The task at managing foreign relations was anything but easy. Aside from dealing with the constant mental struggles from the war's aftermath, Phoebe was pressured by her people to save her kingdom quickly from economic collapse. The cost of the conflict waged against the Candy Kingdom have plundered the fire elementals into a dire state of hunger and starvation. Although they managed to develop advanced technology for its military, most of the general population were forced to scavenge for scraps of coal as a result. Trade routes between kingdoms were not bringing enough revenue to pay off their debts, and soon civil unrest followed. Phoebe and her close relatives worked tirelessly to maintain order, but even they began to realize the situation would be out of control.
"There's only enough money to hold us by a thread," Prince Furnius discussed privately with Phoebe at the throne room.
"I know," she nodded irritably, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"We need to start looking at other options while we still can," he stated urgently.
Phoebe frowned, "What would that be?"
Furnius bit his lip momentarily before replying, "It's been proven for a fact that no one wants to do business with us. Ever since Finn the human became a casualty, most of the princesses have turned away believing we are the ones to blame."
"That's ridiculous!" She yelled. "We have solid, complete utter proof that it was Bubblegum as a matter of fact! The news media may twist it up and say otherwise, but the world also knows that we are not liars!"
"I couldn't agree with you more," Furnius said with a calming gesture. "But with Bubblegum out of the picture, we have become the next ones in line to earn all the hate. We have persisted at renewing friendly relations with every Princess Day we can muster on a weekly and monthly basis, but it seems clear we are being left out to dry. That said," the prince clapped his hands. "It's time we seek military options."
Phoebe was appalled, "I will not stoop so low to accept such a fate! That is the defeatist belief which will only make us look like savages since the days my father has ruled. I would rather die than to act in his footsteps."
"I would love to uphold the same morality you have for our people," the prince began. "But let's face it, it means nothing!" His flames intensified in anger. "Our people are dying out there in the streets from a war they didn't start and somehow we became the 'bad guys' in the world's eyes!"
Phoebe looked away in defiance.
"It doesn't matter anymore," Furnius said bitterly as he recomposed himself. "Good or evil, we need to survive. And if there's no one from the outside willing to help us, we must do it ourselves."
"You're right," she replied in acceptance which startled the prince. "At this point, it would make sense all things considered."
Furnius sighed with pain in his voice, "I don't want to do this either, cousin. All I want is for our kingdom is to live peacefully without complications. I want to support your ideals, I really do. But I also want to raise awareness of utilizing this option as a last resort. We have proven ourselves in history to be tenacious fighters and if we have to live up to that reputation once more, it will be done out of necessity. Extreme necessity," he amended quickly at the last part. "If you believe you can turn around this kingdom in some other way however, I'm all for it."
Phoebe lit up in comfort, "I'm still going to persevere with diplomacy, but I'll need your help too."
Furnius smiled in agreement.
Over the course in time, the Fire Kingdom slowly worked its way back up economic-wise. Phoebe and Furnius have successfully managed to establish friendly relations with the Breakfast and Slime Kingdoms, and soon business trades were being conducted. Most of the exports sent from the Fire Kingdom were military surplus gear that it quickly made armies advanced overnight. Food and essentials were given in return as a result and soon the fire elementals thrived, drifting away from internal collapse. With its neighbors now working in tandem, the other kingdoms began to change their negative appeal towards the Fire Kingdom like a chain reaction. By the time the fire elementals had nearly everyone to support them, only a few kingdoms remained distant. At this point, the debt the Fire Kingdom had previously was already paid in full, and it had become a superpower with a strong financial backbone. Still though, Phoebe wasn't willing to settle for her civilization's current position and began to schedule for another royal's meeting, her ultimate goal merely inches away from becoming a reality. The remaining leaders she had yet to persuade for support needed to hear a speech so inspirational and powerful that to go through all the paperwork would be nothing more than a formality.
However, that was the problem. Phoebe felt like she was scrambling through multiple drafts, feeling frustrated that none of them had the perfect delivery. She spent several days and nights trying to think of the right speech, but ultimately stopped. Obviously being constantly obsessed wasn't going to work in her favor, so she took a break leaving her cousin in charge for a few days.
Sometime later, Marceline noticed Phoebe's distant expression when the latter visited for a routine jam session. The vampire tried to ignore it at first as she strummed a good rhythm on her ax bass, but then she sighed resignation when Phoebe remained idle in the same place.
"Okay," Marcy began. "What's on your mind?"
"I'm," the elemental hesitantly replied. "Having writer's block. There's a speech I'm trying to write up so I can finally unite Ooo's kingdoms together, but I can't think of the right way to say it!"
The vampire hummed in thought for a long while until she said, "Follow me, I think Turtle Princess may have just the thing."
After a few minutes of flying, the vampire and elemental arrived at Ooo's central library. When they walked in, they saw Turtle Princess sitting behind the front reception desk organizing a stack of books.
"Hey TP," Marcy greeted. "What's up?"
"Hey girl," she replied dramatically with an embarrassed chuckle.
"My friend here's trying to think of a perfect rallying speech in the world of politics," Marcy began. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Why sure thing!" She said. "I believe something that pertains to such relevance will be found at the Pre-Mushroom War, section history." The turtle stood up, "Allow me to show the way."
They group arrived moments later where the shelves before them had countless books. Phoebe and Marceline felt a little distraught at all the choices before them and they waited anxiously as Turtle Princess grabbed a small stack and set them on a nearby table.
"I've picked out the top ten books that should help in your task," she panted out of breath. "If you don't like any of them, just work your way down this shelf over here until you find something better. Oh, and don't worry about putting them back. I'll sort them out later."
"Thanks TP," Marcy and Phoebe said.
