Tangents. Why does the best part of my life have to be tangential?

In the ancient prehistory prior to the reign of the dual Princesses, an eccentric warlord prepares to march on Canterlot. He's heavily outnumbered, but still he remains unbowed and undeterred. No- His sense of malaise has another cause: he's lacking something existential, but he just doesn't know what.

Might it be closer to home than he realizes?