This comic is set early on in the series, and they characters are perfectly in character for the period.



Early on Applejack was almost as much of a hothead as Rainbow Dash. She would get angry quickly and would often redirect her anger at whatever was in front of her even if it had nothing to do with what made her angry. Over a Barrel, Apple Buck Season and The Last Roundup are all good examples of this.



Twilight was much more uncertain and much less confident. She cared more about what other ponies thought of her, and had a tendency to over think things. You could give her a simple task and she would make it much more complicated than need be. She was also extremely invested in her self image as a magic student and when faced with a non-magical task she would still look for a magical solution even if she was perfectly capable of doing things in a non-magical way. Winter Wrapup is probably a good illustration of this.



Celestia was extremely distant. She would literally assign Twilight tasks by mail, and then disappear for the rest of the episode. She didn't explain her actions, and didn't congratulate Twilight when she completed a task. This is illustrated really well in the pilot episode. She simply wrote Twilight a letter telling her to go to ponyville even though she knew full well that Nightmare Moon would return and that Twilight would have to face off against her. Dragonshy is another example. Celestia just wrote a letter to her telling her to move a sleeping dragon. She wasn't heard from again for 3 epsiodes.



There are literally hundreds of comics out there which totally warp characters. Kind characters become cruel, characters become tyrants or homosexuals, or they do absurd things that the show character wouldn't even consider doing. Try reading one of the many adaptions of Cupcakes. In comparison having a character locked to their season 1\2 personality is a small thing.