"Alright," Phoebe said when the two were alone. "Let's hope it's one of the first choices..."
Nine books later, the elemental barred her teeth anxiously as she skimmed the summary written on the back. Her face lit up in hope and realization when she learned it was about two superpowers that experienced a conflict similar to her own, and she viewed the following chapters with great eagerness. Hours passed as the elemental read each and every word, while Marceline sat beside her taking a nap. By the time the elemental neared the end, she stored a mental note in her mind when she noticed there was a particular speech documented in the year 1963. Unfortunately for her, the text was faded beyond legibility that she quickly woke Marceline to head back to her house in the caverns.
"Are you sure you found it?" Marcy asked groggily as she flew behind.
"There's got to be a video of it," Phoebe said with a hopeful expression. "Something tells me this Commencement Address at this.. American University will do nicely." She shook her head to herself briefly in embarrassment when she struggled with the name.
After a few more minutes later, they found and watched the video on the computer thanks to the Internet remaining intact. The pair along with Ice King and Betty listened attentively, captured by the speaker's words until shedding tears of inspiration.
"That was beautiful," IK commented.
"Even after all these years," Betty began. "Those words couldn't be truer as ever."
Phoebe nodded gratefully in satisfaction until she suddenly felt distraught, "I can't just plagiarize this."
Fortunately for the elemental, Marcy comforted her with a hand on her shoulder. "You won't. What you're doing instead is to enlighten the world with how great it once was and how it can still be! Besides-" she shrugged off-handedly. "You're going to credit the source and not pass it off as your own, right?"
"Of course," Phoebe promised in affirmation.
When the fiery princess returned to work after the following weekend, she immediately scheduled a public announcement that would take place from one of the Fire Kingdom's most distinguished schools in the main city district. Reporters and journalists from all over Ooo would no doubt participate and the speech was already more than likely to be broadcasted on national television. Phoebe was stricken with stage fright momentarily as she felt the weight on her shoulders, but then she regained her bearings as she looked back on the speech she memorized tremendously. By the time she found herself before the crowd once again, she slightly moved forward in front of the podium and began to seize the moment. Like Marcy and her other friends, Phoebe noticed the people before her were feeling captivated and emotionally moved. The monarch felt like she wanted nothing more than to smile at her own handiwork but remained focused.
"I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational beings. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war.. and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.
Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law.. and that it will be useless until the leadership of the Candy Kingdom adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude.. as individuals and as a kingdom.. for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward.. by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Candy Kingdom, toward the course of time, and toward freedom and peace here at home.
Many of us think it is impossible regarding peace and that it is unrealistic. But to accept such pessimism would mean that it is a dangerous and defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable, that all life is doomed, and that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.
We need not accept that view. Our problems as living beings are made by our own hands, therefore they can be solved by our own hands. And we can be as big as we want. No problem of such destiny is beyond mortals. Our reason and spirit as a whole have often solved the seemingly unsolvable.. and we believe we can do it again.
I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the value of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal.
Let us focus on instead of a more practical, more attainable peace.. based not on a sudden revolution in nature as beings but on a gradual evolution in local institutions.. on a series of concrete actions and effective aggreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace.. no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many kingdoms, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process.. a way of solving problems.
With such peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and civilizations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each person to love his neighbor.. it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement. And as history teaches us that enmities between kingdoms, as between individuals, do not last forever. However fixed our likes and dislikes may seem, the tide of time and events will often bring surprising changes in the relations between kingdoms and neighbors.
So let us persevere. Peace need not be impractical, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.
No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered lacking in virtue. As elementals, we find Bubblegum's beliefs profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the candy people for their many achievements.. in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, and in culture.
So let us not be blind to our differences.. but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhibit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
To secure these ends, our weapons are nonprovocative, carefully controlled, designed to deter, and capable of selective use. Our military forces are committed to peace and disciplined in self-restraint. Our diplomats are instructed to avoid unnecessary irritants and purely rhetorical hostility.
For we can seek a relaxation of tension without relaxing our guard. And, for our part, we do not need to use threats to prove that we are resolute. We do not need to jam foreign broadcasts out of fear our faith will be eroded. We are unwilling to impose our system on any unwilling people.. but we are willing and able to engage in peaceful competition with any people on earth.
Meanwhile, we seek to establish and strengthen the United Civilizations, to help solve its financial problems, to make it a more effective instrument for peace, to develop it into a genuine world security system.. a system capable of resolving disputes on the basis of law, of insuring the security of the large and small, and of creating conditions under which arms can finally be abolished.
But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because the freedom is incomplete.
It is the responsibility of the monarchy and all levels of government to provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within their authority. It is also our responsibility, wherever that authority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And it is the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of this country to respect the rights of all others and to respect the law of the land.
While we proceed to safeguard our primary interests, let us also safeguard life interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of all. No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can.. if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers.. offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.
The Fire Kingdom, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of elementals has already had enough.. more than enough.. of war, hate, and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try and stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before the task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on.. not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace."
A thunderous applause soon followed as Phoebe left the stage. As the crowd of citizens dispersed to head about their own business, the deities Prismo, Cosmic Owl, and Death nodded in approval before switching the tv screen off before them.
"Well," Cosmic Owl said as the trio were gathered at Prismo's time room. "There you have it, Ooo has been weaved together as a sovereign body, balanced out with its leaders. Feels like I'm seeing an instant replay or better yet history repeating itself." He finished with a slight chuckle.
"Indeed," Death concurred. "But this couldn't have happened without a little help."
"Come on," CO argued lightly, throwing his wings. "You can't say it wasn't the right thing to do."
"Either way," Prismo joined in. "The Catalyst Comet is still coming. And something tells me that our current heroes will need all the help they can get when the time comes."
