Thanos sat in his chair after another day of conquering the galaxy. He always took a bit of time to rest and think after finishing his work on yet another world. It helped him to relax. Just a normal day for the so called Mad Titan.

Then with a flash of light around the corner, the day was suddenly not so normal as around the corner a being walked into his throne room aboard his ship.

"Thanos! Buddy! How are you? Hope you're day's going good. Say, do you have a moment to chat? Do you welcome a bit of friendly advice?"

"How dare you-!"

Thanos held up his hand, interrupting one of his currently favored lieutenants as he regarded the being in front of him. It looked somewhat like an Asgardian, but the presence was… different. And much more powerful. Rather than sic his favored upon the being and likely lose them, he would listen, and then decide what to do then.

"Great! So, I was just in the neighborhood and happened to notice the work you're doing. Lotta people killed and going after the Infinity Stones of all things! What was your motivation again, by the way?"

Thanos, amused, decided to answer honestly.

"I am culling lives and sending them to Lady Death to earn her favor."

The being blinked, taken aback.

"…Oh. One of those… Yeah, Deadpool will take care of you."

Before the Mad Titan could say anything or ask who or what a Deadpool was… the being raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

Abruptly everything was as it should be from the Mad Titan's perspective. Just another day of rest after conquering yet another planet. Though the Titan couldn't shake the feeling that something… odd had just occurred. He soon dismissed it from his mind, however.

Meanwhile in another galaxy…

Thanos, amused, decided to answer honestly.

"The universe is full of beings that overcrowd their homes. I am their object lesson to keep their populations in check and to do it I'm culling half of every species I come across."

The being smiled. "Right, that. Now, don't take this the wrong way, but do you accept constructive criticism? See, it just occurs to me that, while this is all well and good for the interim, this goal of yours and the means you're going about to do it, I can't help but wonder if you're not considering the grander scope of options you have available once you have the Infinity Stones."

Thanos raised a non-existant eyebrow at the supposition of when, not if, he would get the stones, and decided to listen further. "And I suppose you have ideas for me?"

"Just a few," the being offered. "I mean, these are gems of infinite power after all. You could do, well, just about anything with them really. Your goal is to stop people from outgrowing their resources, yes? Finite universe and all that? And like I said, I get why you're doing it this way as this is the main option available to you, but once you have the stones… Why, you could just, snap your fingers and wish half the population away, which I imagine is just the continuation of your current end goal, but why not just… look at it from an outside perspective for a moment? With infinite power, what's stopping you from just altering reality to suit your ends? I mean, you could just double the resources available, but that's not really solving the underlying issue and the universe will just be right back where it was. Instead, ask yourself this, what happens if, say… you shrank people?"

Thanos blinked. "Shrink?..."

The being nodded. "Well yeah! I mean, say you kept it to your current schtick and just shrank everyone to half their current size? Not only would you be doubling the amount of resources in every sense of the term, more than doubling really, but you could set it up so everything they've ever built shrinks with them while everything else stays the same and put in the caveat that if they ever get close to their population outgrowing their resources, then they'll shrink to half their size once again! That way those who are more intelligent just get one shrink while the truly idiotic would become too small to really be a problem anymore! And with everyone simply shrinking when they become too numerous, the universe's 'finite' resources will never be threatened, and the amount of space required will never be a problem! You could even bring everyone you killed back to life this way and still have what you want! Isn't that great?"

Thanos nodded slowly, contemplating the idea, not really taking notice as the being eventually saw themselves out with another flash of light. Everything would be different now… Though he would likely have to continue the path he was on until he actually had the stones… but once he did… He could even bring back to life the one sacrificed to obtain the Soul Stone even… Yes, everything would be different now. Better even. Thanos smiled.