aws ec2 describe-instances | jq '.Reservations[].Instances[]'

{
    "Reservations": [
        {
            "OwnerId": "1234",
            "ReservationId": "r-124991k",
            "Groups": [],
            "Instances": [
                {
                    "Monitoring": {
                        "State": "disabled"
                    },
                    "PublicDnsName": "",
                    "State": {
                        "Code": 16,
                        "Name": "running"
                    },
                    "EbsOptimized": false,
                    "LaunchTime": "2015-07-31T16:48:01.000Z",
                    "PrivateIpAddress": "11.123.104.123",
                    "ProductCodes": [],
                    "VpcId": "vpc-sdfsdf9109",
                    "StateTransitionReason": "",
                    "InstanceId": "i-1223421",
                    "ImageId": "ami-aklasd131",
                    "PrivateDnsName": "private.dns.name",
                    "KeyName": "testkey",
                    "SecurityGroups": [
                        {
                            "GroupName": "secur-grou",
                            "GroupId": "sg-a3d234a"
                        }
                    ],
                    "ClientToken": "",
                    "SubnetId": "subnet-57absfsdf",
                    "InstanceType": "m3.large",
                    "NetworkInterfaces": [
                        {
                            "Status": "in-use",
                            "MacAddress": "12:c3:f2:5c:5f:4d",
                            "SourceDestCheck": false,
                            "VpcId": "vpc-sdfsdf9109",
                            "Description": "",
                            "NetworkInterfaceId": "eni-81b1234",
                            "PrivateIpAddresses": [
                                {
                                    "Primary": true,
                                    "PrivateIpAddress": "11.123.104.123"
                                }
                            ],
                            "Attachment": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeviceIndex": 0,
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "AttachmentId": "eni-attach-5asdf234",
                                "AttachTime": "2015-07-30T16:10:39.000Z"
                            },
                            "Groups": [
                                {
                                    "GroupName": "secur-grou",
                                    "GroupId": "sg-a3d234a"
                                }
                            ],
                            "SubnetId": "subnet-57absfsdf",
                            "OwnerId": "1234",
                            "PrivateIpAddress": "11.123.104.123"
                        }
                    ],
                    "SourceDestCheck": false,
                    "Placement": {
                        "Tenancy": "default",
                        "GroupName": "",
                        "AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1c"
                    },
                    "Hypervisor": "xen",
                    "BlockDeviceMappings": [
                        {
                            "DeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                            "Ebs": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "VolumeId": "vol-28c882",
                                "AttachTime": "2015-07-30T16:10:43.000Z"
                            }
                        },
                        {
                            "DeviceName": "/dev/sdb",
                            "Ebs": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "VolumeId": "vol-3f1d5",
                                "AttachTime": "2015-07-30T16:10:43.000Z"
                            }
                        },
                        {
                            "DeviceName": "/dev/sdg",
                            "Ebs": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "VolumeId": "vol-81c8b",
                                "AttachTime": "2015-07-30T16:10:43.000Z"
                            }
                        }
                    ],
                    "Architecture": "x86_64",
                    "RootDeviceType": "ebs",
                    "RootDeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                    "VirtualizationType": "hvm",
                    "Tags": [
                        {
                            "Value": "apple",
                            "Key": "Name"
                        },
                        {
                            "Value": "tag",
                            "Key": "extra"
                        }
                    ],
                    "AmiLaunchIndex": 0
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "OwnerId": "1234",
            "ReservationId": "r-2a72342",
            "Groups": [],
            "Instances": [
                {
                    "Monitoring": {
                        "State": "disabled"
                    },
                    "PublicDnsName": "",
                    "State": {
                        "Code": 16,
                        "Name": "running"
                    },
                    "EbsOptimized": false,
                    "LaunchTime": "2015-07-31T16:48:01.000Z",
                    "PrivateIpAddress": "11.123.104.83",
                    "ProductCodes": [],
                    "VpcId": "vpc-sdfsdf9109",
                    "StateTransitionReason": "",
                    "InstanceId": "i-f9271451",
                    "ImageId": "ami-aklasd131",
                    "PrivateDnsName": "private.name.here",
                    "KeyName": "testkey",
                    "SecurityGroups": [
                        {
                            "GroupName": "secur-grou",
                            "GroupId": "sg-a3d234a"
                        }
                    ],
                    "ClientToken": "",
                    "SubnetId": "subnet-5llqjwdf",
                    "InstanceType": "m3.large",
                    "NetworkInterfaces": [
                        {
                            "Status": "in-use",
                            "MacAddress": "12:ea:06:8b:ff:86",
                            "SourceDestCheck": false,
                            "VpcId": "vpc-sdfsdf9109",
                            "Description": "",
                            "NetworkInterfaceId": "eni-82kjs91",
                            "PrivateIpAddresses": [
                                {
                                    "Primary": true,
                                    "PrivateIpAddress": "11.123.104.13"
                                }
                            ],
                            "Attachment": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeviceIndex": 0,
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "AttachmentId": "eni-attach-35312341",
                                "AttachTime": "2015-07-30T17:29:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "Groups": [
                                {
                                    "GroupName": "secur-grou",
                                    "GroupId": "sg-a3d234a"
                                }
                            ],
                            "SubnetId": "subnet-57absfsdf",
                            "OwnerId": "1234",
                            "PrivateIpAddress": "11.123.104.83"
                        }
                    ],
                    "SourceDestCheck": false,
                    "Placement": {
                        "Tenancy": "default",
                        "GroupName": "",
                        "AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1c"
                    },
                    "Hypervisor": "xen",
                    "BlockDeviceMappings": [
                        {
                            "DeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                            "Ebs": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "VolumeId": "vol-ee1c21",
                                "AttachTime": "2015-07-30T17:29:02.000Z"
                            }
                        },
                        {
                            "DeviceName": "/dev/sdb",
                            "Ebs": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "VolumeId": "vol-13awer",
                                "AttachTime": "2015-07-30T17:29:02.000Z"
                            }
                        },
                        {
                            "DeviceName": "/dev/sdg",
                            "Ebs": {
                                "Status": "attached",
                                "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                                "VolumeId": "vol-3111",
                                "AttachTime": "2015-07-30T17:29:02.000Z"
                            }
                        }
                    ],
                    "Architecture": "x86_64",
                    "RootDeviceType": "ebs",
                    "RootDeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                    "VirtualizationType": "hvm",
                    "Tags": [
                        {
                            "Value": "banana",
                            "Key": "Name"
                        },
                        {
                            "Value": "tag",
                            "Key": "extra"
                        }
                    ],
                    "AmiLaunchIndex": 0
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

jq '.Reservations[]|=sort_by(.Instances[].Tags[.Key="Name"].Value)'