Standing in front of the door to the laboratory, after walking through the crystal corridors of the castle, Chrysalis once more watched Stellaria walk away from her and towards the room where scales were kept. All according to plan. To both of them, really.
Once the alicorn had disappeared from view, the disguised changeling waited a moment longer, then opened the doors quietly walked inside. She was greeted by a few looks and nods from the other ponies in the room, and a bit surpringly to her one of those ponies happened to be Twilight Sparkle. She seemed intent on going through a couple of books at once, but still stopped to wave at her with a smile.
Chrysalis approached her, curious about whether the alicorn had something to say. "Princess. You seem to be doing better today," she said, once she was close enough. And it was true, there was a noticeable lack of shaking in the pony.
Twilight nodded. "A good night of sleep and a good breakfast go a long way to improve your mood. I'm sorry if I ended our conversation a little abruptly yesterday, I know you were just trying to help."
"Of course," Chrysalis replied. "I understand, I wasn't bothered by it." That was a lie, and she made sure to make it sound somewhat like one. The stallion she was pretending to be probably would have been bothered, if not as much as she'd been.
Twilight seemed to catch on. Still, she didn't budge to Chrysalis's unspoken request. Quite the opposite. "Well, everything went well and it's all over for now. Thank you again for your help. You can get back to your work now, I won't keep you." She focused back on her books.
Chrysalis hesitated for a moment, then nodded, and walked back to her assigned table. She forced herself to ignore the questions she still had. She had more important things to focus on, she couldn't afford distractions.
The first half of the morning played out as normal, and as planned by both Chrysalis and Stella. It played out as if Chrysalis hadn't even been replacing a pony, with her just doing his job for him, and thankfully nothing came up that she wasn't prepared to deal with.
She was waiting for a signal, to spring things into action. And the signal did come, in a rather unexpected manner. Starlight Glimmer walked into the laboratory, holding a scale and a notepad. Evidently, she was back from her trip.
Then, a little bit more waiting. Starlight talked to Twilight, a portal was opened from the scale, the unicorn travelled in and out of it and the two of them talked some more. Notes were taken, as far as Chrysalis could see.
It was when the portal was closed that the changeling finally began to act, instead of simply observing. She stood up, and carefully followed Twilight towards the door, as the alicorn headed for it with the scale held in a wing. Starlight remained inside.
Twilight noticed Chrysalis, but stayed silent until the two of them were out of the room. Once they were, though, she turned and asked, "Is something wrong?"
Chrysalis hesitated for a moment. The original plan, Stella's plan, demanded she keep whoever was going to bring the scale back busy. The alicorn was likely already inside the room where the scales were kept, and just needed time to break out of there.
Her plan was a tad different. "Let's keep walking while we talk," she said.
Twilight slowly nodded, and began to walk again. "Sure. What is this about?"
Chrysalis followed behind her. "Have there been any reports or signs of someone trying to break inside the castle, or trying to take anything?"