Manipulate Alias based on state of Original

Can anyone help figure out a way to manipulate an alias based upon the state of an original?

To simplify my exact situation, I have a folder that I have an alias to on my desktop, and I would like to know at a glance, by color label, if the folder is empty or not.

I can easily run an if Sub-file/folder count is 0; set color label on the parent, but the alias' color label state is independent from the parent. And I know enough applescript that I could probably figure out how to change the alias' label directly here, but it's horribly inflexible if I have to hard code paths.

Running Sub-file/folder count is 0 against the alias itself always returns yes, as an alias of a directory is a file not a directory itself.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hazel does not deal with what the alias is pointing to. To do anything like that, you will have to use a script.