User blog comment:Woohoot/Future Lucy and future Rogue timelines/@comment-1776824-20130607063840

Well, Rogue said it himself: It's an "important intersection of time", which may lead one to believe that at that specific point in time, the timeline branched off into separate parts, but they would all lead back to the same event, if you catch my drift. In more broken down terms, here's what I mean:

Basically, all events transpired the way we see them, up until the 7th of July, X791 (i.e. Phantom Lord-Fairy Tail War, Nirvana, Tenrou Island, Grand Magic Games up until the final event all occurred as we see it). Then, the timeline splits.

In one timeline, on that day, Lucy didn't close the gates and 10,000 Dragons appeared and ravaged the world. In another timeline, Lucy closed the Gates, leading to the creation of Future Rogue and his goals/motives that we see him trying to fulfill: the murder of Acnologia and him becoming the Dragon King.

This would mean that if they were to travel back in time, they would travel back and witness all the same things (to a point, as Jellal interacted with Future Lucy, which, by extension, created a new timeline). Future Rogue has a somewhat valid understanding of the time-space continuum, as he has one of the Dragons protecting his past self. But with the two Future beings being in the same era, their very presence created a new timeline itself: one that isn't like either of their respective ones.

In short, here's the result: Future Lucy and Future Rogue going back in time created a new timeline; Future Rogue interacted with Hisui, ensuring her opening of the Eclipse Gate. Future Lucy interacted with Jellal, which led to the revelation that Future Rogue is at large. Basically, Future Lucy is trying to get Lucy to close the Gate, while Future Rogue is trying to get it open so all the Dragons can kill Acnologia. What's happened is that by their interference in the timeline, they've created a third variation: one where the Eclipse Gate is opened, and then immediately closed, allowing only 7 Dragons to exit, rather than 10,000.

Here's what I, personally, think: Future Rogue's timeline was the original one, which means that he traveled back in time to become the Dragon King and unleash the 10,000 Dragons because Hisui never opened the Gate, which meant that Acnologia ravaged the land and killed 90% of humanity. This, by extension, led to Future Lucy's timeline, where she woke up by the Eclipse Gate and traveled back from an unspecified date to try and close the Gates and prevent her future from occurring. These two motives clashes, which created the timeline we are witnessing now.

If that's repetitive, sorry, but that's what I think. I hope it helps you out. (~._.)~