Getting out of the giant computer, only two more courses remained before Mario and Co could access the final fight.
Mario: Well everyone, looks like we're at the homestretch.
Toad: Guys, LOOK!
The group were terrified to see that the moon was so close to the earth, that they could see Peach's Castle from where they were.
Luigi: Mamma Mia! At this rate, the moon will crash into the planet in about an hour! We gotta hurry!
Searching quickly, they stumbled on a group of gigantic magenta mushrooms with black spots. They looked like green mushrooms with white spots in negative colors.
Luigi: These are some weird looking mushrooms.
Mario: No time for questions! Just go!
The group entered into a rainbow portal. As they fell through an rainbow colored void, they felt something that got injected into their bloodstreams. They didn't know what it was, but it made them feel… good.
Yoshi: Why do I feel so… weird? Hey… I love you guys! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Toad: Sorry! But our sanity is in another castle! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Wario: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Waluigi: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Mario: OOOH! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I FEEL WOOOOOOOOOOOONDERFUL!
Luigi: AW YEAH! LOOKING GOOD!
Livid Surreal Dream
This place was… very livid… very surreal… and a dream. It took place on several islands under a reddish dusky sky. The main donut-shaped island is colored pink that turned purple at the bottom. At the middle was a swamp sending out floating green bubbles that lift up into the sky. The swamp also held tall wooden platforms that looked like tree trunks and there were blue and purple bushes in it.
Around the swamp, there were several rocky structures, short trees, weird radish-like pink and purple plants with green leaves and broken stone blocks. To sum up this whole thing, take the first letter of each word in the name of the course, and see what you get. The heroes arrived at the main island and were fazed out by this place.
Mario: Wh-What?! What just-?!
Yoshi: You've gotta be kidding me. I thought we were done with the "Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy" stuff!
Toad: I actually think this looks cool!
Mario: If the place looks weird, I can't IMAGINE what the star missions will be like.
Star #1: Dangerous Snakeblock Ride
For the first star in this nightmare, Mario and Co. had to use snakeblocks to reach a cloud held up by vines. That… makes no sense since clouds aren't heldup y anything, but nothing in this level makes sense anyways.
Mario first defeated these freaky hand-like enemies that resembled floormasters from Ocarina of Time, then they got on the snake block. All they had to do wait… Wait until it reaches their destination. The problem was how molasses slow it was moving. Toad was really beginning to lose his patience with it one minute in.
Toad: Gee. Can this thing move ANY slower?!
Mario: Hey, I'd rather it be this slow than having to go on a really fast one that's hard to keep up with.
Yoshi: He's got a point.
Eventually, they got to the cloud with the vines and grabbed the first star.
Star #2: The Bottomless Pit
Next up, the heroes head over to a set of grassy hills with red flowers. Probably the most normal looking part in this whole level, except for the fact that the largest hill was flashing different shades of green for some reason.
Yoshi: Is it just me, or is that hill flashing?
Luigi: Eh… for a place like this, it's pretty normal.
They go over to that hill, and look down the hole in the center. There were six blue switches with a star printed on them carved in the walls.
Mario: I guess we'll have to activate all those switches.
Mario, Yoshi, Wario, and Waluigi opted to do it. Each of them fell in to grab the switches. All except Wario got their switches.
Wario: D'OH, I MISSED!
Waluigi: WAAAAAAAAAARIOOOOOOOOOOO!
Once Wario hit the bottom, however, he was warped back to the top, where this time, he hit the switch and the Star appeared.
Wario: Weird…
Mario: What isn't weird in this place?
They take the second star.
Star #3: Play the Ancient Melody
The three short trees at the main island actually have their single branch shaped like musical notes that play a sound when touched. The three notes were set up to different heights; low, middle and high. The clue for the right order to play them was inside a Temple located at the other neighboring island right behind our heroes' starting point.
