This is a question that I’ve heard a lot, so I decided to make a post clarifying it! (By the way, this post was originally constructed by me on the Galaxy Cauldron Forums; I am Sailor Cosmos, who started that thread. I just wanted to clear that up before anybody could accuse me of plagiarism, haha. Also, as always, all of the scans are from the lovely Miss Dream.)
At the end of the R arc, Chibiusa transforms into Sailor Chibi Moon for the first time using the Ginzuishou. Many people assume that the Silver Crystal Chibiusa uses is the future Crystal that belonged to Neo-Queen Serenity. This seems to be the case in the anime, but in the manga, it’s an entirely different story. In the anime, it’s clearly shown that the Silver Crystal had been absorbed into Chibiusa’s body when she held it; in the manga, it stays completely separate from her body (in fact, she carries it on a necklace along with the Key of Space-Time)
This is very important later on; See, after Prince Diamond seized the Silver Crystals of the past and future and was going to touch them together (which would destroy the world), Pluto stops time and Usagi runs to retrieve both of the crystals; she keeps one for herself (presumably the past Crystal, which is the one that belongs to her) and gives the other to Venus for safekeeping.
After Pluto dies as consequence for breaking the taboo of stopping time, Black Lady cries over the loss of her beloved friend. One of these tears transforms into a brilliant Crystal, and Black Lady reverts back to Chibiusa, who transforms into Sailor Chibi Moon for the very first time.
Now, going forward a few pages, we see that Venus is still holding the Silver Crystal of the future:
Venus had been holding the Crystal the entire time. Usagi had her own Crystal with her when she went to fight Death Phantom; so, where did this Crystal come from? I personally believe that this Crystal was born through Chibiusa’s own power. This claim seems to be supported in later arcs; for example, at the end of the Dream (SuperS) arc, Usagi tells Nehelenia that power is born, not taken.
Another bit of evidence to back this up is how the Silver Crystal bonds to it’s owner; on several occasions, whenever Usagi or Chibiusa have their Crystals forcibly taken away from them, it’s shown that they can’t live without the Crystal they were bonded to. Take Chibiusa; when Mistress 9 stole her Silver Crystal in the Infinity Arc, Chibiusa was reduced to a comatose state and needed Mamoru’s powers to keep her alive. If Neo-Queen Serenity really gave her Silver Crystal to Chibiusa, how could she still be alive and well without it? How could she defend Crystal Tokyo without it? The only explanation is that she still has it, and Chibiusa is using her very own Crystal to fight.
Finally, at the end of the Dream arc, Chibiusa’s Crystal finally transforms into something that’s uniquely hers: the Pink Moon Crystal.
In the original version of the manga, it’s shaped just like Usagi’s Silver Moon Crystal,
but thankfully Naoko Takeuchi decided to completely change the Pink Moon Crystal’s appearance in the reprint, transforming it from a lotus into a rose. All of this helps to distinguish that Chibiusa is not just a shadow of Sailor Moon, but a Lady and a Senshi in her own right. She doesn’t share Sailor Moon’s planetary court, she has an asteroid court of her very own, the Sailor Quartet. She doesn’t have a Ginzuishou, she has a Pink Moon Crystal. Sailor Chibi Moon is her own person.
So although the anime sort of fudges up the whole issue, the manga beautifully illustrates Chibiusa’s independence from the very moment she became a solider.
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