive by monstrous creatures) before it finally ends.
- Gaz, Taster of PTSD: Gaz has several throughout the story, caused by her trauma from the pork-tasting incident, though we only actually see two — one of being experimented on by her father, and another of being tempted with pork products by the Shadowhog and terrified by his Body Horror.
Jojos Bizarre Adventure Eyes Of Heaven
- In Jonathan Joestar, The First JoJo, Jonathan has one at the beginning of chapter 3, where he's punched through the torso by Heaven Ascension Dio and left there to bleed out.
- During the epilogue of The Vow, Shen dreams as a helpless spectator his attack on the panda village, including his chase of the infant Po and his mother that ended with him murdering her, except that he's chasing his wife Lianne and their infant son. Unlike Po's mother, Lianne doesn't get a chance to hide her son before she's caught by Shen's wolves and killed by Shen personally, exactly the same way he killed Po's mother in real life. The nightmare ends with the dream version of Shen ordering his son to be killed.
- In Milk 'n' Pepsi, Laverne has a nightmare in which she dies after giving birth. Its sequel, Drink the Water, focuses on Laverne worrying that the nightmare will come true.
- In Left, Frodo has a nightmare about finding out that he murdered Sam when Sam offered to share the Ring.
- The Boy Who Cried Idiot: At one point, Lincoln has a nightmare about being chased by clones of Martin.
- In The Nightmare House, everyone has a nightmare, like the title implies. Lori dreams that her siblings don't need her and she shrinks, Leni dreams that she gets immobilised and fed to spiders, Luna dreams that she gets trash-talked by her idol and an old lady, Luan dreams that her audience are all statues and Mr. Coconuts is sentient and mean, Lynn dreams that she accidentally decapitates Lincoln, Lucy dreams that she gets vomited on by possessed dancers, Lana dreams that she gets brainwashed into behaving more stereotypically feminine, Lola dreams that her facial features drop off, Lisa dreams that she gets sent to daycare and babied by an evil teddy bear, Lily dreams that the mortgage is a baby-eating monster, and finally Lincoln dreams that evil creatures replaced his sisters.
- One Girl with Ten Brothers: Luke has a nightmare where his brothers beat him up while shouting homophobic slurs and his parents throw him out of the house for being bisexual and dating a boy, all while Linka, who's the only one who knows about his sexuality so far, is powerless to help him or stop the other Louds. It increases the insecurity he has about his sexuality.
- In What You Wish For, Lori Loud has a nightmare where a red-eyed Carol Pingrey claims Lincoln is her brother now.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- A Diplomatic Visit: Twilight has a brief one in chapter 21, of Chrysalis destroying books (two of her worst fears in one), before Princess Luna intervenes.
- The Meaning of Harmony has many of these and even opens on one, all involving Sunset's magic going out of control, and the world turning to crystal. They get progressively worse as more Forges are activated.
- In My Little Pony AU Fanfic Mutant, Twilight has one that involves Yog-sooth in the third chapter.
- In Nosflutteratu, after spending the evening researching vampires Twilight Sparkle has one of these.
- In chapter 8 of Advice and Trust, Asuka has a nightmare in which she and Shinji were fighting Israfel again, and Shinji dies. Meanwhile, Shinji has another nightmare where he sees Asuka sinking again in the volcano's magma, he jumps in to rescue her, and he misses.
- The Child of Love: In chapter 3 Asuka has a nightmare in which her mother’s disembodied voice urges her to die with her.
- Ghosts of Evangelion: The night before her birthday, Asuka has a very violent, bloody nightmare where the MP-Evas eat her alive again.
- HERZ: In chapter 2 Asuka has a nightmare where she dreams of the Angel War and how weak she felt when Zeruel destroyed her, how defiled she felt after Ariel’s Mind Rape, how worthless and useless she felt after being unable moving her Eva to fight Armisael, and what it was like when the MP-Evas tore her apart.
- In episode 10 of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide, Asuka has a nightmare: she relives her mother's madness and suicide, sees her mother's rag doll hanging from a ceiling, and hears several disembodied voices declaring that they hate her, before feeling a noose tightening around her neck.
- In Once More With Feeling (Crazy-88), Shinji suffers nightmares where he relives the battle against Sandalphon, except that he misses when he tries to rescue Asuka and she sinks, begging him to save her.
- The One I Love Is...: In chapter 11 Shinji has a nightmare where he relives his worst failures: first he sees Unit-00 fighting Armisael and blowing up. Then Rei appears and says that he let her die before bursting into flame. Right after Asuka shows up, accuses him from never loving her and betraying her trust, and then slits her wrist. When Shinji tries to touch her, her body erupts in a shower of blood, covering him whole. Shinji screams and then he wakes up.
- In chapters 2 and 4 of The Second Try, Shinji and Asuka have several nightmares where they revive the events of Instrumentality.
- In We Are All Pokémon Trainers:
- Fool goes through a rather freaky one during the AU Arc in which she sees herself (The one she identifies as "Sol") using the corpses of Pokemon that she murdered as marionette puppets. A Shout-Out to a very similar scene in Felidae.
- Happens to Sakura not too long after her debut, she mentions that it happens frequently, but they stopped once she found Lyuri.
- Straw goes through these at least somewhat often, such as being stabbed by Jab and dreaming Crewe died and he was only finding this out when he was married to Elise.
- Tagg has one following the Orre arc after drinking himself unconscious at Kat's wedding.
- In Various Vytal Ventures this makes up the majority of the 'Hide and Seek' chapter, where a Nightmare Grimm is purposefully stirring up such sequences in the characters minds.
- Little Hands, Big Attitude: Sonic has a nightmare where his entire family is killed by Echidnas (with the victims including Knuckles), and the baby brother Obsidian is missing. Sonic is so terrified that when he wakes up in the middle of the night he still thinks that the dream was real, goes running in the woods, causes a minor blackout, and almost drowns in the lake.
- Bait and Switch (STO): Eleya's recurring Flashback Nightmare of the time ten years ago she was stabbed while repelling a Boarding Party.
- In Enlightenments, Wander has very frequent nightmares. They're mostly about being on the wrong end of an abusive relationship with his wife or his experiences with being forced to kill children.
- The The Panda Chronicles chapter aptly titled "Nightmares" begins with Tae-young having a nightmare about being killed during a concert.
- In If Firestar Never Joined ThunderClan, Grayflight has a disturbing dream about his Clan dying and then a tiger rips his head off. In the second book it doesn't get better. Bristlepaw has a nightmare where Blackstar and his Clan capture them and worship fire. It's scarier when the dream comes true.
- Part of Gone Wrong depicts Roger's nightmare.
