Dock Question - Application folders with the Applications
This is a partial answer.

You can put any group of items in a Dock fan by putting symlinks to each of them in a directory, and dragging that directory from Finder to Dock.  You may need to change its options to Fan after dragging it in.  You can also paste any image into the folder's icon in a Get Info window.

But as far as I know, you're stuck with it on the right unless you put the whole Dock on the left edge of the screen.