Time hole

Time holes are pink and yellow holes found in the game Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. It is essentially a tear in the space-time continuum, used to travel from the past to the present, and vice-versa. Time holes can open for several reasons. The first time hole was when the damaged time machine returned from the past, and the time holes that followed were caused by reactions from the Cobalt Star shards. It was also shown that the Elder Princess Shroob was powerful enough to open time holes, which she used as attacks against Mario and Luigi.

E. Gadd later used the energy radiating from time holes to power his time machine after the Cobalt Star was destroyed. He used this to quickly bring the Mario brothers and Princess Peach back to the present.

Strangely, if the older Mario brothers jump through a time hole alone the babies will follow soon after, regardless of the terrain outside the time hole they went through, and vice versa.