crazy headcanon time. there are SO MANY plotholes in the gmg arc, but the biggest one is how rogue knows anything about the dragons coming out of the gate and lucy closing it, when no dragons came out in his timeline. not to mention, if the zodiac keys are required to get through the gate... how did rogue manage that? (still ignoring the fact that there was no celestial wizard on the other side...technically this gate is a different gate from the one the dragon slayers used, so maybe they perfected the "open on both sides" flaw, or maybe it latched onto the power signatures of all those wizards it stole the magic from? doesn't matter, anyways) the answer as to how future rogue and future lucy's explanation about the 10000 dragons matched, when they had different timelines and never met is very simple.... the lucy of future rogue's timeline had to have told him.
they live in a world where Acnologia is the ruler. there is no possible universe where natsu and the rest let this happen without fighting back. this means they have to all be dead. i imagine rogue, lucy, and a couple others make up the small resistance, and when rogue tells them he has a power to mindcontrol others, even other possible dragons, lucy remembers what future lucy told her. and i can absolutely see her being okay with dying so long as everyone else is okay, to protect the rest of fairy tail's future. so she tells rogue that she closed the gate and that if he goes back to that time and opens the gate, he can get an army of dragons to defeat acnologia. alternatively, yukino told him. but i prefer it being lucy, to give her that agency, and help supplement rogue's sheer conviction in his murdering without remorse ways, knowing that at least one version of lucy supports this.