Hoping that they would find a clue in that Temple, the group made their way to the other island, and this one was far more dangerous than the other they currently were before; this island was bowl-shaped and there were blue arms sticking out in the middle like the arms from Dead Hand, another enemy from Ocarina of Time.
Yoshi: (What is it with all the Zelda references? These are just creepy!)
Around the island were more rocky structures, the same magenta mushrooms seen at the course's entrance, and of course the Temple's entrance, but for some reason, its entrance was just a simple arch with a pink glass in it. The gang made their way into the Temple even with the weirdness.
The Temple shows an eerie atmosphere, with its walls made of cobbled stone and the floor was white with black lines in a rectangle pattern. In this room, there was a simple hourglass still pouring sand, a pipe and some sort of music sheet on the wall behind the pipe.
Mario: "Middle, Middle, Middle, Low, Middle, High" I think we got this.
Now with the clue, the heroes exit the Temple and went back to the main island to begin playing the melody: they touched the middle set-placed note three times, then moved on to the lowest one, the middle one again and finally the highest one.
With it done correctly, the Star appeared, and Luigi took it.
Star #4: Time-Travel Temple
The heroes made their way back to the temple they were just in before, thinking there might be more to it.
Turns out, it was actually a time travel Temple, hence the hourglass. There was currently nothing to do at the present, so they traveled down the pipe which took them to the future.
Luigi: Ooh! Time travel!
Mario: Huh… I wonder if this will play a key role in a future adventure.
Wario: Gee… this place hasn't aged well.
Wario was right, because in this further future, the temple seemed to be falling apart. Vegetation growing in the walls, large fallen pieces of debris everywhere, fully grown-up enemies like Goombas and Thwomps and some shattered walls.
The room they just emerged from showed that the entrance of the Temple was no longer accessible, the hourglass that was still pouring sand back in the past was now fully complete with sand at the bottom and the wall had a very large hole which makes it look like that it was blown up.
Toad: H-H-How far in the future… have we gone?
Luigi: No idea. But this does make me wonder what our future selves are up to.
Mario: No idea, but at least this guarantees that the world WON'T make a "Last Impact" anytime soon. Ha! Rashay has no idea.
They went through the hole and found a grown-up Goomba at the left. They decided to ignore it and head to the right, where there was a large log, properly being used as a grounded bridge, and a giant cut-out tree log with two of its roots pressed against the tall platform on the left, which created cracks.
After emerging from the time-traveling pipe back into the past, they found that the giant tree log was still a young plant that was planted on some green water surrounded by a short stone fence and there was no bridge connecting the two platforms, but there was a staircase leading to the platform on the opposite side, where there was another pipe leading to the devastated future.
Back in the future, the log bridge had arrow signs pointing the direction of the previous platform. From there, the group went into the next room of the Temple.
This room was large and in this time period, it had larger ruined debris that were probably additional platforms, some corners of the platforms were broken, the fabric of the blue flags hung on the wall on the left were ripped and torn apart and there was another grown-up Goomba plus a grown-up Thwomp at the platform straight ahead.
The heroes quickly went into the pipe on the bottom to see the transformation in the present: the ruined debris that were platforms are good as new, positioned correctly and gaining them access to the taller platforms, some of them were also part of a bridge leading to the platform where the Thwomp is, the flags' fabric was normal like it was never ripped and torn apart and the Goomba and the Thwomp were back to their younger ages.
Luigi: You know, it's actually kinda sad seeing this place good as new, knowing what will happen to it in future.
Yoshi: Yeah, I wonder how it became the way it is in the future. Abandonment can't be the answer, given that the younger enemies in this time period are still there in the future.
Waluigi: Wah. Who knows, or cares?
The Star was in the future time period, so the group had to cross the bridge and long jump to a platform on the left corner and go inside the pipe.
In the future, all they had to do was to jump on top of the now grown-up Thwomp and use him to lead them to the Star above.
And so… they were finally out of that nightmarish course. Hopefully the next course before the final battle is more relaxing, and less... well... surreal.