At some point a bond forms between them but they don’t really acknowledge it at the time, but they do grow a kind of symbiotic partnership. Dust has an abundance of magic in his body, often growing too strong for him to physically handle, freezing his body and leaving him immobile. Horror has the opposite condition and due to starvation is suffering from what’s called “dull eyes” which is when a dragon lacks magic and their eyes almost return to their baby greys. There isn’t enough food for him to be able to use his magic and it’s really only the magic of the domain keeping him alive. To solve both their issues Horror starts drinking Dust’s blood, giving him a much needed magic boost while Dust’s magic stays at a reasonable level.

Eventually Nightmare finds them, looking for more dragons to join him. He had only been after Horror, but was delighted to find Dust as well. He gives them a deal, he will save them from Horror’s dying au if they will work for him and if they can defeat Killer. Horror and Dust were very weak and malnourished at this point and Killer, being void corrupted and not feeling any pain or fear, definitely had the advantage. Only after making use of their bond and working together do they manage to pin down their void corrupt alter, at which point Nightmare allows them to join his “flight”. 

Horror was very protective of his food a good while after, and for the longest time he only really trusted Dust around him when eating.

Did horror, killer and dust become friends fast and how did they bond?

Very slowly actually. Of course Dust and Horror bonded in Horror’s au, and they were the two that could be called friends first, but they were still very distant with each other for a long time. Like they relied on each other, they had each other’s backs, but they weren’t super close. Horror did start caring for Killer’s physical health early on, as being void corrupted made it so he didn’t really register his physical needs. Horror would just keep an eye on him to make sure he wasn’t too cold or overheated, etc.

Horror and Dust do become closer at some point after Cross joins, and eventually become talonmates. They don’t really become close friends with Killer until after the void corruption is broken, but when it does Dust is actually the first to bond with Killer, Horror and Cross soon thereafter.

Who is the sweetest of the gang?

Tie between Cross and Horror! They’re both really soft sweethearts inside :D 

Have the gang met lust and if they did/didn’t how would or did they act?

Yes, Lust is technically part of the Star flight so they have met him in battle at the very least. He’s kind of a dangerous enemy since he’s an arcane elemental, same as Epic, and arcane magic works in two ways. One being “power” which is what Epic uses, very strong magic energy blasts and constructs. The other is “precision” which is what Lust uses, it works on a much smaller level but can be used to block or redirect magic flow within elemental creatures, which either disable magic use or really fuck someone up.

First fight with Lust the gang didn’t really take him seriously, he’s a nurse on a battlefield (and sure Dream is a nurse too but also a demi-god), they underestimated him and lost the battle because of it. They were a lot more cautious in the future after that and they all quickly grew a kind of respect for him.

• What is Ink's job? Does he have a paintbrush substitute? Do the star sanses (dragons?) get along with eachother? (Since in canon Dream and Ink don't like eachother)

Similar to canon, Ink's job is to protect the multiverse! Not really an official job given to him by a god like Error or Reaper, not from what he remembers at least, but a “natural calling” that he follows. 

This also made me realize I never explained how this multiverse works, but basically in this setting AUs are like clusters of orbs. They’re created by the gods to work as decoys to protect the True universe from being found by the Stalker of Void, who has a bad habit of wanting to destroy or alter creations made by the other gods. The further an AU is from the True one the more differences it will have from the original, and Alternate Timelines are the ones who cluster closest around the True one. 

The gods don’t always finish their decoy universes, so there’s a lot of small or unfinished orbs in the multiverses. Ink is able to help those AUs grow and catch the attention of the gods again. These AUs are also the most likely to be attacked by Error, who is tasked by the Maid of Bones to destroy decaying, incomplete, and “defective” AUs. The cycle of creation and destruction is an important balance.

As for the other questions, Ink does have an ink like magic in the tip of his tail that looks like a brush head. This magic is able to create things, and definitely breaks some rules of magic and physical laws in the universe, which is very similar to how void magic works and looks 👀  

And the Stars do get along, and have a flight of their own together with some other friendly faces, like Red and Outer! Ink and Dream do have a similar disagreement to canon at one point, where Ink is set in protecting the natural state of AUs even if they’re negative and their inhabitants are suffering. Dream does not agree with this at all at first, but around the time when he and Nightmare call their truce he’s beginning to understand the balance of the multiverse and the necessity of those aus. He doesn't like it, and doesn't feel any better about it, but he understands it and Ink’s job, making them able to keep being friends and flightmates.

• Does Nightmare ever open up about his past? And does he have favorites in the gang? (Say, how he normally favors Cross in fanon works because Cross is super obedient)

Nightmare does open up eventually, but not fully. The others know bits and pieces, but Dream is the only one who has a full picture. Which btw isn’t the same as canon, much less “lets bully the lil kid until he breaks” and more “lets guilt this scaleless lil scholar into going to war with us by convincing him it will keep his brother safe, and then manipulate and traumatize him to the point where he starts to grow scales and shifts sub-class to a guardian!”

I wouldn’t really say Nightmare has a favorite, since the Night flight is poly he loves all his boys equality and in different ways. I am currently working on a post explaining flight dynamics and bonds, but basically dragons are naturally polyamorous and can have three types of mates! They tend to have a lot of platonic mates (wingmates, think close familial bonds), a few intimate mates (talonmates, don’t actually have to be romantic but basically dating or QPRs), and then a couple of mates they have eggs and raise kids with (heartmates, pretty much marriage). 

Cross, Dust, and Horror are talonmates to Nightmare, while Killer and Error are his heartmates, but he shares a strong bond with all of them and he favors them all individually in specific areas.

As for Cross specifically, Nightmare really values his strategies and battle knowledge. Nightmare is very knowledgeable in this area himself, since he's been in war in the past, but he values Cross' input and always let him in on mission planning and such. In their down times they often enjoy games of chess together.

Let me know if there's any other specific ships you want to know more about, otherwise I will ramble on forever XD;

• That brings me to, does Cross favor anyone in the gang and/or in the star sanses? Is he closer to some than others? What about with Ink?

Nightmare, Killer, Horror, and Dust are Cross' talonmates and his heartmates are Dream and Epic! His and Epic’s relationship is a bit controversial since heartmates are traditionally meant to have kids together, and while the saurian dragons are also hermaphrodites Cross’ don’t personally want to carry eggs due to his gender dysphoria, and Epic don’t really want kids. They’re just two romantic dudebros! Now Cream on the other, will def have a ship kid in the future uwu

Ink and Cross were close before Cross joined Nightmare. Similar to Underverse, Ink did spend quite a bit of time with Cross in his dying au where they befriended each other, until Ink being Ink eventually started forgetting to visit. Cross was quite hostile toward Ink after that, feeling abandoned and betrayed, and would often focus his attacks on Ink when the Night and Star flights would clash. After the truce they did manage to patch up their past relationship and would eventually become wingmates.

I was able to dig out this old shipping grid, which I made for one of my saurian aus (when I used just the word “saurian” instead of “saurian dragons” I mean the AU setting in which saurians are humanoid dragon shapeshifters, this au!). Some of these have probably changed in the dragon au, but with a quick glance over, it mostly still corrects for what I have planned!

Tho as always, if you have other preferred ships you are more than welcome to ship those within this AU setting, or make your own version of the au! Go nuts!

• What does Dust use his cobra hood for? Is it like Cross' ability to puff his fur up to seem bigger and more threatening?

Exactly! The hood is pretty unique to Dust, as it was part of his mutation after getting his carnage subclaim, but it isn’t rare for scholar class dragons to have a threat display like that. Since they’re scaleless they’re pretty vulnerable to close up physical attacks so many develop some kind of intimidation tactic that can deter enemies or predators from wanting to attack them.

• Has Dream ever tried to uncorrupt Nightmare? (Like, earlier on, I know he gets to be uncorrupted but did Dream like try idk how to explain)

He did, but there's technically no way to break a void corruption in normal cases. Once you’ve been claimed by the Stalker there is no turning back, there’s no reason for it to unclaim you. The only reason Killer and Night both broke the corruption was because the Stalker never had full control over Nightmare. It definitely influenced his thoughts, but it couldn’t turn him into a puppet due to Nightmare being a Mind demi-god. The only reason why it unclaimed Killer was to use Killer as leverage against Nightmare when he started to turn against it. It then unclaimed him as well, when Nightmare and Dream entered the void realm to fight it, simply to remove the small advantage the claim would give Night in the realm.

So Dream would read up on ways to break the corruption early on, maybe tried one or two things, but quickly came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t work.

• Did Dream get frozen up into stone? I saw once you did share an image of different age sizes and Nightmare seemed the biggest so I assumed he's still old.

Yes! Going to talk about this in the future because Dream is not the only one affected by this condition, but the dragons have a kind of failsafe instinct in which they can use the magic in their body to encase themselves in crystals. This basically puts them in stasis for the indefinite future, there’s no guarantee of when or if they will wake up.

This can only happen if the dragon has a lot of magic stored up, so a dragon who’s been in battle and used a lot of their magic wouldn’t be able to attempt to save themselves like this. 

In Dream’s case it was actually Nightmare who made him trigger this, using his mind magic, as a way to protect him. Of course Night couldn’t have known Dream would stay in his crystal shell for 500+ years, and when Dream finally broke out, Nightmare wasn’t anywhere to be found, leading him to leave the au in search for answers.

• If I place my hand on Cross' fur does it just sink on forever?